Forty Millenniums of Cultivation - Chapter 775

Chapter 775: Reappearance!

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

If it were not for his helmet, Rong Jun’s jaw would have hit the ground.

When a crystal warship was sailing in the universe, sometimes it would have to pass through meteoroid showers. Therefore, the head of the crystal warships was always specially strengthened. Even if it were hit by the main cannon of the enemy, it might not necessarily take any damage.

However, the streak of redness was like a burnt iron chopstick piercing through tofu. It was not in the least hindered and penetrated into the crystal warship easily.

The only thing left was a pure round and red hole around which the steel was bulging and melting into an orange ring.

The communication channel was immediately thrown into chaos. Somebody was calling for reinforcements, somebody was contacting the Cultivators in the crystal warship, and somebody was shouting to determine the stranger’s identity by comparing his features with the profiles in the database.

However, after less than twenty seconds, the streak of redness penetrated through the other end of the crystal warship!

Never in the Cultivators wildest dreams had they foreseen that an expert on the enemy’s side could pass through a crystal warship in less than twenty seconds.

There were no Cultivators behind the crystal warship!

Then, Rong Jun saw a devastating scene.

In the blink of an eye, the streak of redness reached the front of a star beacon.

Due to the long distance and the crimson aura around the enemy, Rong Jun could not tell what the enemy’s crystal suit looked like exactly. He only saw that six limbs around five meters long extended out of the redness, as if a weird, giant spider had stretched out. Then, the six limbs pierced into the star beacon brutally!

Every star beacon was almost a hundred meters long, protected by powerful defense rune arrays.

However, no matter how brilliantly the stripes on the defense rune arrays were shining and how forceful the electric arcs they released were, they could not stop the intruder from blowing six holes in the hundred-meter-long star beacon with the six limbs!

On the back of the star beacon, six volcanoes seemed to erupt at the same time. Countless components and scraps spurted out together with the flames and poured into the depths of the sea of stars.

Then, the man held the star beacon with his six limbs and started spinning it. In just one second, he had spun the star beacon almost a thousand times!

Is he a human being?

Rong June felt that his head was dizzy, and his heart was freezing. The endless data jumping out of the light beam made him wonder whether or not he was in the middle of a dream!

In the end, the man threw the star beacon away brutally. The star beacon immediately turning into a roaring shooting star and crashed at the star beacons further ahead.

BOOM!

There was no sound in the vacuum, but the spiritual waves raised by the huge collision of the two star beacons were like a tsunami. Rong Jun could not help but move backward, as if he had heard an earsplitting explosion.

The star beacons that were used to navigate the long-distance space jumps were very precise magical equipment. When the two star beacons crashed heavily, the violent shaking triggered a certain chain reaction in the components inside them. After a few weird flashes, the two star beacons collapsed toward the center and exploded within a breath. The fireballs expanded stubbornly in the vacuum like a deformed tumor. Dazzling, eccentric colors were beaming out!

Although Rong Jun was not a refiner, he could tell that the two star beacons had been destroyed!

The crimson shadow slowly rose up from the red lotuses of destruction and stared at the battlefield like an invincible God of War.

Although Rong Jun was behind the enemy, he still shivered and had a feeling that a ferocious animal had got its eyes on him and would bite off his head as soon as he moved slightly!

What was odd was that the mysterious intruder suddenly went rigid, and even bent his body, for a moment in the battlefield full of unexpected factors.

Rong Jun did not know what it meant. Ever since the crimson shadow showed up, his movements had been clean and precise without the slightest hesitation. But right now, he seemed to be… catching his breath?

The chaos and noise in the communication channel gradually cleared up and calmed down.

Countless Cultivators and Grand Illusionary Soldiers were marching toward the mysterious expert.

But the mysterious expert did not dawdle for too long. Before he was surrounded, he dashed out of the circle at an amazingly high speed.

When Long Feihu came back to himself, he changed to a speed-type crystal suit and chased after the enemy. But after half a minute of rushing, the distance between them only continued to increase. He could only shake his head and abandon the pursuit.

The enemy reached the most chaotic area of the battlefield and split off into dozens of blurred shadows that ran in different directions.

The serial explosions of the two crystal warships were like a hurricane that blew away all the blurred shadows.

The Cultivators and the Immortal Cultivators alike lost track of the expert.

He had gone.

Rong Jun looked at where the enemy had disappeared, dumbfounded, unable to calm himself down for a long time.

When he looked back, he found that the two star beacons had been completely melted into wasted iron and copper. They were now beyond repair.

Rong Jun sighed. Those star beacons were mostly magical equipment left by the Star Ocean Imperium that were now put into use again after maintenance.

With the technology of the Flying Star Sector, it was possible to produce more of them, but it would require a huge amount of manpower and resources, and it would take at least a month to ship the new star beacons to the frontline after they were manufactured.

The space gate was a precise system. Without the broken and damaged star beacons, it would not be able to guide the space jumps of the large-scale fleets. Should there be an error, the whole fleet might end up in a foreign, desolate space zone outside of the Flying Star Sector, or even directly twisted in the four-dimensional universe.

The day of the final battle has to be put off for at least a month.

Rong Jun felt that his head was aching.

Right then, he heard Long Feihu’s solemn voice in the communication channel. “The stranger is in the Nascent Soul Stage and has never appeared before!”

The appearance of a new expert in the Nascent Soul Stage was not just a headache for the Cultivators on the battlefield.

Since the arrival of the extraterrestrial devils five years ago, the Cultivators had decided to implement the ‘Grand Illusionary Soldier Project’ and set up a command center in Heavenly Saints City that was responsible for the organization of the war against the Temple of Immortals.

At this moment, it had been three hours since the two star beacons were destroyed.

The command center was still in a mess because of the aftershock of the incident.

The damage of a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator was equal to that of a crystal warship. But their stealth ability and their agility were hundreds of times higher than those of a crystal warship. They were essentially strategic weapons that could move, attack, or hide themselves!

If a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator had made up their mind, it would not be a problem if they intended to destroy a city or suppress an asteroid!

Therefore, for the two parties engaged in any war, they had to closely monitor the first-rate and the super experts in the peak of the Core Formation Stage and in the Nascent Soul Stage on the enemy’s side. They would create secret files and collect all the data so that they would know exactly where those experts were at any given moment!

On the other hand, the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators were not carrots in a farmland. They could not just appear out of nowhere.

It would consume astronomical resources to raise a Cultivator into the Nascent Soul Stage. Advanced facilities and wholehearted mentors were mandatory, too. The whole process might easily take a hundred years.

No Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators would show up without a reason!

After five years of warfare, the few Nascent Soul Stage experts on the Temple of Immortals’ side were all under the Cultivators’ watch. But the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator who emerged beyond all expectations did not look like any of the Immortal Cultivators that had appeared before.

Was he the last trump card of the Immortal Cultivators?

Unlikely. If he was the last trump card, why did he join such a daily battle that mattered little to the war as a whole? Why did he have no backup and seem to be entirely fighting on his own?

…

Because the hall of the Meeting of the Next Millennium in Heavenly Saints City was spacious enough to land large crystal warships and the conference rooms were advanced enough to accommodate tens of thousands of Cultivators simultaneously, it had been serving as the command center for the war against the Immortal Cultivators since the Edge Sharpeners’ Meeting ended five years ago.

Inside the command center, the thousands of light beams were displaying the battle pictures captured three hours ago repetitively.

Most of the videos had been captured by the Exos, the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, and the crystal warships. Since the enemy had been too fast and the battlefield too complex, almost all the pictures were fuzzy and barely distinguishable.

Countless experts of crystal processors were trying everything they could to retrieve the key information from the fuzzy videos and compare it with the files in the database.

Xiao Xuance, as well as the leadership of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City, the Star Fighters’ Alliance, and the Glorious Sunlight Group, had arrived in the place. They were all frowning, deep in thought.

A new expert in the Nascent Soul Stage had appeared. It was too important an issue to be handled by Xiao Xuance alone.

Besides, the Cultivators from various sects had seen the enemy in person on the battlefield. It was impossible for Xiao Xuance, who also had no reason, to cover the incident up now.

“When a worm is killed, its body might still be cramping. Since the army of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers was established, the war has been going very well, or too well, some might say.

“Right now, the Temple of Immortals has finally revealed their last strength. It appears that the final battle will not be as smooth as the previous ones!”

It was Si Koulie, leader of the Star Fighters’ Alliance, who was speaking coldly while crossing his arms next to Xiao Xuance.

The Star Fighters’ Alliance was made of twenty-eight important sects in the other space zones. It was safe to say that the organization was an alliance of the middle and small sects of the Flying Star Sector.

Five years ago, he had been selfless enough to withdraw from the competition and support Xiao Xuance. It was why the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project had been carried out without much trouble.

Because of his high prestige in the six sects of Heavenly Saints City and the various smaller sects in the other space zones, Si Koulie naturally became the second in command, only below Xiao Xuance.

With a gloomy face, Xiao Xuance stared at the ever-changing picture, the senile plaques on his face getting even darker. He did not say anything for a long time, but his eyebrows became continually more furrowed.

Soon, more than ten light beams were enlarged, and the image was enhanced. More and more details were revealed.

“The results are in!”

One of the Cultivators in charge of the crystal processors stood up and said, “We have analyzed the pictures taken by hundreds of crystal cameras and overlapped them dynamically. Then we optimized the details with data association. A clear static image has been generated. We are still working on the dynamic image.

“Please take a look everybody, this is the enemy’s crystal suit.”

A fuzzy figure was displayed on the light beams from different angles.

Although most parts of the figure were covered in red mist, six intimidating limbs were protruding out.

What Rong Jun mistook for the limbs of a spider turned out to be six magnificent dragons, whose six bloody mouths were biting glittering balls respectively.

All the Cultivators gasped.

“The Dragon King Battlesuit!”

Chapter 776: The Gone Starship

 

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

---

Bai Xinghe’s Dragon King Battlesuit was one of the most distinctive crystal suits of the Flying Star Sector. The dragon-like artificial limbs that could be dated back to the Star Ocean Imperium were unique and could not be found anywhere else.

A hundred super crystal processors were overloading, trying to run computations in order to compare the image with the files of the Dragon King Battlesuit that had been collected earlier.

Ten minutes, a conclusion was out. The artificial limbs were more than 95% similar to the components of the Dragon King Battlesuit!

In the meantime, the preliminary computations on the speed, strength, and combat ability had yielded results, too.

“Long Feihu is in the high level of the Core Formation Stage and has dominated the Heavenly Sword Arena for decades. His combat ability is very high, but he was crushed by the mysterious expert after one attack!

“Powerful defense rune arrays have been established on every star beacon. They should be enough to resist a full-strength shot from the main gun of a crystal warship or the fiercest attack from the peak of the Core Formation Stage. Yet, they were shattered by him within a breath!

“The combat ability the man demonstrated in the minute is definitely in the Nascent Soul Stage!”

Very soon, more and more videos, files, and data were manifested.

The picture from Long Feihu’s crystal camera caught everyone’s attention.

Long Feihu was very experienced. When he realized that he was no match for his enemy, he kept moving his head according to the trajectory of the enemy’s movement. Therefore, his crystal camera captured a relatively stable video clip of 2.1 seconds.

Other than the visible light, the crystal cameras could also capture and analyze invisible light.

For some advanced crystal cameras, they had been installed with special rune arrays to record the various radiations released when spiritual energy was flowing.

By analyzing the radiations, one would be able to tell the route of the enemy’s spiritual energy.

There was such a crystal camera on Long Feihu’s crystal suit.

“The mode of the mysterious expert’s spiritual energy is 75% similar to Bai Xinghe’s ‘Tyrannical Ocean Arts’. It is safe to say that they are the same Cultivation art.

“The ‘Tyrannical Ocean Arts’ is Bai Xinghe’s personal skill. It is said that he inherited the knowledge from Yan Xinjian, the supreme space pirate five hundred years ago. Bai Xinghe never taught the technique to anybody. Even Bai Wulei, his first true disciple, never had the privilege to learn it!”

The weird conclusions cast the command center in a weird silence.

The Cultivators had collected a lot of intelligence about the great strife on Spider Den five years ago. They knew that Bai Xinghe had ended on bad terms with the Immortal Cultivators because of the competition of power and had been killed.

But now, Bai Xinghe, who had disappeared for five years, reappeared in front of everyone?

“I suggest—”

Noticing that Xiao Xuance did not say anything for a long time, Si Koulie spoke seriously. “Bai Xinghe or not, the man has a combat ability at least in the Nascent Soul Stage. He must not be let go of easily!

“We should establish a rapid-response squad targeting the mysterious expert to collect his data, search for his location, run pertinent rehearsals, and draft several plans to capture or kill him!

“The man must have certain plans on his mind now that he has suddenly shown up. We must prepare ourselves early in case we are caught off guard!”

Xiao Xuance frowned but quickly stabilized his facial expression. His eyes, which were wavering just now, suddenly became resolute again. He nodded and said, “Leader Si is right. A man in the Nascent Soul Stage whose identity and purpose are unknown is indeed troublesome. We should make plans and strategies in advance so that he does not become an unexpected factor in our final battle. As for the members of the rapid-response squad…”

Before Xiao Xuance opened his mouth, Si Koulie interrupted him, “The enemy is in the Nascent Soul Stage. Naturally, all the experts in the Nascent Soul Stage on our side must be involved. Other than them, all the elites in other fields should be included, especially the experts adept at tracking and monitoring!”

Si Koulie’s propose was reasonable. Xiao Xuance found no reason to object. Therefore, he agreed quickly. “Alright!”

…

Three hours later, in the headquarters of the Storm Prison Pirate Gang in Capital Nest on Spider Den, Fengyu Zhong was pacing back and forth with great anxiety. He coughed every now and then, making his hunched back even more hunched.

Ever since killing Bai Xinghe and becoming the de facto ruler of Spider Den five years ago, the new king of space pirates had never been more restless.

In front of Fengyu Zhong, the air above a light beam projector suddenly twisted. Blue smoke seemed to be popping up.

A moment later, the smoke condensed into an empty shadow.

Fengyu Zhong was refreshed. He stepped forward and bowed. “Lotus King!”

The Lotus King was emotionless, as if he were wearing a badly-made mast. He asked straightforwardly, “Was Bai Xinghe really killed by you five years ago?”

The appearance of the mysterious expert in the Nascent Soul Stage baffled the space pirates, too. Fengyu Zhong had watched the battle videos more than half a day ago many times. He knew that the Lotus King would ask the question and therefore answered quickly, “He should be dead. After we escaped from the underground fortress, we studied the videos together repetitively. Bai Xinghe was hit by me and the Black King at the same time. More than half of his heart was blown up, and his internal organs were mostly burnt into ashes. It is impossible that he survived.”

The Lotus King said coldly, “But you never found the body.”

“It could not be helped,” Fengyu Zhong said. “The entire underground fortress was filled with water and blocked by rocks and mud. It was like fishing up a needle in an ocean.

“Besides, there were terrifying beasts below ground, which were likely to have already devoured Bai Xinghe’s body. If so, we would not have found the body even if we turned the fortress upside down.”

The Lotus King nodded and approved of the reply. He suddenly changed the topic and asked, “There’s something that is quite odd. The mysterious expert halted for 2.7 seconds after destroying two star beacons, as if he was catching his breath.

“Too many things could happen in a battlefield quickly. The standstill of almost three seconds was enough for many experts to lock onto him. Why did he do that?”

Fengyu Zhong was dazed, not sure what the Lotus King meant.

The Lotus King continued. “Regarding the anomaly, I’ve come up with three possibilities. Now, I want to discuss with you and see if there’s a fourth one.

“Firstly, the man was Bai Xinghe. He was heavily wounded by you and the Black King five years ago but not killed. He snuck underground and treated his wounds in his nest. Now, his wounds have recovered, and he’s out for revenge.”

Fengyu Zhong shook his head and said, “Unlikely. His heart exploded, his internal organs were burnt, his spine was shattered into smithereens, and even his ‘Nascent Soul’ was blown into pieces. Such fatal wounds cannot be recovered within five years.”

His expression unchanged, the Lotus King continued. “Secondly, the man was not Bai Xinghe but Bai Xinghe’s secret disciple, or somebody who accidentally inherited Bai Xinghe’s knowledge.”

Fengyu Zhong thought for a moment and replied, “It’s a more plausible possibility, but there are many suspicious points. Bai Xinghe had a disciple in the Nascent Soul Stage whom he kept a secret for decades? Why didn’t he summon his disciple in the great strife five years ago?

“As to the possibility that somebody found Bai Xinghe’s legacy after he died and Cultivated to the Nascent Soul Stage in only five years… That’s simply absurd!”

The Lotus King continued. “Then, there’s only the last possibility. Under the collective attack of you and the Black King, Bai Xinghe was killed, but then he reincarnated in a different body!”

Fengyu Zhong’s eyes beamed with interest. “Possession?”

He smashed the desk hard and exclaimed, “Right. Right. Everything makes sense now if it was possession. At that time, the Black King and I failed to exterminate him, and he fled with the last bit of his vitality. Then, he found an appropriate body and performed the secret arts of possession, reincarnating himself in the body of someone else!”

The Lotus King asked, “Is there a fourth possibility?”

Fengyu Zhong pondered for a moment and shook his head. “No. Absolutely not!”

“Alright!” The Lotus King quickly made the decision. “Then, with the three possibilities in mind, we will make a set of plans to deal with the man!

“But first, we must make one thing clear. Whether he is Bai Xinghe who hasn’t recovered from his wounds, or he is Bai Xinghe’s disciple, or he is Bai Xinghe’s reincarnation in someone’s body, the real problem is, how high is his Cultivation?”

Fengyu Zhong’s brows furrowed as he said, “I see what you are getting at, Lotus King. If Bai Xinghe hasn’t recovered from his wounds, it is unlikely that he is at his peak state even if he has been treating himself for five years.

“If he is Bai Xinghe’s disciple, it is unlikely that he has advanced into the Nascent Soul Stage after only five years.

“The same goes for reincarnation. Since he has possessed the body for only five years, even if his soul is in the Nascent Soul Stage, his body won’t be half as strong as it used to be.

“Therefore, the man is probably not really in the Nascent Soul Stage. He simply stimulated himself to the Nascent Soul Stage with a certain secret art!”

“Exactly,” The Lotus King said. “It was why he was stiffened for 2.7 seconds after a fierce battle.

“He was exhausted and ran out of strength. Maybe it was because his soul has not adapted to his body yet. Maybe it was because of the recoil of his secret art!

“However, we have to verify our deductions with further investigation. Let’s not jump to conclusions!

“All in all, the man is an unexpected factor. His threat to us is greater than anybody else’s. We have to concentrate most of our attention on him. Find out his real capability first and draft an effective plan of annihilation. Also, lock onto him as soon as possible, whatever the cost. I need to know where he is hiding!”

“Lotus King!” Fengyu Zhong hesitated for a moment but still spoke the truth. “Half an hour ago, I received a message that a ‘Swift Sparrow’-level crystal warship of the Purple Fire Pirate Gang is gone.”

Lightning was flashing in the Lotus King’s eyes as he demanded, “What do you mean by ‘gone’?”

“The crystal warship had undergone tremendous modifications and joined the battlefield as a medical starship. Its mission was to aid the recovery of the exhausted Immortal Cultivators,” Fengyu Zhong explained. “If somebody important was heavily wounded, they could board on the starship and return to Spider Den quickly.

“Therefore, the starship had a high speed.

“Also, in case it was harassed by the Cultivators, the space jump system of the starship remained on all the time. As soon as it was surrounded by the enemy, it could jump out quickly!

“The medical starship has been gone for two and a half hours. At first, we thought that it had been blown up by the Cultivators. But after we scoured the battlefield, we found no debris from it. Judging from the video captured by the crystal warships nearby, the missing starship was not bombarded heavily. It is unlikely that the starship was completely wiped out.

“It just vanished mysteriously, as if it escaped from the Spider Den Space Zone through space jumps without a good reason.”

Chapter 777: Our Cause Will Succeed!

 

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

Ever since the Grand Illusionary Soldiers were promoted on a large scale and the Immortal Cultivators experienced continuous failures, the Cultivators had locked almost all the space zones. A lot of secret sailing routes and nests had been discovered.

Therefore, unless it was absolutely necessary, the space pirates would not jump out of the Spider Den Space Zone, because other space zones were even more dangerous. It was easy to jump out, but to return to Spider Den would be quite difficult.

“What’s your opinion about the whole event?” the Lotus King asked. “What’s the purpose of the man who seems to be Bai Xinghe?”

“My speculation is that he was trying to hijack a crystal warship in the chaos and escape from the Spider Den Space Zone,” Fengyu Zhong said. “He destroyed two star beacons and tore a giant hole in the defense line of the Cultivators. Our morale was boosted, too.

“At that time, many people did not know who he was and thought that he was an expert from the Temple of Immortals. Therefore, they all charged forward in order to cover him.

“I think that he entered the medical starship openly with the excuse that he was in dire need of treatment because of the heavy wounds he suffered when he destroyed the star beacons.

“After he boarded the medical starship, he invaded the bridge, captured the captain and the sailors, and initiated a space jump.

“If he was really Bai Xinghe’s reincarnation and had a capability close to the Nascent Soul Stage, it would not have been hard for him to control a medical starship.”

The Lotus King gave no comment and simply said, “I need the files of the medical starship, including its number, features, personnel, and all the information about its mainframe crystal processor!”

“Understood. I’ll send over every detail of the medical starship within half a day!”

Fengyu Zhong hesitated for a moment. A drop of cold sweat appeared on the tip of his nose, but he summoned his courage and said, “Lotus King, we’ve been grasped by desperation. Today, we suffered heavy losses and are running out of food and ammunition. Right now, the morale on Spider Den has hit rock bottom. Many people are fighting like caged beasts, and many more are simply waiting to be killed!

“With everything coming this far, do we really need to care about a mysterious expert? Even if he is really Bai Xinghe, can the situation get any worse?”

The Lotus King’s eyes suddenly turned sharp; two lotuses seemed to be blossoming in them. He said, “Captain Fengyu, firm your belief. Do not lose your hope in our victory. Moreover, do not fall in the last darkness before the dawn!”

Fengyu Zhong was dazed. He had hesitated for a long time before he raised his doubts. He had thought that the Lotus King would burst into fury and did not expect such a reassuring reply.

When he looked again, the Lotus King had already vanished in the smoke.

…

Between the central area of Heavenly Saints City and the first space ring, almost a hundred elegantly-shaped new starships that looked like silver flying swords were docked in the vast universe.

The starship in the middle was more than ten kilometers long and looked like a long spear surrounded by nine flying swords, wreathed in a layer of mysterious silver brightness. One could feel both the air of grace and cruelty from it.

It was ‘Heavenly Phantom’, the flagship of the Grand Illusionary Group as well as the command starship of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers. It was one of the strongest crystal warships of the Flying Star Sector!

The performance of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers was highly dependent on the ‘star brain’, which had been developed by the Grand Illusionary Group. Considering the latency and losses in the transmission of telepathic thoughts across space zones, the Grand Illusionary Group had specially built Heavenly Phantom and transferred ‘star brain’, the super crystal processor, to the starship.

When the space gate was fully repaired, before the final battle, Heavenly Phantom would jump to the periphery of the Spider Den Space Zone together with the fleets of dozens of space zones. It would serve at the pivot of the Spiritual Nexus and constantly transmit the enormous data of fighting stored inside the star brain to the reception rune arrays of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers.

Since the ‘star brain’ was the core of the crystal warship, the bridge of Heavenly Phantom was different from that of other starships. In the middle and rear part of the bridge was a yard more than three hundred meters high, which was surrounded by countless crystal chips, disks, and rune arrays that constituted computation matrices. They were glittering like fireflies.

The yard was like a palace, with a translucent phantom floating in the middle. The bright golden rays of light outlined the complicated circuits of a brain, which was fluctuating in a fixed rhythm.

It was both like a brain made of billions of stars and the heart of a devil.

Xiao Tianbao, creator of the star brain, a super genius in crystal processors, and Xiao Xuance’s adopted son, was sitting right below the star brain, which was almost a hundred meters in diameters, drooling, gurgling, and murmuring to himself.

Now and then, golden telepathic thoughts would spread out of the star brain and zigzagged into Xiao Tianbao’s nostrils, mouth, and ears like little snakes.

Xiao Tianbao moaned in great satisfaction. He waved his arms and legs, enjoying everything around him.

Tens of thousands of light beams were floating around the star brain.

Every light beam showed the picture from the main perspective of a Grand Illusionary Soldier.

They were fighting, patrolling, guarding, or undergoing maintenance.

They were the Grand Illusionary Soldiers controlled by the Grand Illusionary Group. Most of them were deployed in Heavenly Saints City.

Standing in a secret chamber at the back of the bridge, Xiao Xuance stared at the unpredictable sparks as billions of data streams were colliding inside the crystal processor through the one-way glass, expressionless and deep in thought.

A young man wearing the green uniform of the Grand Illusionary Group, whose hair was as dense as that of a majestic lion, walked in. He bowed behind Xiao Xuance and said, “CEO.”

The door closed silently behind them. A mystic ray scanned the room.

It was determining whether or not there were detectaphones in the room.

Without turning around, Xiao Xuance asked, “How are the forces of the other space zones?”

“Sixty percent of all the space zones have finished gathering,” the young man replied. “It is estimated that more than eighty percent of the elites of the Flying Star Sector will be gathered in the Spider Den Space Zone, as well as the majority of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, for the final battle.

“However, we have just lost two star beacons in the Spider Den Space Zone. Although a batch of backup star beacons have been produced, it will take at least a month to ship them to the frontline.”

“Alright,” Xiao Xuance said. “I want you to focus on something else.

“The man who showed up a day ago and is believed to be Bai Xinghe has attracted the attention of all the Cultivators. The important sects are now establishing a rapid-response squad with the man as the sole target.

“I am a member of the rapid-response squad. I’ll put you inside the squad later, too.

“But we must establish our own secret squad to eliminate the person!

“By our estimation, the man has escaped from the Spider Den Space Zone after hijacking a medical starship.

“Right now, we have all the information about the medical starship, including the twelve most likely destinations of the space jumps.

“The Cultivators haven’t grasped this lead yet. We must locate the man before the Cultivators do!”

The young man nodded and said, “Understood!”

Pondering for a moment, Xiao Xuance patted the young man’s shoulder and explained, “It is very possible that your mission concerns the outcome of our cause. You must raise your alert and consider it your top priority. Finish the mission with all the resources and manpower available!

“I don’t believe in coincidences. Not at all.

“Right now, our cause has come to the most crucial moment, and the final victory will be ours if we make another step forward. But a person who seems to be Bai Xinghe jumped out of nowhere for no good reason. Why?

“An unexpected factor. The man is a great unexpected factor. Right now, victory is within our grasp. No unexpected factor is advantageous for us. Therefore, no matter what the unexpected factor is leading to, we must rule it out in advance!

“Later, I’ll talk to Tianbao and ask him to spare part of the computational ability of the star brain to help your operation. As long as the man uses his crystal processor, boards a starship, or has any connection with the Spiritual Nexus, he will be locked onto by us!”

The young man’s pupils constricted suddenly, but he nodded quickly and said, “Understood!”

“Moreover,” Xiao Xuance sighed and said, “after so many years of preparation, we are finally seeing the final battle on the horizon now. Maybe I was a bit too nervous. There might have been loopholes in my reactions when the unexpected factor appeared today. Si Koulie might have felt that something was wrong and become suspicious about me.

“Therefore, we cannot loosen the monitoring of Si Koulie. Rather, we need to tighten it. Whatever the old man says, whoever he meets, especially those he talks to via the Spiritual Nexus, I need to know everything. Also, we must ensure that we can cut in and block his signal at any time!”

“Understood,” the young man replied, his face unchanged. “We have never stopped monitoring Si Koulie, the leadership of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City, the leadership of the Glorious Sunlight Group, and those from Iron Plateau. Should anything go wrong, we can react immediately.

“Although Si Koulie is in the Nascent Soul Stage, he is just a refiner and has no talent in fighting. If the situation demands, it will not be a problem to take him down.”

Xiao Xuance frowned and said, “Don’t do it unless we absolutely have to. He is the second in command of the war after all. If he is killed, there will be too many consequences. The assassination might get us exposed in the end.

“Right now, the most important task for us is to find out the motive and the purpose of the man who seems to be Bai Xinghe. What is he up to exactly?”

Staring at the star brain on the other side of the glass, Xiao Xuance fell into deep thought again. It was not until five minutes had passed that he found that the young man was still standing behind him.

Xiao Xuance waved his hands, somewhat exhaustedly. “Leave now.”

The young man was silent for a moment. Then, like a spear that suddenly pierced into the floor, he raised his right arm and clenched his fists, while he bellowed with the utmost determination, “Long live the civilization of mankind!”

Xiao Xuance was dazed for a moment, knowing that his subordinate had sensed the anxiety in the deepest part of his heart.

He was not infuriated. Instead, he felt slightly moved.

Pa!

Xiao Xuance turned around and closed his legs. His face suddenly turned resolute, and it was glowing. In high spirits, he even appeared slightly younger than before.

He straightened his right arm with all his strength like the young man and clenched his fists.

Xiao Xuance gazed at the young man.

The young man fearlessly stared back at him with a pair of clear eyes. The air was about to be detonated by their enthusiasm.

Taking a deep breath, Xiao Xuance said unwaveringly, “Our cause will succeed. Our cause must succeed. Long live the evolution! Long live the Immortal Cultivators! Long live the civilization of mankind!”

Chapter 778: The Real Immortal Cultivators

 

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

At the same time, the news that the Dragon King Battlesuit had reappeared in the sea of stars raised unceasing ripples like a giant rock that was tossed into a frozen pond.

Inside the station of the Great Horn Exo Society in the Cross Wind Space Zone…

After five years of development, with the support of the Glorious Sunlight Group and Iron Plateau, the Great Horn Exo Society had changed from a small Exo Society with only one ragged starship into a super large group that boasted dozens of crystal warships and hundreds of carriers.

Except for the lack of top experts, the scale of the Exo Society was definitely the largest in the Flying Star Sector.

It had an assault team that was purely made of the qi-trainers from Iron Plateau. The assault team had been fighting in all kinds of harsh environments such as the remains of starships, asteroids, and stones belts. The qi-trainers had made great contributions over the past five years and often made the space pirates and the Immortal Cultivators lose confidence.

At this moment, on Gold Horn, the flagship of the Great Horn Exo Society, Lei Dalu and Bai Kaixin watched a fuzzy video in a trance, then in excitement, and then in confusion.

“Anyways, he has escaped!”

Lei Dalu took a long breath in relief, with a sincere smile on his face.

“But why did he destroy two star beacons instead of fighting against the Immortal Cultivators?”

Bai Kaixin’s white eyebrows were shivering like two long fishing lines.

Lei Dalu scratched his beard and said, “Li Yao is definitely not an Immortal Cultivator. There must be a deeper meaning to his actions. We should be prepared to fight in advance. He will certainly reach out to us one way or another.

“Ask Zuo Xiaohu, Lu Dian, and the rest of them to cheer up. I have a vague feeling that the most important battle of my life is coming!”

…

Five days later, an enormous fleet was sailing slowly between the Cross Wind Space Zone and the Heavenly Saints Space Zone, with the battle emblem of the Glorious Sunlight Group painted in mystic rays at the front.

In the rear part of the fleet, on a round starship for the test of new magical equipment, five spectral Cultivators residing in artificial bodies were faced with hundreds of light beams on which streams of information were pouring down like waterfalls.

There was not much difference on the metal skull, but the shinning spots of light in their eyes indicated the untamable shock and excitement deep inside their souls.

“At 3:52, on the third child board of the ‘War Observation’ forum, a reply with a special character has been found in the fifth latest post!

“At 4:09, on the website of ‘Secret Garden’, the username ‘UltimateThunder0011′ has been registered, as agreed upon in our secret code!

“At 4:41… At 5:35… At 7:18…”

For the last five years, Professor Mo Xuan and the other spectral Cultivators had been browsing through dozens of special websites on the Spiritual Nexus every day, to no avail.

But today, the special reply and the special username that they had agreed a deal on five years ago had finally shown up!

“Li Yao is back!”

“In one of the threads, he recommended other people to listen to a song named…’Homecoming’.

“Does—does it mean that he has found a way to go home? Are we able to go home now?”

There were exclamations in the bridge.

“In another thread, there was the tourism commercial of the Dawn Moon Space Zone. Just as we talked about before, Li Yao does not want to communicate with us via the Spiritual Nexus, which is too unsafe. He wants one of us to go to the Dawn Moon Space Zone and talk to him in person!

“Right. He also asked us about the development of the ‘Brain Concussion Plan’ with the secret code.”

Low chuckles echoed in the metal speaker in Professor Mo Xuan’s throat. According to the means of contact that they had agreed upon five years ago, he logged into a website that featured jokes and funny stories and left a reply on the fifth thread of the third child board.

“The brain is open!”

…

It had been twenty days since the appearance of the Dragon King Battlesuit.

During those twenty days, the Flying Star Sector had seemed undisrupted, and everything had gone on normally.

The minor battles at the periphery of the Spider Den Space Zone were continuing. Four new star beacons that had just been refined were moved to the frontline slowly through short-distance space jumps.

In the world of Cultivators, the leadership of the important sects were all on their way to Heavenly Saints City, ready to take part in the strategical meeting and the morale-boosting rally for the second war against Spider Den after five hundred years.

However, in the darkness of the universe beyond the senses of the ordinary people, undercurrents were swirling and colliding heavily, raising shocking black sparks.

Cultivators, Immortal Cultivators, space pirates, spectral Cultivators from the Heaven’s Origin Sector… Multiple forces were trying to locate the mysterious man wearing the Dragon King Battlesuit with any methods possible.

However, after the grand appearance twenty days ago, the man was like a piece of ice that had been melted in the water or a dry leaf that was rotting in a swamp. There were no traces of him at all.

But three days ago, interesting changes finally took place.

A group of Grand Illusionary Soldiers that were patrolling near the Swooping Eagle Space Zone found debris of starships that was still relatively intact in a stone belt. It appeared that a great explosion of starship must have happened.

Judging from the remaining radiation, the explosion had taken place quite recently. Chances were that it had happened only days ago.

The sea of stars had an unstable mood. It was not unusual for a starship to get into an accident. After a rescue team was sent out as per tradition, the incident turned into part of the patrol log, and the patrol log was saved in the database as part of the information stream. It did not catch the attention of the Cultivators.

However, the Immortal Cultivators noticed the incident keenly.

Judging from the structure of the remains and the scraps that were still complete, they all belonged to a medical starship.

Also, the Swooping Eagle Space Zone and the Spider Den Space Zone were not far away from each other. One space jump was enough to reach it.

In the places where the Cultivators were not looking, a giant black web covered the Swooping Eagle Space Zone and the three space zones nearby quietly.

…

In Heavenly Saints City, on Heavenly Phantom, the flagship of the Grand Illusionary Group, Wen Wenkang examined the transmission tube of the starship slowly. Occasionally, when other crew members passed by, the white-bearded old man would smile and greet them with his beer belly.

Wen Wenkang was 212 years old. For a Cultivator in the beginning level of the Core Formation Stage, he had passed his prime years and was in the middle of the dusk of depression.

He was not a talented, awe-inspiring Cultivator. The accomplishments he had made were all based on his hard work. He had learned things bit by bit and trained himself dutifully.

In his old age, he seemed to have accepted his fate, and his ambitions had gone entirely. He was ready to enjoy his retired life in a place with splendid natural views when the war was over.

On his chest, the emblem of the Star Fighters’ Alliance was obscured by the oil. Yet, he was not bothered by it and had not wiped the emblem for a long time.

To ensure the publicity of the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project, the Grand Illusionary Group and the Star Fighters’ Alliance had co-produced Heavenly Phantom. Wen Wenkang was the chief technician that the Star Fighters’ Alliance had sent to Heavenly Phantom. He had just finished the day’s work.

He put everything back to where it belonged slowly. Then, with his hands behind his back, he whispered a song and entered a lift through the channel below the maintenance room. The lift then moved down slowly and brought him to a common room in the end.

In the middle of the common room was an oily king-sized bed.

Wen Wenkang did not lie on it. Instead, he raised the mattress, revealing a secret teleportation array below.

Five minutes later, Wen Wenkang appeared in a secret chamber in the center of Heavenly Phantom.

Heavenly Phantom had a total length of 37 kilometers. It was essentially a large town. Building several secret chambers inside the starship was more than easy.

When the gate of the secret chamber was slowly closed after a ‘chi’ sound, Wen Wenkang’s slightly hunched back gradually straightened. The laziness and dumbness on his face entirely disappeared. Two ferocious tigers that represented determination and dedications woke up in his eyes.

He had personally built the secret chamber. It was a secret command center with a high computational ability and confidentiality.

Light beams were flashing everywhere. No seats around the six long desks were empty.

As far as one’s eyes could reach, the participants were mostly middle-level or high-level officials and the core disciples of the Grand Illusionary Group.

Others were the core members of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City and the Star Fighters’ Alliance. But most of them were young people and the radicals in their respective sects.

Everybody was wearing the same expression as Wen Wenkang’s. Determination, fanaticism, and slight anxiety because of the upcoming great war.

Wen Wenkang nodded at Xiao Xuance, who was sitting at the end of the long desk, indicating that he had examined the room and there were no detectaphones or other surveillance magical equipment.

Xiao Xuance stood up and tapped the desk softly. When everybody quieted down, he said calmly, “Yesterday, fellow Cultivator Cui Zongping of the Silver Moon Clan unfortunately perished.

“Fellow Cultivator Cui was an expert in data mining. In order to dig out the information of our target from the data of the Swooping Eagle Space Zone, which was as tremendous as ocean, he performed the ninth level of the ‘Wind Catching Algorithm’ for nine hours, even though he was merely in the high level of the Building Foundation Stage. He became mentally deranged in the end.

“He could’ve been saved, but in order to keep the secret of our organization, he held back the excruciating pain, sent the valuable information to us, and deleted all traces inside his crystal processor, before he cried out for help in the end.

“When help came, it was already too late. Fellow Cultivator Cui had perished!

“Fellow Cultivator Cui sacrificed himself for the renaissance of mankind, the greatest cause in the entire universe. Now, let’s have one minute of silence for Fellow Cultivator Cui!”

Shua!

Everybody including Wen Wenkang stood up. They extended their right arms and clenched their fists, before they folded their arms and stuck their fists to their chests. They all mourned in silence and solemnity.

After a minute, Xiao Xuance looked around and said seriously, “We are different from the counterfeits of the Temple of Immortals. We are the real Immortal Cultivators.

“The real Immortal Cultivators are not scared of death. To sacrifice for the civilization of mankind is our greatest happiness and glory!

“For decades, countless predecessors have sacrificed themselves unhesitatingly and unwaveringly, in order to build our cause to what it is today. The Flying Star Sector, which has been divided by five thousand years, will be reunited by our hands. One civilization, one leader, and one true path!

“However, the moment before our final victory, our cause has met a fatal threat!”

Chapter 779: He’s Coming!

 

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

Xiao Xuance paused for a moment and observed the reactions of the ‘real Immortal Cultivators’.

Everybody was as strongminded as he expected. They did not even blink.

Satisfied, Xiao Xuance continued. “I know that it was quite risky for everybody to come here without alarming your own sect. Let’s cut to the chase and invite Captain Xiao Yushan, leader of the ‘Dragon Slaying Operation’, to explain the latest developments.”

Xiao Yushan was the young man with dense hair whom Xiao Xuance had summoned twenty days ago.

He was a member of the Xiao family and had been under the tutelage of Xiao Xuance when he was growing up. Naturally, he had accepted Xiao Xuance’s ideology and become a staunch Immortal Cultivator.

The Dragon Slaying Operation was a set of plans to deal with the unexpected reappearance of the Dragon King Battlesuit. Search, localization, defense, siege, assassination, and manipulation, every procedure had dozens of backup plans.

Xiao Yushan stood up quickly without any ado and bowed to everyone.

Dozens of light beams were hovering behind him. He was wearing a jade ring on his right index finger, which shot out a scarlet ray as he pointed at the light beam and said, “Three days ago, we discovered part of the debris of ‘White Horse’, the medical starship that went missing more than half a month ago, at the periphery of the Swooping Eagle Space Zone. By analyzing the spiritual energy residue and the remaining materials, we estimated that White Horse collapsed due to a very serious explosion.

“The explosion was too fierce to have been an accident. Besides, there had not been serious cosmic storms around the Swooping Eagle Space Zone recently. Therefore, we came to the conclusion that the explosion was man-made.

“We set the Swooping Eagle Space Zone as an important area of investigation and devoted a lot of resources for the search, only to come up with nothing.

“There are three space zones near the Swooping Eagle Space Zone that are all within reach of one space jump. If one boarded a quick carrier, they could travel between them within one to two days.

“We found a lot of valuable clues in the Mystic Cloud Space Zone, which is next to the Swooping Eagle Space Zone.

“First, let’s do some calculations.

“Jumping from the Spider Den Space Zone into the Swooping Eagle Space Zone before blowing up the starship would take one to two days.

“Putting on a faked appearance in the Swooping Eagle Space Zone, sneaking into a high-speed carrier, and leaving for the Mystic Cloud Space Zone would take another one to two days.

“All things considered, that would have been three to five days in total.

“Exactly six days after the Dragon King Battlesuit reappeared, seven hospitals of the Mystic Cloud Space Zone were broken into. Medication worth of millions was taken. The local sects investigated the case for days but found no leads at all. They were only sure that it must have been done by an expert.

“After our thorough investigation, we found that the seven cases had something in common. In the inventory of the stolen items, there were a lot of medications that were designed to pacify the soul.

“Fellow Cultivator Yin Pingzi of the Feathered Snakes Brotherhood is a spectral Cultivator who passed away more than a hundred and thirty years ago. He has done profound research on the arts of reincarnation and possession.

“According to Fellow Cultivator Yin Pingzi, such dark arts are extremely perilous. Even if it works out, the body will experience strong rejection reactions in the first couple of years. If the user is not careful, their soul will still be expelled out of the body.

“The weaker the possessor’s soul is and the stronger the body of the victim is, the more intense the rejection reactions will be. They will have to take a lot of medicines to pacify their soul and maintain the stability of their body.”

When Xiao Yushan got to this part, one of the Immortal Cultivators tapped the table and said, “Fellow Cultivator Xiao, if I may interrupt.

“We get what you are trying to say. Your team believe that Bai Xinghe has reincarnated and fled to the Mystic Cloud Space Zone. He broke into the seven hospitals for the soul-pacifying medicine only. Other items he took away were just distractions.”

“Exactly.” Xiao Yushan nodded and said, “The members of the Dragon Slaying Operation and part of the star brain’s computational ability analyzed for an entire day. This is the most likely possibility.”

“If so—” The Immortal Cultivator narrowed his eyes, which were as sharp as swords. “The medicine in general hospitals are mediocre after all. If the man was really Bai Xinghe’s reincarnation, he would definitely have the capability to sneak into the local sects of the Mystic Cloud Space Zone and steal better drugs, wouldn’t he?”

Xiao Yushan shook his head and said, “This is exactly why Bai Xinghe was smart. Stealing medicines from Cultivation sects would have been too obvious and exposed him.

“In comparison, stealing the normal medicines from general hospitals was much more low-profile. Nobody would overthink it.

“In fact, if we had not known which starship he ran away on, we wouldn’t have locked onto the Swooping Eagle Space Zone so quickly, and if we hadn’t concentrated tremendous resources and computational ability in this place, such minor cases definitely would’ve been neglected by us, considering the vastness of the Flying Star Sector.

“It’s true that the medicine is poor in quality. That is why he went to seven hospitals altogether.

“Retrieving the essence from abundant mediocre medicines should be enough for his use temporarily.”

The Immortal Cultivator who suspected him pondered for a moment and said, “Alright. You’ve convinced me, Fellow Cultivator Xiao. Please continue.”

Xiao Yushan nodded. The light beams behind him changed. He said, “For the sake of confidentiality, the scale of our organization has been kept small. It is nowhere near as large as the Temple of Immortals, which serves as our disguise. We don’t have many spare hands in the Swooping Eagle Space Zone. Most of the time, we can only collect and analyze the public information.

“However, the Black Spider Tower has been developing in the Flying Star Sector for hundreds of years and is more or less associated with the underground worlds of the major space zones.

“Over the past years, Spider Den has been on the decline. The smugglers, drug dealers, and gamblers have been restraining themselves, seeing that things were not going well. However, the Black Spider Tower has enough evidence of their crimes to force them to cooperate.

“Still, we found nothing through the public information or underground methods.

“Our target was extremely prudent. Other than stealing the soul-pacifying medicines, which was probably a must for him, he did not leave any traces.

“However, seven days later, a weird burglary took place in the Three Brightness Space Zone.

“This time, the victim was not a hospital but a store of mining magical equipment. A lot of devices for prospecting, mining, and purifying were stolen.

“The case was quite odd.

“We all know that mining magical equipment, such as drills, excavators, pumps, and ventilation rune arrays, is large, heavy, and not very valuable. More importantly, it is difficult to sell them because normal people won’t need such rigs at all.

“What was the purpose of stealing so much niche, hefty mining magical equipment?

“In addition, the crime scene was too clean. Judging from all the evidence, the thief absorbed the mining magical equipment with a few Cosmos Rings.

“Cosmos Rings are highly valuable. One advanced Cosmos Ring might be more expensive than a high-level crystal suit. Besides, every Cosmos Ring has a limited longevity.

“The thief had at least five Cosmos Rings with him. He was definitely a magnate, and yet he was stealing worthless mining magical equipment with the precious Cosmos Rings. It’s like hijacking a bus with a gun made of diamonds. The whole thing did not make any sense.

“We looked into the case carefully and finally found something interesting in the inventory of the lost goods.”

Behind Xiao Yushan, a mystic ray was divided into six beams, each of which projected a translucent shadow on one of the long desks.

It was a piece of magical equipment more than two meters in both length and width, which was square and looked like an iron block. Enshrouded in a vague black air, it emitted the solidness and clumsiness that solely belonged to the mining magical equipment. There was also a curved metal web unfolding on top of the magical equipment.

“Great Pagoda VII, a special communication device for mines. It boasts a high penetrability and interference immunity, designed for the remote areas that are not covered in the Spiritual Nexus and in the mines where there is tremendous interference. The range of communication can cover the normal asteroids. Even if it is placed a thousand meters below the ground, the telepathic thoughts can still be transmitted through the thick rocks.

“More importantly, such a communicator is based on the point-to-point link of telepathic thoughts and does not require the Spiritual Nexus. Essentially speaking, it is just a super large interphone.”

Another Immortal Cultivator raised his hand. “So, if somebody talks via the Great Pagoda VII communicator, we will not know the content of their conversation, right?”

“If we don’t know the time and location of the conversation, no,” Xiao Yushan replied.

The command center was caught in dead silence. All the Immortal Cultivators were frowning.

Clearly, none of them liked the feeling of losing control.

After a moment, Xiao Yushan continued. “If we assume that the stolen cases of the seven hospitals and the burglary of the store of mining magical equipment were done by the same person, it will be much easier to determine his traces.

“After a day and a night’s hard work, during which time a Fellow Cultivator unfortunately sacrificed himself, we finally found the traces of the target in the Dawn Moon Space Zone, which is in the middle of the Three Brightness Space Zone and the Mystic Cloud Space Zone, and proved that the target stayed in the Dawn Moon Space Zone for a while.

“Then, everything becomes clear.

“The target suffered heavy wounds below the ground of Spider Den five years ago. It took him five years to recover by means of either healing or possession.

“Then, he joined the chaotic battle and hijacked a medical starship, jumping to the Swooping Eagle Space Zone.

“He knew that the Swooping Eagle Space Zone was very dangerous. So, he didn’t leave any traces and simply snuck into the Mystic Cloud Space Zone.

“In the Mystic Cloud Space Zone, perhaps due to the strong rejection between his body and his soul, he was forced to steal a batch of soul-pacifying medicines.

“Then, he left the Mystic Cloud Space Zone and snuck into the neighboring Dawn Moon Space Zone.

“The Dawn Moon Space Zone was just a transfer station. Besides, there was not much magical equipment there since it was most famous for its scenic spots. He did not find anything he needed.

“Therefore, he jumped to the Three Brightness Space Zone where he finally found two Great Pagoda VII communicators, which could allow him to talk to someone else without accessing the Spiritual Nexus. He would be able to send or receive commands.

“Please take a look. Spider Den, Swooping Eagle, Mystic Cloud, Dawn Moon, and Three Brightness. He roamed in five space zones in less than half a month. It was indeed an incredible speed. If we did not have the key leads, and without the support of the star brain, we would not have been able to lock onto him!

“As expected of the Pirate Potentate, but it’s a shame that he can’t get away from us!”

The Immortal Cultivator who raised a question in the beginning asked again, “I’m sorry, Fellow Cultivator Xiao. I have to return to the Furious Bears Union to avoid suspicion. Can you tell me your conclusion? Where is he running to and what is his purpose?”

“Running?”

Xiao Yushan smiled. Dozens of mystic rays interweaved into a map of the universe in front of him, where dozens of space zones were like translucent glass balls, swirling in the vast cosmos.

Five of the balls were connected by a golden line.

“This is the target’s route.”

The golden line extended toward the center of the map, reaching another glass ball that was neat and layered.

“This is Heavenly Saints City.

“Do you see it, everybody? He has not been running from the beginning but marching unstoppably toward Heavenly Saints City. He is coming to us!”

Chapter 780: Dawn of the Imperium Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

 

The conclusion raised a minor riot among the Immortal Cultivators.

However, the real Immortal Cultivators’ nerves and will had been quenched and were as tough as steel after dozens of years of underground fights. Even a situation a hundred times more dangerous would not even slightly shake their firm belief.

Everybody’s expression remained unchanged. They held their breath and waited for more information.

Expressionlessly, Xiao Yushan continued. “The range of the Great Pagoda VII communicator is not very large. It can only cover an asteroid at best and cannot support long-distance communication across space zones.

“However, as large as Heavenly Saints City may be, it is still smaller than an asteroid. The Great Pagoda VII can cover every corner of this place.

“Therefore, the mysterious expert believed to be Bai Xinghe is very likely to start a secret conversation with somebody, or a certain organization, in Heavenly Saints City. The conversation will be of paramount importance.

“Right now, he is faced with another problem, which is to give one of the Great Pagoda VII communicators to the target he wants to talk to.

“The problem is not hard to solve. Although the Great Pagoda VII is large and heavy, since he has quite a few Cosmos Rings with him, he can store one of the Great Pagoda VII communicators in his Cosmos Ring and hide the Cosmos Ring in ordinary goods. Then, he can ship the goods to Heavenly Saints City by express delivery.

“Every day, the number of the packages going in and out of Heavenly Saints City is astronomical. Neither us nor the Cultivators have the capability to scrutinize every package. Moreover, the target might have sent hundreds of similar packages to confuse us.

“Therefore, the Great Pagoda VII communicator will probably reach the person he wants to speak to. We cannot stop him.

“This is the most likely identity, the route of his escape from the Spider Den Space Zone, the approaches he adopted, and part of the purposes of the mysterious expert wearing the Dragon King Battlesuit.

“After a comprehensive analysis on the information we’ve gathered so far, we have determined that the man is extremely dangerous. There is an 88% likelihood that the man is targeting us. But it remains unclear whether he is targeting the ‘Temple of Immortals’, our disguise, or the ‘Second Imperium’, the organization of the real Immortal Cultivators.

“With all that in mind, the command center of the Dragon Slaying Operation has come up with the following countermeasures.

“Firstly, by tomorrow morning, we will get two Great Pagoda VII communicators.

“The refiners in our organization will run the most thorough research on the magical equipment and learn its mode of transmission and the features of its signals. They will also produce magical equipment that can search for and lock onto other Great Pagoda VII communicators as quickly as possible.

“The Great Pagoda VII is a piece of civil magical equipment. It is not very complicated. The experts in our organization have read the designs. By preliminary analysis, all the work can be done within five days.

“By then, as long as the target activates the Great Pagoda VII communicator in range of Heavenly Saints City, we will sense and lock onto it within several seconds. We will also be able to interject and analyze the content of the conversation so that we know what they are up to.

“Secondly, all things considered, there is a 90% likelihood, or even higher, that the mysterious expert is Bai Xinghe’s reincarnation.

“Although Bai Xinghe was in the Nascent Soul Stage, his soul was heavily wounded five years ago. There is no way that he could have regained the capability of the Nascent Soul Stage after possessing a body for only five years.

“With that in mind, the organization is hurrying to refine a batch of magical equipment for soul attacks and summoning experts who are adept at soul attack into the Dragon Slaying Operation. We are hoping that we can kill the target and relieve all our worries in one attempt when the moment comes.

“Thirdly, the space zones that Bai Xinghe set foot in have been ascertained. Assuming that he is marching toward Heavenly Saints City without rest, the date of his arrival and the mostly likely route are both estimative.

“Millions of tourists enter Heavenly Saints City every day. Over the past few months, because of the upcoming final battle, the leadership and the high officials of the major sects of the entire Flying Star Sector have been coming to Heavenly Saints City for the rally. The population is ten times greater than usual. We cannot keep everybody on our grid.

“However, if we are sure about the time of the target’s arrival and the likely route, the range of our surveillance can be greatly reduced. Chances are that we can lock onto him as soon as he shows up!

“Fourthly, Bai Xinghe is coming to Heavenly Saints City after such a long journey. There is no way that he is going to speak to a Mr. Nobody. The person he means to talk to must have high prestige and be very influential in the world of Cultivators.

“In the Flying Star Sector nowadays, only the leaders of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City, the officials of the Star Fighters’ Alliance, the heads of the Glorious Sunlight Group, and the representatives of Iron Plateau meet such requirements. There are not too many of them.

“Therefore, while we are searching for Bai Xinghe, we cannot stop monitoring them!

“Fifthly, and most importantly, all the analysis and speculations we made are possibly incorrect. Everything may be a trap!”

All the Immortal Cultivators were listening attentively, only to be baffled by his statement.

Xiao Xuance patted Xiao Yushan’s shoulder and gestured for the young Immortal Cultivator to sit down. “Everything we have discussed is 80% likely to be solidly grounded.

“There is another 20% likelihood that everything is incorrect. The target might not be Bai Xinghe. There might not be a Dragon King Battlesuit at all.

“The worst case-scenario is that the ‘Second Imperium’ has been exposed. Or at least, the Cultivators have grown suspicious about the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project. They are testing us in such a way to make us reveal our own loopholes in the haste.

“Therefore, I must repeat myself. Everybody must obey the orders. Nobody is to act on their own. Do not overreact until the last moment.

“Of course—”

Xiao Xuance paused for a moment. A dangerous, palpable aura flowed out of his every pore and formed a solid armor around his body.

“Right now, the likelihood that we will have to carry out Plan B has significantly increased.

“Everybody must be prepared. The battle might not go as well as we imagined. It is very likely to be a bitter one where many people will die, their souls perishing forever.

“However, eventually, on the land dyed red by the blood of the martyrs, a new, great nation, one that can lead the civilization of mankind to its prime again, will rise!

“Nobody can stop the rise of the Second Imperium. Not the Cultivators. Nor the ‘Bai Xinghe’, or whoever he is!

“This is the brief on the progress of the Dragon Slaying Operation so far. In a moment, everybody’s task will be sent to your crystal processor.

“For the renaissance of our civilization, let’s work hard together, Fellow Cultivators!

“Any questions?”

A slender Immortal Cultivator, who had a resolute face, stood up and asked, “According to the calculation of the organization, when will Bai Xinghe reach Heavenly Saints City?”

“In ten days, the four backup star beacons will be shipped to the periphery of the Spider Den Space Zone,” Xiao Xuance replied. “After another three to five days of debugging, the space gate will be totally repaired.

“When the hundred star beacons are gathered, the dazzling spiritual waves released will be like a lighthouse in a dark night. Every space zone in the Flying Star Sector will be illuminated.

“By then, the Cultivators, crystal warships, and Grand Illusionary Soldiers in every space zone will jump to the Spider Den Space Zone for the final battle.

“The morale-boosting rally will be held in fifteen days’ time in Heavenly Saints City.

“After the rally, the strongest forces of every space zone will jump to the Spider Den Space Zone at the same time. That will be the dawn of the imperium!

“As for Bai Xinghe, he is likely to sneak into Heavenly Saints City three days before the rally, in other words, twelve days from today!”

…

Thirteen days later, in the tenth space ring of Heavenly Saints City, a middle-aged man, who was wearing a black wind coat and carrying an old suitcase, was walking slowly on the streets of the central business district, which was packed with people.

Fatigue of a long journey still lingered on his face, but his beard had been shaved clean. The fragrant jade bracelet on his wrist was emanating refreshing smell.

He looked like a commonly-seen merchant who had come to Heavenly Saints City from another space zone for business

However, when teams of Grand Illusionary Soldiers strode past him in neat formations, there was a hint of worry and anxiety in the deepest part of the plain-looking eyes.

After five years, Li Yao had finally returned to Heavenly Saints City.

Heavenly Saints City was the economical, administrational, cultural, and military center of the Flying Star Sector.

The second Battle of Spider Den to be fought very soon would be the biggest war of the Flying Star Sector in the past five hundred years. As the center of the Flying Star Sector, it was naturally the biggest rally point of the armed forces.

All the available soldiers and crystal warships of Heavenly Saints City and the few space zones nearby would congregate here and jump to the Spider Den Space Zone together.

The first impression when Li Yao returned to Heavenly Saints City was that it had become an out-and-out military camp. Soldiers and trucks could be seen everywhere, and killing intent was rising nonstop.

Before he entered the space port, he had already seen thousands of crystal warships gathering in the periphery of Heavenly Saints City through the window of his carrier.

The fleet was in such an enormous scale that even the sky and the sun were eclipsed. Even if a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator showed up in front of the fleet, they would inevitably panic and feel dwarfed.

When he entered the tenth space ring, he saw countless Cultivators and Grand Illusionary Soldiers striding toward the space ports boarding on the crystal warships, cheered and applauded by the crowds, all set to go.

During the arrival of extraterrestrial devils five years ago, the tenth space ring had ended up being a kingdom of devils. Residents here hated the space pirates’ and the Immortal Cultivators’ guts. They were the most enthusiastic supporters of the war.

“March to Spider Den! Blood for blood!”

On the streets and valleys of the tenth space ring, colorful light beams were flashing above the heads of the hotblooded young men, indicating their excitement and the passion of the entire city.

Chapter 781: Who’s the Lotus King? Who’s the Sea King?

 

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

It had been seven years since the Temple of Immortals revealed itself. The attitude of the ordinary people in the Flying Star Sector and the Cultivators had undergone drastic changes.

In the beginning, they were stunned, confused, and hesitant. Now, they were determined and confident, to the point that they were almost arrogant.

As victories were secured one after another, especially after the Grand Illusionary Soldiers were deployed to various space zones, the Temple of Immortals had began showing signs of failure. Even the space pirates, which had been quite a hazard before, were gone. Both the ordinary people and the Cultivators had a much higher sense of safety and pride now.

“The second battle of Spider Den will be the last war of the Flying Star Sector!”

“After the battle, Spider Den, the source of darkness of the Flying Star Sector, will be demolished. Also, protected by the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, none of the space towns are likely to be invaded by the extraterrestrial devils anymore.”

“An eternal peace is arriving soon. No more killing, plundering, or sabotaging!”

After Li Yao travelled through almost ten space zones, he had picked up on the optimistic, and sometimes naïve, thoughts from countless people.

As to the outcome of the battle, there was no suspense at all.

Experts and professors were unnecessary. Any random shop assistant, taxi driver, or middle-school student could elaborate on the subject.

“In the first battle of Spider Den five hundred years ago, the fuse was Yan Xinjian’s defection and murders. The six sects of Heavenly Saints City were pissed off. But other than them, the Cultivators of the other space zones were not affected.

“The fleet of the Cultivators was formed in a hurry. Many sects were not trying their best. They were technically loose sand.

“On the space pirates’ side, they had Yan Xinjian, who was familiar with the Cultivators, as the supreme commander. Besides, the connection between Spider Den and the outside world was not cut off. Other than the main battlefield, countless space pirates were still roving in the other space zones and continued bleeding the Cultivators while the defense of their homes was weak. That was one of the reasons the coalition army of the Cultivators retreated in the end.

“The second battle of Spider Den is entirely different.

“The connection between Spider Den and the outside world has basically been cut off. All the space pirates are restrained to Spider Den. They are in lack of medication, ammunition, and supplies; they are simply waiting to be killed.

“But for the Cultivators, we are more united than ever. Every Cultivator in every sect is making the greatest contributions they can.

“More importantly, during the past five years, almost every sect has produced countless Grand Illusionary Soldiers with abundant resources. When the final battle begins, all the Grand Illusionary Soldiers will be gathered in the Spider Den Space Zone as the first echelon. The Cultivators will not march forward and crush the enemy until Spider Den has already been burnt to the ground!

“The Cultivators are sure winners of the fight. The humiliation of the brutal failure five hundred years ago will be cleaned soon!”

It was the prevailing opinion nowadays. From the experts of war on the TV to the clerks at a grocery market, everybody believed that the Cultivators would win the war easily.

Among the crowds in the tenth space ring who were seeing the Cultivators off to the frontline, there was not the slightest solemnness, as if the Cultivators were joining not a battle but a parade.

In many places, festival decorations were already being prepared for the great victory soon to come.

A delighted smile was on every citizen’s face.

Li Yao realized that his heavy mind was out of place compared to the elation of the city. He managed to curl his lips into a rigid smile.

In front of him was the biggest square of the tenth space ring as well as the most populated place.

For a spy who had snuck into Heavenly Saints City in secret, it was a perfectly reasonable decision to wander in the square, which was packed with people, to get rid of the potential followers.

Li Yao moved through the crowd with difficulty while he looked around at the skyscrapers around him.

The walls of the skyscrapers had been covered by a few enormous light beams, which were displaying the news about the final battle.

“This morning, the delegation made of the leaders and the elders of the Pill Cauldron Sect, the Silver Ring Guild, the Ice Cocoon Fortress, and the other four Cultivation sects in the Red Pinewood Space Zone arrived in Heavenly Saints City for the morale-boosting rally.

“Up until now, of the top five hundred Cultivation sects of the Flying Star Sector, 401 have sent their leadership to Heavenly Saints City. It is an unprecedented amalgamation in the five thousand years of history of the Flying Star Sector!

“Ahead of the final battle, the Grand Illusionary Group has publicized the latest models of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, namely an underground type that is designed to fight in the tunnels of Spider Den, an assault type that can break into the hostile starships and detonate themselves, and a medical type that carries a lot of medical drugs and can serve as a emergency med bay on the battlefield.

“So far, the Grand Illusionary Group has introduced 43 models of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers. The application of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers will reduce the casualties of the Cultivators to the largest extent.

“Ten thousand elites of the qi-trainers will arrive in Heavenly Saints City on the carriers of the Great Horn Exo Society at one o’clock in the afternoon.

“It is well known that the qi-trainers and the Cultivators have developed on their own on with different paths of the cultivation. But in the final battle soon to come, the qi-trainers and the Cultivators will fight side by side. Our blood will be shed together and prove that we are all citizens of the Flying Star Sector!”

Li Yao gazed at the light beams attentively. Without him knowing, he was jostled into a noisy, excited crowd.

It was a bunch of middle-school students with flowers and flags.

They seemed to have just finished the pageant. Many young men had not regained their calmness from their excitement yet. Every pimple on their faces was glittering.

They were yelling and waving their hands crazily, their saliva flying everywhere, as they discussed the final battle to come.

Nobody had any doubts about the outcome, but they were concerned whether or not all the leaders of the Temple of Immortals would be captured.

It was well known that the Temple of Immortals had four leaders, namely the Mountain King, the Sea King, the Black King, and the Lotus King.

However, after seven years of bloody battles, although the Mountain King had been confirmed to be Yan Xibei and the Black King Dark Empyrean, the real identities of the Sea King and the Lotus King remained unclear.

Over the past years, the real identities of the Sea King and the Lotus King had been a heated topic on the street and the Spiritual Nexus.

From the leaders and elders of the major sects, to the old and the weak ordinary people, they all had their opinions.

When Li Yao passed by the students, he happened to see a chubby boy waving his hands shouting excitedly. “In fact, it is not hard to guess who the Lotus King and the Sea King are. The answer is crystal clear as long as we think about it reversely.

“During the seven years of bloody battles after the Temple of Immortals showed up, who has benefited the most? The Glorious Sunlight Group, without a doubt!

“It was an unknown corporation in the beginning, but it has miraculously risen after only seven years to become the most important force except for the six sects of Heavenly Saints City and the Star Fighters’ Alliance. The Glorious Sunlight Group is definitely the greatest beneficiary of the war!

“Therefore, in my opinion, Sand Scorpion, the real controller of the Glorious Sunlight Group, is the Lotus King or the Sea King. He faked his own death during the arrival of the extraterrestrial devils five years ago in order to ease everyone’s alert. In fact, he has been hiding behind the curtain and manipulating everything!”

Li Yao was rendered speechless.

“Shut up!”

Many of his classmates made a gesture of despise to the little fatty. This was the tenth space ring. Sand Scorpion had died fighting for the residents here and was quite respected by the locals.

“That’s pure nonsense.”

A girl who had freckles all over her face shouted, her hands on her hips, “Sand Scorpion was the best warrior of the six tribes of Iron Plateau and slayed Yan Xibei, the Mountain King, in person. He perished together with ‘Hellsword’ Zhuang Ziyou, a space pirate in the Nascent Soul Stage. How could he be the Sea King or the Lotus King of the Temple of Immortals?

“In my opinion, since the Cultivators have not found out who the Lotus King and the Sea King really are after seven years, they must be the last people in the word to be suspected.

“What kind of person is the least suspected in the world?

“There’s a certain someone that you must’ve never doubted before. Li Yao, who discovered the Temple of Immortals first!

“Haha. You are all dumbfounded and did not see it coming, did you? That’s right. That is exactly what the Temple of Immortals want!

“Just think about it. Wasn’t the appearance of Li Yao, the big hero, quite odd? He was so young, and yet his hands could break into sonic speed. He was excellent at refining, but he was also an experienced Exo. That’s too incredible!

“Therefore…”

Instead of waiting for the girl to finish her theory, Li Yao curled his lips and left them.

He was not very surprised.

This was not the first time he had heard similar assumptions.

The middle-school students were merely repeating the rumors on the Spiritual Nexus.

After Li Yao returned, he had spent quite a lot of time gathering information regarding the Temple of Immortals on the Spiritual Nexus.

He did not abandon the idea that he should post Xiao Xuance’s scheme on the Spiritual Nexus so that everybody could read it.

However…

Li Yao discovered that somebody had already posted threads declaring that the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project was a big trap and that Xiao Xuance was the Lotus King of the Temple of Immortals as early as five years ago.

Along with such a thread were ‘Si Koulie is the Lotus King, and the Temple of Immortals is just an organization where the smaller sects gather trying to overturn the six major sects of Heavenly Saints City’, ‘Sand Scorpion is the Lotus King, the Temple of Immortals and Iron Plateau are actually the same gang, and Yan Xibei’s death was purely a distraction’, ‘Li Yao is the Lotus King. Otherwise, it is impossible for a young man who appeared out of nowhere to boast such capability’. There were other conspiracy theories.

All theories seemed logical and convincing. They were even supported by plenty of valid, but circumstantial, evidence.

Xiao Xuance, Si Koulie, Sand Scorpion, and Li Yao were not the only suspects who had been accused of being the Lotus King or the Sea King. There were also the leaders and elders of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City, the heads of the Star Fighters’ Alliance, the masters of several famous families of Cultivators, and so on.

In short, almost every famous Cultivator had been suspected of being an Immortal Cultivator.

If the leader or the elder of a certain sect was not suspected of being an Immortal Cultivator, they were sometimes too embarrassed to greet their fellow Cultivators, because it meant that they were too insignificant to be mentioned.

At first, all the sects paid great attention to the accusations and investigated them thoroughly.

Xiao Xuance and his Grand Illusionary Soldier Project was the one with the most valid proofs.

The Grand Illusionary Soldier Project was postponed for half a year, as a result. Even Xiao Xuance himself was almost sent to a special court for trial.

However, after thorough investigation, it was ascertained that the so-called ‘proof’ was actually groundless or made-up. The investigators even traced it back to a special squad of the Immortal Cultivators who were in charge of cyberwarfare inside the Temple of Immortals.

According to their confession, most of the false accusations were made up by them for the purpose of disrupting people’s minds, wasting the Cultivators’ resources, smearing the leaders such as Xiao Xuance or Si Koulie, and even alienating the world of Cultivators from Iron Plateau by vilifying Sand Scorpion.

Chapter 782: Got Eyes on Me Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

 

When the truth was out, the investigation into Xiao Xuance was immediately suspended.

Later, the Cultivators discovered, while Xiao Xuance had been wronged, he had still been working day and night to perfect the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project.

Moreover, he had no complaints about the investigation at all. Instead, he comforted the frustrated and guilty investigators.

All the Cultivators were moved by Xiao Xuance’s demeanor during the incident.

On the other hand, during the half year when the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project was postponed, more space towns suffered heavy losses.

By then, investigations targeting Si Koulie, Sand Scorpion, Li Yao, and the leaders and elders of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City had been conducted many times, too, but in a much lower profile.

The results proved that the ‘plots’ were purely imaginary and not supported by any solid evidence at all.

From then on, the leadership of the Cultivators was extremely wary of those various kinds of conspiracy theories.

When a new accusation popped up, the Cultivators would often suspect the guy who proposed it instead of the person who was accused of being an Immortal Cultivator.

Right now, only the gossipers on the street and the middle-school students who had nothing except their hot blood still talked about such accusations as if they were a real thing.

The move that the Immortal Cultivators played made Li Yao raise his thumbs.

Xiao Xuance must have foreseen that the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project would be suspected and scrutinized.

Therefore, he asked his own son to be killed at first to win the trust of the other Cultivators.

Then, he put forward the accusations on himself to force the Cultivators to investigate them.

Misguided by the ‘proof’ that he provided himself, naturally, no truths could ever be found.

After his own son had been ‘sacrificed’ and he had personally been ‘wronged’, nobody would doubt Xiao Xuance’s loyalty anymore!

Seeing through the scheme, Li Yao had to give up the idea of telling everything to public on the Spiritual Nexus. Other people had proposed stories a hundred times more interesting than his version. Nobody would be interested in his theory at all even if he published it on the web.

Tomorrow is the morale-boosting rally. I can only turn to my last resort now.

Let’s hope that Xiao Xuance will take the bait.

Li Yao sped up through the square to took three subways to kill the afternoon. Then, at dusk, he returned to a hotel at the suburb of the tenth space ring.

It seemed inappropriate for a man with his appearance to stay in such a hotel.

However, Heavenly Saints City was ultra-lively before the final battle. From the central area to the tenth space ring, all the hotels that were even remotely luxurious had been reserved by the big sects of the Flying Star Sector.

It was not very strange that a ‘businessman’ was forced to live in the suburbs of the tenth space ring.

Li Yao returned to his room.

The experts of the Glorious Sunlight Group, the Great Horn Exo Society, and Iron Plateau are all in position.

Li Yao browsed through a heated website. The secret code that Professor Mo Xuan and he had made a deal on half a month ago in the Dawn Moon Space Zone was hidden in the seemingly plain posts and replies.

The preparations are all complete. Now I have to wait and see if the slippery fish will be hooked!

Li Yao took a long breath and rubbed his rigid face hard, before he glanced at the time on the bottom right corner of the light beam.

It was 18:37:22 p.m.

Night had fallen.

It was destined to be the longest night of the Flying Star Sector.

Li Yao retrieved a Great Pagoda VII communicator from his Cosmos Ring and unfolded the signal transmission web on the top of it. He then sent a tiny bit of spiritual energy into the magical equipment.

The magical equipment hummed as the rune arrays on it activated and glittered.

Let’s do this. The final battle is on!

Crimson flames were burning inside Li Yao’s eyes. He bit his lips so hard that his teeth pierced in them. A bloody, palpable aura was flowing around him.

…

“The special waves of the Great Pagoda VII communicator have showed up!”

On Heavenly Phantom, the flagship of the Grand Illusionary Group, inside the command center of the ‘Second Imperium’, the organization of the real Immortal Cultivators, an analysist shouted, almost failing to tame his excitement.

His two hands turned into two clusters of mist and jumped among hundreds of spiritual stripes.

With his rapid movements, the maps on the light beams were zoomed in and magnified. They changed from 2D to 3D and became more and more precise.

Inside the command center, countless Immortal Cultivators were refreshed and roaring with thrill.

Xiao Xuance was wearing a pure white robe, with an emblem of the Grand Illusionary Group embroidered in golden threads on his chest. His expression remained absolutely unchanged, except for the bright golden flames that quickly flashed in the bottom of his eyes. He raised his voice and commanded, “Group One, hack into the communication and monitor the content of the conversation!

“Group Two, find out the target’s coordinates and work out the environment he is in!

“Group Three, track the target’s identity!

“Group Four, lock onto the person that the target is speaking to by tracing the waves!

“Operation squad, examine your magical equipment for the soul attack and be ready to move out!”

As he issued the command, countless Immortal Cultivators hiding among the Cultivators in the five groups took action.

Over the past half month, they had done a lot of monitoring, detecting, and filtering work and gathered a lot of data. They had also estimated the possible area where the source of signals would show up. Soon, hundreds of items of information were falling down on the light beams.

“The source of signals has been fixed. It is in a room on the third floor of the ‘Three God Hotel’ in the northeast area of the tenth space area, which is one of the places that we have been monitoring closely!

“The name of the guest of the room is ‘Qian Kanghui’ in the registration book. Male, 51 years old, from the Mystic Cloud Space Zone.

“It remains unclear whether the identity is true or false. But since the target lingered in the Mystic Cloud Space Zone and stole medicine from seven hospitals, it is natural that he took the identification information of an ordinary person!”

“We have captured the signals of the Great Pagoda VII communicator. Analyzing and cracking them. Over the past half month, we have completely grasped the forms of the telepathic thoughts sent to and from the Great Pagoda VII communicator. It is estimated that we can hack into their conversation in three minutes!”

“Found it! The signals were directly sent to the first space ring. Searching for the specific coordinates… Got it!”

“On the nineteenth floor of the ‘Star Fighters’ Plaza’ in the first ring, there is another Great Pagoda VII communicator of the same model. The two communicators are now connecting. They must belong to the same set!”

Xiao Xuance narrowed his eyes, and a few crow’s-feet that looked like the edges of a sword suddenly appeared.

The situation was on the verge of losing control.

The Star Fighters’ Plaza was a bureau that the Star Fighters’ Alliance had established in Heavenly Saints City.

The dozens smaller sects that constituted the Star Fighters’ Alliance were all among the top one hundred of the Flying Star Sector in terms of comprehensive capability.

The Star Fighters’ Alliance was very powerful. Otherwise, they would not have been able to put forward the Ice God Project and go at loggerheads against the Grand Illusionary Group.

An organization that had the capability to craft a piece of planetary-level magical equipment was never to be underestimated!

The nineteenth floor of the Star Fighters’ Plaza was where the office of Si Koulie, the leader of the Star Fighters’ Alliance as well as a refiner in the Nascent Soul Stage, was at.

“Hurry up!” Xiao Xuance shouted loudly. “I want Si Koulie’s all movements over the past few days. Who has he seen? Are there any anomalies?”

Si Koulie was second in terms of authority in the world of Cultivators, only lesser than Xiao Xuance. Naturally, the Immortal Cultivators had been paying close attention to him.

In less than two seconds, Si Koulie’s agenda over the past three days was displayed on the light beam.

“Over the past three days, Si Koulie has been busy taking part in the strategical meetings for the battle to come. There is nothing abnormal.

“Yesterday, Si Koulie met Mo Xuan, the supervisor of the refining center of the Glorious Sunlight Group and a spectral refiner who rose to fame in recent years. The two of them talked in secret for a long time.

“The meeting was arranged a long time ago. Since too many qi-trainers are going to participate in the battle of Spider Den from Iron Plateau, the crystal warships of the Glorious Sunlight Group and the Great Horn Exo Society are not enough to transport all of them.

“The Star Fighters’ Alliance is best known for their crystal warships. Therefore, the two parties were planning to ship part of the qi-trainers to the frontline with the crystal warships of the Star Fighters’ Alliance.

“This issue was probably what Si Koulie and Mo Xuan talked about.

“Their meeting was one hour longer than expected.

“However, they are both super refiners of the Flying Star Sector. It is not unusual that they discussed the arts of refining for a while longer.

“When the meeting was over, Si Koulie went to the hall of the Meeting of the Next Millennium, the command center of the battle of Spider Den.

“The leaders and elders of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City were all there. Si Koulie went to meet the six leaders.

“According to our sources, some new changes happened to Iron Plateau. Ten thousand more qi-trainers would be joining the battle than expected. They would also be carrying heavy and clumsy magical equipment that required more crystal warships to load.

“However, on their way to Heavenly Saints City, they were met with a cosmic storm. Many crystal warships were seriously damaged and will not move in the next half month.

“Therefore, Si Koulie went to discuss with the leaders of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City and transfer part of the qi-trainers to the crystal warships of other sects.

“It was not a serious issue, but since too many parties were involved, and the transportation plan of the crystal warships of many different sects had to be rectified; it was quite troublesome. They did not finish the new arrangement until late night.

“Other than that, Si Koulie had no abnormal behavior.

“Right. Two days ago, Si Koulie’s great granddaughter, who is a student of Flying Star University, went to the Star Fighters’ Plaza and had dinner with him.”

Xiao Xuance was startled. He pondered for a moment and asked, “Si Koulie’s great granddaughter? Does she visit her great grandfather often?”

“Not really.” One of the analysists shook his head and said, “The workload of Flying Star University is quite heavy. All the students have to work day and night. Besides, it was not a weekend two days ago, either.

“Besides, Si Koulie is stern and rigid. To prepare for the battle of Spider Den, he hardly spent any time on personal affairs.

“But that night, he put off an important meeting and had a two-hour dinner with his great granddaughter in private.

“The incident was recorded because of its unusualness.”

Frowning, Xiao Xuance was sweating all over. His computational ability soared to the maximum!

A moment later, Xiao Xuance blinked and said, “Over the past half month, we’ve been focusing on the packages that Si Koulie and the leadership of the Star Fighters’ Alliance received and found nothing strange.

“However, is it possible that the target did not send the Great Pagoda VII communicator to Si Koulie directly, but stuffed it into a Cosmos Ring, disguised the good, and sent it to Si Koulie’s great granddaughter?”

Chapter 783: Crucify Xiao Xuance!

 

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

Immediately, more than ten data analysists started searching for the packages that Si Koulie’s great granddaughter had received during the last half month on the Spiritual Nexus.

However, the result was not important now.

What was important was that a Great Pagoda VII communicator had breached the Immortal Cultivators’ surveillance and ended up in Si Koulie’s hands without anybody knowing.

The dangerous person suspected to be Bai Xinghe had started a conversation with Si Koulie. Their dialogue might sabotage all the endeavors that the Immortal Cultivators had worked hard on for decades.

Jamming the Great Pagoda VII communicator and cutting off the communication was doable.

But that would be admitting that they were guilty and also strongly raise Si Koulie’s suspicion.

Therefore, Xiao Xuance could only ask the operation squad to reach the tenth space ring as quickly as possible and let the assassination group that targeted Si Koulie be prepared. Then, he simply waited and watched.

Two and a half minutes later, the Immortal Cultivators cut into the conversation between the target and Si Koulie.

The two parties were both using faked voices, but it was not hard to distinguish them from their tones and the content.

All the Immortal Cultivators held their breath as they listened to the conversation between the dangerous person who was suspected to be Bai Xinghe and Si Koulie.

When they hacked in, the conversation had already been on for more than half a minute. Neither party was interested in small talk, and they went directly to the topic.

Although his faked voice was rigid and unemotional, it could not hide Si Koulie’s intense scorn. “You went through all this trouble and even used my great granddaughter to pass on the Great Pagoda VII communicator to me, just because you wanted to convince me that you could help me push down Xiao Xuance?”

The man suspected to be Bai Xinghe had an equally cold and rigid voice. Every word seemed to be coming from a running gear. He said, “Don’t tell me that you don’t want to push down Xiao Xuance.

“In the Flying Star Sector, the Star Fighters’ Alliance is the strongest, other than the six sects of Heavenly Saints City.

“In the past, you have been suppressed by the six sects of Heavenly Saints City, and you do not stand any chance.

“But over the past years, the Glorious Sunlight Group has risen, which is supported by a behemoth named Iron Plateau.

“If the Star Fighters’ Alliance and the Glorious Sunlight Group join hands, the capability combined is no lower than that of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City. By then, if a great scandal about Xiao Xuance, the crownless king of the Flying Star Sector, is suddenly out, Si Koulie, you will be the well-deserved top figure of the Flying Star Sector!”

Si Koulie burst into laughter. “You think I’m a three-year-old who can be so easily misguided? Are you going to insinuate that Xiao Xuance is the Lotus King or the Sea King of the Temple of Immortals?

“Save yourself the trouble!

“Xiao Xuance was indeed suspected of being an Immortal Cultivator before, but I was suspected of being the Lotus King or the Sea King, too! Is there any famous person in the world of Cultivators who has not been suspected before? Your tricks won’t work here!”

The man he was talking to was silent for a moment, before he replied, “If you have absolute faith in Xiao Xuance, why did you choose to waste your time talking to me? Did the proof that I sent with the communicator interest you?”

There was a minor riot in the command center of the Immortal Cultivators when they heard ‘proof’. Many Immortal Cultivators were frowning.

Emotionlessly, Xiao Xuance pressed his hands and gestured for everyone to calm down and not to be troubled by such ruses.

“We have calculated every detail carefully. No proof has ever been left. Don’t be fooled, everybody!” Xiao Xuance assured them and kept listening.

“Your so-called ‘proof’ is purely groundless and not of any worth,” Si Koulie said. “I agreed to talk to you only because I had guessed who you were!

“You are… Bai Xinghe!”

The man suspected to be Bai Xinghe replied with silence. There was nothing except the blank noise in the communication channel.

“As expected of the Pirate Potentate,” Si Koulie said. “You were bold enough to barge into Heavenly Saints City all by yourself.

“I was very curious about your real purpose. That was why I decided to talk to you. But no worries. The conversation is just between us, because I know very clearly that you are monitoring it in a certain way and will run away quickly at the earliest ominous sign.

“Bai Xinghe, although you’ve been a major headache for the Cultivators, it is also a fact that you waged a war against the Temple of Immortals five years ago. So, I’m willing to give you a chance and hear what you have to say.

“However, if what you are going to say is crap like that, then you might as well save your time. I will abort the communication immediately and order your capture.

“Right. I can offer you a piece of information for free.

“According to the deductions and calculations we made in the last five years, of the four kings of the Temple of Immortals, at least one is fake. Either the Lotus King or the Sea King does not exist at all!”

The man suspected to be Bai Xinghe seemed to be surprised. He exclaimed, “What?”

“Don’t you see?” Si Koulie sneered. “The so-called four kings were the Temple of Immortals’ own claim. It is just their own words. Not just four kings. If they want, they can declare that they have a hundred and eight kings!

“A nonexistent Lotus King or Sea King has forced us to waste a huge amount of manpower and resources on investigations over the past years, to the point that every Cultivator lived in fear. Many Cultivators were suspected or accused and had to suspend their work. As a result, our counterattack plan was postponed for years, and intense mistrust among the six sects of Heavenly Saints City, the Star Fighters’ Alliance, and Iron Plateau was brewing!

“From that perspective, a nonexistent Lotus King or Sea King is as damaging as the Mountain King or the Black King, isn’t he?

“Even if we destroy the Temple of Immortals someday, we cannot eliminate a nonexistent person. The so-called Lotus King or Sea King will haunt us and live on as a symbol and an idol when the Immortal Cultivators rise again.

“Now, are you still insisting that Xiao Xuance is the Lotus King or the Sea King?”

The man suspected to be Bai Xinghe replied coldly, “Interesting news. However, I do not intend to accuse Xiao Xuance of being the Lotus King or the Sea King. Not at all.”

“Is that so?” There was surprise in Si Koulie’s voice. He said, “Then, what kind of indictments are you going to make that can push Xiao Xuance down right before the final battle?”

The man he spoke to said, “How about intentional homicide?”

“Who is the victim?” Si Koulie asked.

“Tomorrow,” the man said, “the morale-boosting rally for the battle of Spider Den will be held. The leadership of more than four hundred and seventy of the top 500 sects will attend. It is definitely the greatest event in the world of Cultivators in the past five thousand years!

“If you present unquestionable evidence to the tens of thousands of Cultivators at the rally, proving that Xiao Xuance butchered a whole starship of Cultivators and ordinary people a hundred and twenty years ago just in order to steal their food, fuel, and supplies, do you think your arraignment can push down Xiao Xuance, the leader of all Cultivators and the crownless king?”

His words struck Xiao Xuance like a lightning.

Xiao Xuance’s mask-like cold and determined face cracked and collapsed.

“A hundred and twenty years ago…”

Xiao Xuance’s eyelids were twitching violently beyond his control.

The Immortal Cultivators were all discussing heatedly, too.

They had thought that the dangerous person would provide certain evidence suggesting that Xiao Xuance was the Lotus King of the Temple of Immortals and a hardcore Immortal Cultivator.

They were all prepared for such a prosecution and had hundreds of countermeasures.

But the man had tossed out such an unexpected bomb!

Even Si Koulie seemed to be caught unprepared. He asked, “A hundred and twenty years ago, he butchered a whole starship of Cultivators and ordinary people?”

The man who was suspected to be Bai Xinghe replied, “You heard me. The Star Fighters’ Alliance must have investigated Xiao Xuance’s background, too. You should know that he was involved in a cosmic storm a hundred and twenty years ago and luckily escaped after going missing for a long time.”

“Yes,” Si Koulie mumbled, “it is true that he was unfortunately consumed by a cosmic storm during an operation to hunt space pirates. He did not appear with the seriously damaged crystal warship again until after almost half a year.

“Are you suggesting that, for his own survival, he looted other starships and killed innocent people during the half year?

“If such an accusation is true, Xiao Xuance will definitely be crucified. But tell me one thing first. How do you know about it?”

The man suspected to be Bai Xinghe laughed in grief and misery. “It’s simple. I was an eyewitness of the event!

“I saw with my own eyes that Xiao Xuance killed my parents as well as everyone else on board!”

Si Koulie gasped, utterly shocked by the breaking news.

Xiao Xuance’s body shook slightly. He gritted his teeth and said, “Hurry up and get all of Bai Xinghe’s photos and videos in our database. Scan and rebuild Bai Xinghe’s appearance. Try to show his face between the age of seven to ten. Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!”

The conversation went on in the communication channel. Si Koulie calmed himself down and said, “If everything you said is part of the Temple of Immortals’ scheme, then I have to admit that this is much more refreshing than the previous accusations I have heard.”

The man suspected to be Bai Xinghe said calmly, “Although I’ve told countless lies in my life, I am speaking the truth this time.

“In the cosmic storm, my parents’ crystal warship was taking shelter in the same place as Xiao Xuance’s did. In the end, we all ran out of food and supplies and could not persist any longer.

“For survival, Xiao Xuance butchered everyone on our starship. I luckily escaped because of my parents’ protection, only to end up on Spider Den and become a space pirate later.

“From then on, to destroy Xiao Xuance and avenge my parents has been the sole purpose in my life!

“After I became the Pirate Potentate, I began gathering proof about the crime years ago in secret, but it was a long time ago and Xiao Xuance had covered up most of the evidence.

“I spent my whole life collecting enough evidence to prove that Xiao Xuance was guilty, but I never had the opportunity to send it out before I was involved in the final battle against the Temple of Immortals.

“Thankfully, the heavens watched over me. I was not killed below the ground. It’s been five years, and I’ve finally crawled back out!”

Chapter 784: I Am Not Bai Xinghe

 

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

Si Koulie finished his story for him. “Then, you snuck into Heavenly Saints City, found me, and hoped that I could help you crucify Xiao Xuance with the evidence you provided?

“A very marvelous story, but there is one issue.

“If you really have solid proof, why did you not store it in the Cosmos Ring and send it to me along with the Great Pagoda VII communicator?

“Or, is the so-called evidence nonexistent, and everything part of your trick?”

The other man chuckled. “The evidence is of paramount importance. It is my lifelong work. Of course, I would not send it in a package. Who knew whether or not it would be blocked half way through?

“Moreover…” he paused for a moment and said unhurriedly, “why would I give you all the evidence when we have not negotiated the conditions yet?”

Si Koulie laughed. “You need conditions to avenge your parents?”

The man suspected to be Bai Xinghe replied, “There’s no need to be sarcastic. A guy as smart as you must have realized that, if Xiao Xuance was coldblooded enough to butcher a starship of innocent people a hundred and twenty years ago, his personality is no different from that of the Immortal Cultivators. The odds that he is also an Immortal Cultivator will significantly increase!

“If Xiao Xuance is really an Immortal Cultivator, the battle of Spider Den to come shortly is likely a great trap that could potentially overturn the world of Cultivators.

“Even if you are selfless enough to not want to push down Xiao Xuance for your own interests, you don’t want the Flying Star Sector to be mired in chaos and ruled by the Immortal Cultivators, do you?

“For me, it doesn’t matter. Even if the Immortal Cultivators assume power, I’m now all by myself with a different appearance, and I can live a comfortable life anywhere!

“But you are different. The Star Fighters’ Alliance is too large an enterprise for you to run anywhere. Besides, your ideology is the opposite of the Immortal Cultivators’. A brutal fight for the true path of the great Dao is inevitable!

“Therefore, the evidence is more important to you than it is to me.

“If you are unwilling to make a deal, we can always go our separate ways. I can leave now and wait to watch how Cultivators like you are slaughtered in the battle of Spider Den patiently.”

Si Koulie was silent for a moment, before he opened his mouth again. “What are your conditions?”

The man suspected to be Bai Xinghe said, “Firstly, abandon the investigation and the pursuit of Bai Xinghe forever. Bai Xinghe is really dead. All the crimes that he committed when he was alive should be pardoned. I am not Bai Xinghe.”

“That explains a lot. You reincarnated yourself in a different body!”

The man suspected to be Bai Xinghe remarked, “That’s what you say. I did not say, nor did I admit, that I am Bai Xinghe.

“In another several years, when my soul and my body are better combined, there will be no proof that can associate me with Bai Xinghe.

“I can swear a Blood Oath to you that I don’t have any ill intentions. I’m just tired of being a space pirate and want to live a tranquil life under a different identity.”

“What else?” Si Koulie asked.

‘Bai Xinghe’ smiled and said, “Secondly, I’m alone and cash-strapped right now, and I don’t want to make a living with what I’m familiar with. Therefore, shouldn’t the Cultivators provide decent support for a big devil who has abandoned darkness for the light? You know, for the sake of the peace of our society?”

“How much money do you want?” Si Koulie questioned.

The man suspected to be Bai Xinghe was angry. “Money? What kind of person do you think I am? Isn’t it too vulgar to talk about money for people in our level?

“I don’t want any money. I merely want the ownership of certain Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, resources, real estate, natural paradises, and mother lodes. Here’s the inventory…”

He spoke an astronomical number of items.

Both Si Koulie in the Star Fighters’ Plaza and the Immortal Cultivators on Heavenly Phantom were dumbfounded by his demand.

Si Koulie raised his voice. “You are insane!”

The man suspected to be Bai Xinghe snickered and said, “Si Koulie, you must bear in mind that the evidence that I’m about to offer you will possibly rescue the entire Flying Star Sector. Is my reward too high for you? It seems that you don’t value the Flying Star Sector highly enough!”

Si Koulie said solemnly, “It’s not about the worth. Tomorrow is the morale-boosting rally. I cannot prepare so many things overnight even if I agree to your conditions!”

The man suspected to be Bai Xinghe said, “It doesn’t matter. I can trust your promise as long as you agree to my conditions. However—”

He finished the rest of his demand quickly. “I want you to get to an uncompleted building named ‘Complex Star Plaza’ in the northwest district of the tenth space ring in an hour and a half.

“I have established a ‘Spiritual Horn Soul Poisoning Array’ inside the building. As long as we make a Blood Oath in the array, the oaths will be a hundred times more effective than normal Blood Oaths. The consequences when the oaths are broken are too much even for a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator.

“I will swear that all the evidence I give you is true and that I will retire, cause no damage to the Flying Star Sector, and kill no innocent people in the future.

“In return, you will swear that you will withdraw the accusations and bounties on Bai Xinghe and transfer everything I demanded legally to me bit by bit.

“There is no room for the space pirates in the Flying Star Sector in the future. With so many resources at my disposal, there is no reason for me to restart my old job.

“If you break the vow, you will suffer the consequences yourself first. Then, I will kill your entire family one by one!

“Hehehehe. Si Koulie, I am much younger than you. You are old and weary. With the consequences of the strengthened Blood Oath, you will not live another ten years! After you are dead, I will have plenty of time to send your offspring to the hell to accompany you!

“Therefore, with such assurances, I think neither of us will break our vows, will we?”

Si Koulie did not burst into fury. He replied calmly, “How do I know that it is not a trap? Chances are that you will assassinate me when I just set foot in the tenth space ring!

“We are all in the Nascent Soul Stage, but you are a combat-type one; I’m no match for you.”

The man suspected to be Bai Xinghe replied, “What benefits can I get by killing you?

“If everything I said was a lie, or a scheme of the Temple of Immortals, killing you is still meaningless, because you are just the second in command of the world of Cultivators. There’s still Xiao Xuance above you!

“Killing you will only infuriate the Cultivators and cannot stop the final battle.”

Si Koulie pondered for a long time and said, “Alright. I promise you, but I will not go there by myself. Four bodyguards will come with me.

“Make no mistake. It’s not because I don’t trust you, but because there might be assassins of the Temple of Immortals in the tenth space ring.”

The man suspected to be Bai Xinghe said, “Alright. You can bring four bodyguards, but not ‘Su Changhe’. He is an expert in mental attacks. I don’t want any experts of mental attacks to be near me. Choose a different one!

“Also, you cannot tell your bodyguards your true purpose, nor can you reveal our conversation to anybody else.

“The more people who know it, the more danger I will be in. I trust nobody in this place, including you!

“If a third person learns of the matter, I will go away immediately and hide myself in a place that is totally safe. I will simply watch the army of Cultivators’ doom on Spider Den.”

“There’s no need for alarmism,” Si Koulie said. “I will make a judgement myself as to if your story is true when I see the evidence.”

The man suspected to be Bai Xinghe sneered and cut off the communication.

On Heavenly Phantom, there was nothing but dead silence in the command center of the Immortal Cultivators.

On the light beam, a 3D image of Bai Xinghe’s head appeared.

With the efforts of the facial analysis specialists and the modelling experts, the wrinkles on the face were gradually removed, and the skin became smoother and younger.

Eventually, it turned into a face of a boy around eight years old.

“This is the most likely appearance of Bai Xinghe when he was eight!”

Xiao Xuance gazed at the face, deep in thought.

“CEO!” One of the Immortal Cultivators stood up and asked solemnly, “Is what Bai Xinghe just said true?”

Xiao Xuance nodded slowly and said with a heavy heart, “It is. I know the face. There was such a boy on the starship. I thought that he was killed during the explosion. I did not know that he slipped through the accident and even became the Pirate Potentate!”

Humming whispers were immediately echoing among the Immortal Cultivators.

The Immortal Cultivator continued his questioning. “Then, theoretically speaking, is it possible that Bai Xinghe gathered solid evidence about the event years ago?”

Xiao Xuance lowered his head and considered carefully for ten seconds, before he struggled to nod his head. “If Bai Xinghe said that he grasped evidence that I was the Lotus King, it would have been absolutely impossible. The whole thing would definitely be a trap.

“However, when the incident occurred, I was not the leader of the Feathered Snakes Brotherhood yet, nor the CEO of the Grand Illusionary Group. The Second Imperium was far from being established, too. There were not many resources that were absolutely under my control.

“Theoretically speaking, it is indeed possible that Bai Xinghe has found some evidence. It may not be enough to prove that I am guilty, but it should be enough to raise the suspicion of Si Koulie, the leadership of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City, and all the other Cultivators!”

The Immortal Cultivator raised the third question. “So, if they complete their deal and Si Koulie really throw out all the evidence on the morale-boosting rally in front of tens of thousands of Cultivators, will our plan likely be disrupted?”

“Yes,” Xiao Xuance confirmed.

All the Immortal Cultivators were silent for three seconds. Then, shouting and yelling a hundred times louder than before burst out.

The command center seemed to have turned into a honeycomb. Every Immortal Cultivator was barking at the top of their voice.

“Kill them!”

“Now that few people know of the event, everything will be taken care of as soon as the two of them are killed. In another few days, the army of the Cultivators and the Grand Illusionary Soldiers will jump to the Spider Den Space Zone. There will be absolutely nothing to fear then!”

“Yes, but we must not take action until they meet in the tenth space ring and the decisive proof is presented!”

“Right now, the central area of Heavenly Saints City is packed with Cultivators of various sects. Every place is heavily guarded, and it is difficult for us to assassinate anybody.”

“But the tenth space ring is at the periphery of Heavenly Saints City, where the defense is much sloppier. It will be much more convenient for us to kill somebody!”

Chapter 785: Make or Break

 

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

A slim, indifferent-looking Immortal Cultivator spoke up. “Calm down. Calm down. Has it ever occurred to you that everything might be a trap that is luring us to step in?

“The five or so bodyguards that Si Koulie always brings with him are all in the Core Formation Stage. Two of them are even at the peak of it

“Although Si Koulie is not a battle-type Cultivator, he is in the Nascent Soul Stage after all. If he really engages in a fight, I believe that it will not be difficult for him to wield the combat ability of the beginning level of the Core Formation Stage.

“Together with Bai Xinghe, who is also in the Nascent Soul Stage, it is going to be a great mess and require a lot of hands if we want to take all of them down without alarming anybody.

“If the assassination fails, the Second Imperium will likely be exposed!”

His words put his outraged companions deep in thought.

A moment later, another Immortal Cultivator frowned and said, “What if it is not a trap?

“What if the crucial evidence does exist and falls into the hands of Si Koulie, and he sets the whole thing to public in the morale-boosting rally? By then, the attack on Spider Den might be postponed or even cancelled. The investigation into the CEO and the Grand Illusionary Group will be a hundred times more rigorous than last time!

“At worst, the CEO might be stripped of his mandate, locked up, and tried!

“We have prepared for this day for decades. Right now, the arrow is already on the bow. Many fellow Cultivators are all set in various battlefields. We cannot afford a thorough investigation!”

“Enough!”

Xiao Xuance raised his hands. An invisible aura surged out of his body and blew away the messy discussion.

All the Immortal Cultivators were dazed briefly, but their anxiety was more or less relieved.

Xiao Xuance took a deep breath. His eyes became as clear as a brook and as deep as an ocean again as he said calmly, “You’ve all got a point, fellow Cultivators. We are now faced with two possibilities.

“The first possibility is that everything Bai Xinghe said is true, and he does have evidence to prove that I’m guilty.

“If so, we must annihilate him and Si Koulie as well as the four bodyguards during their meeting!

“Two assassination squads may not be enough for the task if we want everything to be done neatly. I will have to take action in person!

“However, there’s a second possibility.

“Everything might just be a trap. Si Koulie might have grown suspicious of me and tested me together with Bai Xinghe on purpose. If I really take action in person, I will fall into their trap!

“If that is the case, then our best strategy is to stay calm and pretend that we know nothing about it.

“Si Koulie will not have solid evidence in his hands if that’s the case. Otherwise, he could have accused me in front of the leadership of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City.

“Because of the lack of evidence, he cannot accuse me as it would lead to internal strife in the world of Cultivators. Nor does he have any reason to stop the battle of Spider Den!

“Only one of the two possibilities is right.

“If we make the right choice, the Second Imperium will thrive unstoppably!

“If we make the wrong one, our cause will suffer a heavy blow, and the civilization of mankind of the Flying Star Sector will continue sinking into the darkness of disunity for another thousand years!”

“CEO!”

Several Cultivators shouted excitedly, “Let us do the job! If we fail, we will sacrifice ourselves for our belief. We will not expose our origins or you!”

“It’s useless,” said Xiao Xuance as he shook his head. “If an assassination takes place, it will be obvious that the conversation between Si Koulie and Bai Xinghe was overheard. The battle of Spider Den will be put off indefinitely until the force is uprooted.

“Fellow Cultivator Yuchi was right about one thing. Many of our Fellow Cultivators have initiated our plan in their posts. The bullets are out of the barrels, and the sharp blades have already been unsheathed. It is impossible to take them back without letting them taste blood!

“Fellow Cultivators, stay calm for a moment. Let me think for three minutes.

“I will sort through the detail of the whole incident from the beginning to the end and see if I can find a fatal loophole!”

Xiao Xuance fell silent after finishing his last words. Even his skin turned gray, as if he were a dull statue.

All the Immortal Cultivators held their breath and clenched their fists while they stared at their leader quietly.

Two minutes and fifty-nine seconds later, Xiao Xuance’s frozen eyes suddenly flickered. Two streams of brilliances beamed out, like the flames of spiritual energy spurting out when the main gun of a crystal warship was launched!

“CEO!”

All the Immortal Cultivators felt as if Xiao Xuance was like a saber that had been unsheathed abruptly after being sealed for a long time. His aura dominated the entire room!

Every Cultivator felt their blood boiling, ready for a great fight!

“I’ve made up my mind.”

Xiao Xuance looked around and said, his every word sounded like a barrage of the main gun of Heavenly Phantom, “Immortal Cultivators, for the sake of the civilization of mankind, let’s take action!”

…

An hour and a half later, at 20:07:44…

Although the light beams on the artificial dome displayed a sky of stars, the neon lights, flashing rune arrays, and advertisement bulletin boards inside the tenth space ring still illuminated the forest of skyscrapers. It was truly a sleepless city.

The streets were packed with people who were cheering on their parade. The enormous light beams on the skyscrapers were displaying the latest promotional videos for a movie.

The movie had been produced by the Grand Illusionary Group at the cost of more than three billion, and it was predicted to be one of the best films of the year. It told the story of everything about the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project. The name of the movie was ‘New Era’.

It was said that Xiao Xuance, the CEO of the Grand Illusionary Group, had personally come up with the name.

The northwest part of the tenth space ring was an industrial zone.

In the arrival of the extraterrestrial devils five years ago, it had been one of the most severely-struck districts. A lot of debris and scrap still remained uncleared after five years. It was a rarely-seen desolate area of the tenth space ring.

At the center of the northwest district stood a building of more than thirty floors. If was half built, and there were spiritual energy transmission tubes and scaffolding on the outer walls everywhere. But all the floors had nothing except for the framework. Against the dark night sky, the whole building looked like a hollow skeleton.

“CEO, Si Koulie’s shuttle has flown into the skyscraper directly. Other than the four bodyguards in the Core Formation Stage, he did not bring anybody else.”

Since they had received the intelligence in advance, the assassination squad of the Immortal Cultivators had hidden themselves in the high towers and debris around the Complex Star Plaza earlier.

Due to the urgency, they did not have enough time to deploy complicated rune arrays, but through secret channels, they had shipped three super-heavy crystal cannons, whose bombardment equal to the full-strength strike of a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, to this place.

The three super-heavy crystal cannons were all aimed at the Complex Star Plaza.

The falsified evidence had been set up, too. If the Cultivators investigated the evidence that had been left on purpose, they would find out that the assassination was another dying struggle of the Temple of Immortals.

The people who volunteered to be sacrificed had been selected, too. They were indeed from ‘Spider’s Thorn’, an assassins’ organization on Spider Den.

Xiao Xuance monitored the situation inside the Complex Star Plaza through a telescope that boasted penetrative and night-viewing functions.

He saw that Si Koulie had left his four bodyguards on various floors of the plaza and ascended to the tenth floor by himself.

As for the man suspected to be Bai Xinghe, the Immortal Cultivators had followed him closely ever since he left the hotel.

His every movement, including the process in which he set up an array inside the Complex Star Plaza, had been seen clearly.

“Our enemies consist of a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator whose soul is unstable, a non-battle-type Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, two in the peak of the Core Formation Stage, and two in the middle level of the Core Formation Stage.

“Our backups include one in the high level of the Nascent Soul Stage, four in the peak of the Core Formation Stage, nine in the beginning and middle level of the Core Formation Stage, all of whom are adept at assassination, and three super-heavy crystal cannons.

“For this operation, the three super-heavy crystal cannons will open fire first with the hope of seriously wounding Bai Xinghe, the most threatening Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator for us. Then, those in the Nascent Soul Stage and the peak of the Core Formation Stage who are adept at mental attacks will hunt Bai Xinghe together!

“Everybody else will harass Si Koulie and his four bodyguards. More importantly, interferences of the highest level must be imposed. The connection between them and the outside world must be cut off. Their telepathic thoughts are not to be sent out!

“When the Nascent Soul Stage expert on our side finishes Bai Xinghe, he will return and take care of everybody else!

“If everything goes well, the battle will be concluded in thirty seconds!”

Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua!

The operation plan was sent to every Immortal Cultivator’s crystal processor. All the Immortal Cultivators were emotionless, with the dim brightness of the light beams glimmering in their eyes.

“Synchronize the time on your light beams,” Xiao Xuance said softly in the communication channel. “Right now, it is 20:12:35. The ‘Dragon Slaying Operation’ will be activated at 20:15 sharp!”

All the Cultivators’ breathing became lighter and lighter. Their hearts were beating along with the changing time on the light beams.

20:14:30… 20:14:40… 20:14:50…

The three super-heavy crystal cannons lurking the darkness had all been filled with spiritual energy. Every rune array on the body of the cannons was flowing as if they were alive, giving a feeling that they were butterflies that had crawled out of their cocoons.

Inside the Complex Star Plaza, Si Koulie was standing on the same level as Bai Xinghe. They were confronting each other in silence.

58… 59… It was 20:15 sharp!

Xiao Xuance’s bellow came over in the communication channel. “The Dragon Slaying Operation begins now!”

Shua! Shua! Shua!

Three torrents of flame spurted out of the barrels of the super-heavy cannons like a volcano eruption. Due to the disguise of special rune arrays, the three torrents were as lackluster as the bleeding sun at dusk. They did not raise any sound when they darted through the air.

However, when they hit the middle part of the Complex Star Plaza, the entire skyscraper was like an icy block that met magma or a tower of sand that collided into a tide. It melted and collapsed instantly!

“Immortal Cultivators, attack!”

Xiao Xuance was as quick as a lightning. He dashed into the building almost the moment the crystal cannons hit the plaza. The other assassins were not as fast as him, but they were closer to the building and had already started moving when the crystal cannons were still preparing.

Therefore, the moment the building collapsed, dozens of streaks of brightness stabbed into the dissecting plaza like sharp sabers!

Chapter 786: Four Experts

 

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

As dozens of Immortal Cultivators dashed into the Complex Star Plaza, nine rune arrays in the three hundred square meters nearby hummed together like wild butterflies. Rays of light soared into the sky like the fireworks for a festival.

Although they were dazzling, many other places were igniting firecrackers for celebration in the night of joy. The flashing flames did not catch anyone’s attention.

However, when the colorful flames reached the highest point, they condensed together and formed a fully-enclosing light beam that descended like an upside-down bowl and covered the entire Complex Star Plaza!

The real Complex Star Plaza was collapsing fast.

However, the illusion that the light beam presented was normal and peaceful. There were no quakes, noises, or dust at all. The Complex Star Plaza was still standing on the ground solidly.

It was a special array that could block all kinds of waves. Not only would the sounds and quakes be retained inside, the signals of the Spiritual Nexus and the telepathic thoughts of the Cultivators could not be sent out, either.

The Complex Star Plaza had been severed from the outside world!

When Xiao Xuance charged into the building, the middle part of the building completely collapsed. The floors above that had remained intact buckled and blew away the foundations of the building like a giant bomb.

Inside the area that was blocked, the earth was shaking, and smoke was rising everywhere.

Searching for a target in such an environment was like fishing for a needle in an ocean.

However, Xiao Xuance and all the other Immortal Cultivators taking part in the operation were experts adept at assassination. Before the bombardment, they had calculated where the target might be after the building collapsed precisely!

More than ten streams of flames spurted out of Xiao Xuance’s crystal suit as he locked onto Bai Xinghe after a series of dazzling small-scale movements!

However—

Before he launched his first mental attack, Bai Xinghe had vanished into the depths of the smoke at a speed much higher than he had expected, like an unpredictable cloud, giving the feeling that he had not been affected by the bombardment at all.

Xiao Xuance suddenly felt greatly alarmed.

The bombardment of three super-heavy cannons should have at least dealt some damage to a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, even if they could not kill him instantly.

Besides, Xiao Xuance had added a lot of rune arrays for mental attacks to the three super-heavy crystal cannons.

For a man who had possessed a new body and did not have a stable soul, the bombardment should have been the heaviest shock. He should have been stunned for a second or two even if he was not wounded!

How did Bai Xinghe run away so fast?

Xiao Xuance’s nose twitched quickly. His pupils constricted, and his temples seemed hollow.

He had sensed the scent of the residues of crystals and the remaining spiritual waves after a large-scale rune array functioned.

But the large-scale rune array was not the ‘Gold Horn Soul Poisoning Array’, which could boost the consequences of the Blood Oath, but a certain defense rune array, one of the highest level that would cost a great number of crystals!

Bai Xinghe pretended that he was deploying the Gold Horn Soul Poisoning Array, while in fact he set up a defense rune array that could protect two people at the center of the false array, which helped him to resist the bombardment of the super-heavy crystal cannons!

The two rune arrays were of completely different qualities and could in no way overlap, which meant that the Gold Horn Soul Poisoning Array did not exist at all. It was just a disguise.

In that moment, Xiao Xuance thought everything through.

He did not curse, nor did he waste any second in regretting. Instead, he simply accelerated to his maximum speed, trying to run away from the other side of the collapsing skyscraper!

But there was no time!

Several screams echoed in the smoke below him, followed by the sounds of crystal suits being broken and bones being fractured. All of the sounds came from the Immortal Cultivators that Xiao Xuance was most familiar with.

Then, five intimidating auras soared up into the sky and locked onto Xiao Xuance in less than 0.1 seconds!

Xiao Xuance could only come to an abrupt halt.

One meter further, and the five aggressive auras would have launched a critical strike at him simultaneously!

Even though he was in the high level of the Nascent Soul Stage and was known as the best expert of the Flying Star Sector, it was impossible for him to resist the full-strength strikes of five Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators!

Very soon, five crystal suits that were in different shapes but equally daunting slowly revealed themselves in the smoke and surrounded Xiao Xuance from various directions.

Outside of them, almost twenty Immortal Cultivators that were not dead yet were floating in midair, too. They stared at their ‘prey’ in bewilderment, not having the first clue why the bodyguards who were supposed to be in the Core Formation Stage were so strong!

Crack! Crack!

The stone, rebar, and cement fell on the crystal suits like a meteor shower, only to be blown into pieces by the surging spiritual energy.

The Immortal Cultivators and the Cultivators stood in midair, confronting each other in silence in the undying smoke.

Although the five people surrounded him were wearing crystal suits and he could not see their faces, Xiao Xuance still distinguished who they were quickly, because the crystal suits of the super experts were often specially modified or even tailor-made. Also, the unique spiritual waves of a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator helped him to determine who they were, too.

“Liao Huagu of the Furious Bears Union!

“Zhuge Ci of the Silver Moon Can!

“Master Empty Cicada of the Burning Sun Alliance!

“And you, too, Luo Xingzi of the Feathered Snakes Brotherhood, my good junior brother!”

In the circle of Cultivators, the names of the four experts were among the most influential ones. They were the life goals for many Cultivators.

They were all the deputy leaders or elders of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City, as well as battle-type Cultivators in the Nascent Soul Stage!

However, Xiao Xuance’s eyes did not stop for long on the four Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators. Very soon, he gazed at the fifth person on the spot, as if the guy who was coughing slightly right now was his real opponent.

A layer of ever-surging black smoke covered the fifth person’s crystal suit and concealed most of the details.

However, the six artificial limbs protruded out of his back that looked like dragons exposed who he was.

“Bai Xinghe,” Xiao Xuance said softly, one word after another.

Li Yao chuckled in amusement as response.

“So, this is really a trap?” Xiao Xuance said casually. “Bai Xinghe showed up on purpose to attract my attention. He let me discover that he stole two Great Pagoda VII communicators and lured me into eavesdropping on your conversation. But everything has been a scheme since the beginning.

“Si Koulie’s four bodyguards swapped identities with the four experts of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City a long time ago. Let me see. Maybe it was last night. When you were discussing the rearrangement of the transportation plan in the hall of the Meeting of Next Millennium, the four experts disguised themselves as the four bodyguards and left with Si Koulie. Then, you came to the Complex Star Plaza together, didn’t you?

“Hehe. What a pity. I should have attended the meeting yesterday. If I did, I would have seen through your disguise instantly.

“But I was too busy tracking Bai Xinghe and only asked my deputies to participate on my behalf.

“It seems that Bai Xinghe doesn’t have any proof, does he? But me showing up here right now has offered you the best proof!

“There’s just one thing that I don’t understand. Bai Xinghe is an infamous bandit. How did he persuade you into setting up such a trap when he did not have any evidence? Junior Brother, even you are part of the scheme. Why?”

Amidst the raging smoke, the sixth crystal suit slowly rose up. It was Si Koulie, the leader of the Star Fighters’ Alliance, who was the bait in the trap.

Hiding behind Luo Xingzi, a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator from the Feathered Snakes Brotherhood, he said coldly, “Give it up, Xiao Xuance. We know what you are thinking about!

“You want to buy yourself more time so that your accomplices on Heavenly Phantom in the central area of Heavenly Saints City can take action.

“It’s useless. You are not the only guys who know how to set up barriers. At exactly the moment of the assassination, an even larger array was unfolded and covered the one square kilometer around the plaza. All the telepathic thoughts and signals of the Spiritual Nexus in the area are being jammed indiscriminately!

“Whatever commands you have, you will not be able to send them out!

“In the meantime, at least five Cultivators in the Nascent Soul Stage and more than ten in the peak of the Core Formation Stage are now marching toward the tenth space ring with the elites of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City and the Star Fighters’ Alliance!

“As for the headquarters of the Grand Illusionary Group, your nest, and Heavenly Phantom, your flagship, they are now being taken over by a special squad of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City!

“You must have thought that we could not respond to changes when all the messages were cut off, mustn’t you? But it never occurred to you that the loss of messages was also a message!

“Before we set up the trap, we had made a deal with the experts of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City, the Star Fighters’ Alliance, and the Glorious Sunlight Group. We would send a message to them every other second.

“If they did not receive any messages after three seconds, then something was wrong! They would enter the headquarters of the Grand Illusionary Group and board the Heavenly Phantom immediately!

“Therefore, it doesn’t matter that you want to buy yourself more time because time is now on our side!”

Xiao Xuance was silent for a long time. He exhaled for a long time and smiled bitterly. “I have no words to say about my misjudgment. I only want to know this. Why did you believe in Bai Xinghe?”

Si Koulie shook his head and said, “You’re wrong. It was not Bai Xinghe that we trusted, but the Glorious Sunlight Group and Iron Plateau.

“I don’t know how Bai Xinghe convinced the Glorious Sunlight Group and the heads of Iron Plateau, but Professor Mo Xuan of the Glorious Sunlight Group yesterday declared non-confidence in you, the commander in chief, and demanded a ‘test’ for you before the final battle on behalf of the Glorious Sunlight Group, the Great Horn Exo Society, and the several chiefs of Iron Plateau.

“If the requirements were not met, the Glorious Sunlight Group, the Great Horn Exo Society, and Iron Plateau would withdraw from the final battle unilaterally.

“It was quite a big deal. The six sects of Heavenly Saints City and the Star Fighters’ Alliance could not allow such a thing to happen. Also, the so-called ‘test’ would be absolutely harmless as long as you were innocent.

“More importantly, whether you are an Immortal Cultivator or not, we will be able to capture Bai Xinghe!

“Or rather, Bai Xinghe proposed to turn himself in as long as we ran the test.”

“Turn yourself in?” Xiao Xuance was truly dazed. He turned to Li Yao again and said, “I didn’t know that you were willing to pay such a high price for your revenge!”

Li Yao burst into laughter and replied, “You killed my parents. As long as you are crucified, I can die ten thousand times without complaint!”

Chapter 787: Imperium of True Human Beings

 

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

“Senior Brother!”

Luo Xingzi was Xiao Xuance’s junior brother in the Feathered Snakes Brotherhood. When Xiao Xuance had been the leader of the sect, he had been one of the deacons.

Therefore, he could hardly believe Xiao Xuance’s betrayal and had almost even passed out in fury. He yelled, “So, you are really a member of the Temple of Immortals and a cowardly Immortal Cultivator?

“Why?

“Senior Brother, you are the best expert and the crownless king of the Flying Star Sector. You are already at the peak of the world of Cultivators. Even if you are interested in the secret arts of longevity, there are endless resources at your disposal!

“Why did you create the Temple of Immortals and get so many innocent people killed?”

Xiao Xuance smiled casually. “It’s true that I am an Immortal Cultivator. But the so-called Temple of Immortals is just a disguise. Don’t mistake the selfish, spineless ‘false Immortal Cultivators’ of the Temple of Immortals for us ‘real Immortal Cultivators’!

“You’re right, Junior Brother. I am already at the top of the world. If it were for my own interest, even if I wanted to pursue an eternal life, it would not have been necessary for to stir up so much trouble.

“However, hehe, although it is immortality that we the real Immortal Cultivators pursue, we are not talking about the eternal life of individuals, but the splendor and eternality of the civilization of mankind!

“Our dream is very simple. We will reunite the Flying Star Sector, which is essentially loose sand, and build a powerful nation governed by the Immortal Cultivators!”

“What?”

Everybody, including Li Yao, was greatly shocked.

“Ever since the arrival of the apocalypse and the collapse of the coalition government of the Flying Star Sector five thousand years ago, we have been the lone dusts in the sea of stars without our own country!

“Five thousand years. It’s been five thousand years!

“We groped and struggled in the darkness. To this day, the dozens of space zones are still only minding their own business, completely disorganized.

“This is the source of all tragedies!

“If we weren’t loose sand, how could the space pirates have been so wild and even defeated the attack of the Cultivators with a single planet?

“If we weren’t loose sand, how could we have hesitated to get in touch with the compatriots on Iron Plateau for five thousand years?

“If we weren’t loose sand, how could we never have the ambition to explore other Sectors?

“For five thousand years, we’ve been cowering in the Flying Star Sector like turtles. We barely explored the world fragments near the Flying Star Sector, not to mention sending out a large-scale expedition army to explore other Sectors like we did five thousand years ago!

“Five years ago, faced with the threat of the Temple of Immortals, the world of Cultivators, which was in disunity, still refused to work together on the Ice God Project. In the end, it was a non-obligatory ‘Grand Illusionary Soldier Project’ that was carried out!

“Hehe. In the eyes of the Immortal Cultivators, if the Flying Star Sector remains as divided as it is now, we will forever be as weak as today, our civilization will not make any progress, and we will never step out of the Flying Star Sector and regain the glory of the Star Ocean Imperium!

“Yes, the glory of the Star Ocean Imperium!

“Back in the Star Ocean Imperium, the Flying Star Sector was one of the most important districts. There are endless magical equipment, debris, and relics even to this day!

“We are the offspring of the greatest warriors of mankind from the era of the Star Ocean Imperium!

“We should concentrate all our resources and realize the wish of the strongest human beings of the Star Ocean Imperium. We should rebuild the imperium so that the civilization of mankind can rise again until it becomes the strongest species in the sea of stars!”

Xiao Xuance was speaking faster and faster until he sounded insane in the end.

Even Luo Xingzi was somewhat awed by his resolution. He was dazed for a long time before he opened his mouth again. “Even so, there was no need to resort to such extreme methods. You know that the unification of the Flying Star Sector and the foundation of a new coalition government is not a new idea. We are already on the road!”

Xiao Xuance burst into laughter. “A thousand years of thinking, and what?

“It’s useless, Junior Brother. The Flying Star Sector has been divided for too long. The middle-sized and small-sized sects are the rulers of their respective space zones, which are essentially their independent kingdoms.

“Every sect has their own interests, and every space zone has their own plans!

“As the saying goes, it is better to be the head of a hen than to be the tail of a phoenix. How can those sects willingly establish a coalition government with us?

“Chances are that they will even suspect that the six sects of Heavenly Saints City are merely taking the chance to swallow them!

“Leader Si is right here. The Star Fighters’ Alliance always represents the interest of the middle-sized and small-sized sects. Why don’t you ask him if he is willing to?

“Hehe. In fact, there is no need to ask. Even if a new nation is established in hundreds of years, after countless negotiations and compromises, a weak parliamentary regime is most likely to be adopted.

“By then, in parliament, all the representatives will still argue against each other and double-deal for the interests of their own sects!

“Such a ‘nation’ will be merely a glamorous-looking skin. How can it realize the last wish of the Star Ocean Imperium?

“All in all, in the eyes of the Immortal Cultivators, the sects in the Flying Star Sector nowadays, be they the six sects of Heavenly Saints City or the smaller sects in the other space zones, and I do mean each and every of them, are a cancer to our civilization!

“Our civilization can only progress after all the sects are destroyed, when the power and resources of every space zone is concentrated in the hands of one leader and we are guided by one voice and one true path!

“Besides, hundreds of years of negotiations and compromises are just a waste of time. Can we really afford that?”

Luo Xingzi gnashed his teeth. “So, you Immortal Cultivators made up an organization called the Temple of Immortals and caused mayhem in the Flying Star Sector because you were paving the way for the ‘Grand Illusionary Soldier Project’. But in fact, you have backdoors in the ‘star brain’, the main database for the Grand Illusionary Soldiers. In the end, the Temple of Immortals and the Grand Illusionary Soldiers will attack the Cultivators collectively. When the main force of the Cultivators is destroyed, you will reign over the Flying Star Sector, right?”

After a long sigh, Xiao Xuance answered, “Exactly. We’ve been carrying out the plan for decades. Never did we expect that it would fail at the last moment!

“I took everything into consideration, but I never knew that a survivor was left in the slaughter a hundred and twenty years ago and that the survivor even became the ‘Pirate Potentate’!”

“Senior Brother!” Luo Xingzi burst into fury. “People of different such beliefs should distance themselves from each other. This is the last time that I will call you Senior Brother. In the future, I will call you Xiao Xuance!

“Xiao Xuance, the Immortal Cultivators like you claim that you are fighting for the civilization of mankind, but how many people has the Temple of Immortals that you made killed in the great explosion during the Skyhill Sword Seminar, in the arrival of the extraterrestrial devils in the tenth space ring, and all the other disasters over the past five years? So many innocent men and women!

“And you, you killed a starship full of people for your own survival a hundred and twenty years ago, and yet you are brass enough to declare that you are not a coward?”

“Of course, I’m not a coward,” Xiao Xuance replied calmly. “My own life is as insignificant as dust, but a great responsibility was on my shoulders. My value to the civilization of mankind is ten times, a hundred times, and a thousand times more than that of all the people on that starship combined!

“From the perspective of the civilization of mankind as a whole, I had more reason to survive than the people on that starship.

“So, I killed them and saved myself. It was not for my own survival but for the rise of the civilization of mankind. How is that cowardly?

“As for the victims killed by the Temple of Immortals…

“The birth of any great nation requires the blood of countless sacrifices. The loss of so many people, including my own son, leads to the rise of a brand-new imperium. Isn’t that good enough?”

Luo Xingzi was dumbfounded, not knowing what to say for a long time.

Even Li Yao was stunned, with a feeling that Xiao Xuance was so shameless that he almost sounded reasonable.

Xiao Xuance continued speaking, his voice becoming ever louder. “Don’t you see, Junior Brother? This universe is a dark forest where the strong prey on the weak. Survival of the fittest is the only law of nature!

“Only the strongest, the most coldblooded, and the cruelest civilization can live in the dark forest!

“Just look at what the civilization of mankind has become under the leadership of the Cultivators!

“Slack, undetermined, hypocritical, and weak. You’ve lost the wariness of the entire universe!

“You are just asking for your own death!

“Your slogan that it is the responsibility of the Cultivators to protect the weak is hilarious!

“There are only limited resources in the universe. Wasting the precious resources on people who are as weak as ants will only result in the decline of the entire civilization!

“Filter the weak, bring up the strong, and keep evolving. That is the path of immortality for a civilization!

“When the Immortal Cultivators take over the Flying Star Sector and build our nation, all the resources will be controlled and distributed by the government. Everybody will go through the strictest screening when they are born. The sick and the disabled do not need to live one more day to waste food!

“The infants who are healthy and strong will receive the harshest training. For the talented geniuses, whatever their familial background is, they will get the most resources and the guidance of the most excellent teachers. For the weak without talents, no matter how noble their family is, they will be eliminated without any mercy!

“The strong will enjoy excessive resources and focus on their training. They do not need to waste any of their time on ordinary people.

“The weak will be sent to the resource plants, where the environment is harsh, for mining and make whatever contributions they can to mankind!

“Other than that, rigorous competitions will be held regularly. With their lives on the line, the strongest of the strong will be selected and enlisted into an expedition army to recover other sectors, collect more resources, and even explore the ‘Empyrean Terminus Sector’, the center of the old Star Ocean Imperium!

“This is the future of the civilization of mankind!

“This is the dream country that the Immortal Cultivators have been fighting for throughout the years!

“This is the second unified imperium in the history of mankind that will pass on the glory of the Star Ocean Imperium—our Imperium of True Human Beings!”

Chapter 788: Demeanor of the Immortal Cultivators

 

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

All six Cultivators, including Li Yao, were shocked to speechlessness by Xiao Xuance’s craziness.

Although Li Yao had known that the Temple of Immortals must have had great plans, he had never expected that it was purely a disguise to cover the horrifying ‘Imperium of True Human Beings’.

Luo Xingzi took a long breath and said, “Xiao Xuance, this is madness. Wake up!

“No matter how magnificent and glorious your ‘Imperium of True Human Beings’ may be, it has collapsed and vanished into thin air.

“Right now, the coalition squad of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City and the Star Fighters’ Alliance should have taken over the Grand Illusionary Group and Heavenly Phantom. A hunting group made of almost a hundred super experts has arrived in the tenth space ring, too. They will be here in several minutes.

“Surrender, Xiao Xuance.

“We have five Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators right here. Five versus one. Even though you are in the high level of the Nascent Soul Stage and the best expert of the Flying Star Sector, you do not stand a chance.

“Let’s say you can get away today, what then? Your schemes are known to the world, and your organization is now melting like ice. What can you do except kill several more innocent people?

“Allow me to beg you as a representative of the innocent people. If you remember that you once swore to protect the weak as a Cultivator, just give up the meaningless resistance.

“Xiao Xuance, you were the idol for countless Cultivators. Righteous or evil, you are definitely one of the most influential men in the world. Now that you’ve failed, just admit your failure frankly!”

Xiao Xuance was silent.

Li Yao and the other Cultivators’ hearts were all pounding.

This is the most crucial moment.

Xiao Xuance was the best expert of the Flying Star Sector. If he was determined to run away, the five Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators present might not be enough to stop him.

If he went on a rampage in the tenth space ring, it was very likely that he could drag hundreds of Cultivators and tens of thousands of ordinary people to hell before he was killed.

After a minute of silence, bitter laughter echoed inside Xiao Xuance’s crystal suit. He said, “Alright. I took a gamble, and I accept the result. Dragging those ants with me is quite boring, too. I surrender!”

While he was talking, the aura of the Nascent Soul Stage gradually dispersed. His capability fell from the Nascent Soul Stage to the Core Formation Stage, the Building Foundation Stage, and the Refinement State, until in the end he became no different from an ordinary person. It was only with the support of his crystal suit that he managed to stay in midair.

The six Cultivators all took a long breath in relief, with cold sweat on their back.

Strong as Xiao Xuance might have been, it would still take him half a second to ignite the power of his soul and summon the combat ability of the Nascent Soul Stage from the status of an ordinary person.

The five Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators had locked onto him and would not give him such a chance.

It meant that he had really given up all resistance.

Nobody had gotten hurt. It was the best result anybody could have imagined.

“B—Boss Bai, thank you.”

Inside the communication channel, Luo Xing hesitated for a long time but stilled thanked the infamous bandit sincerely.

Xiao Xuance was the previous leader of the Feathered Snakes Brotherhood. His betrayal was a major strike for the prestige of the Feathered Snakes Brotherhood. A great purge was underway.

Today, Luo Xingzi had forced Xiao Xuance to surrender as a representative of the Feathered Snakes Brotherhood. It was sort of a self-purging of the Feathered Snakes Brotherhood.

However many crimes Bai Xinghe had committed in the past, he had done the Feathered Snakes Brotherhood a favor in this matter.

Li Yao felt that a giant rock was finally off his heart. He almost burst into laughter on the spot.

Over the past month, his computational ability had almost been kept at the highest in every second. He had calculated and devised traps incessantly. He walked in the shoes of Xiao Xuance, Si Koulie, the leadership of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City and countless other people. He had carefully considered what other people’s reactions might have been and finally came up with such a neat trap!

He had been anxious almost every second, and every day had been as long as a year for him!

Right now, everything was settled. In the great gamble where the fate of the Flying Star Sector was the prize, he was the winner!

His bargaining chips were few, and his cards could not have been worse. But with the information that Xiao Xuance was not aware of, he had fooled the best expert of the Flying Star Sector!

Li Yao really had the urge to roar and do a hundred and eight backflips in a row!

Even the best expert of the Flying Star Sector has been tricked brutally by me. Hahahaha!

Li Yao wondered whether or not Xiao Xuance would vomit blood and become mentally deranged if he revealed his true face of Li Yao in front of Xiao Xuance right now.

However, it might be a better idea to wait until the four experts had completely controlled Xiao Xuance.

Luo Xingzi walked to Xiao Xuance prudently, preparing to impose barriers on him.

But Xiao Xuance coughed hard.

He coughed, shuddered, and bent down.

His vitality quickly flowed away from him like translucent smoke.

Drops of blood were leaking out of his crystal suit!

Luo Xingzi was greatly shocked. He hurried forward and held Xiao Xuance.

The best expert of the Flying Star Sector was like a dying old man. He clung to his junior brother’s arm and did not have the strength at all.

Luo Xingzi opened his hands and tore off Xiao Xuance’s helmet.

Below the helmet was face that was as slim as a skeleton. Countless flies seemed to be crawling on the face. Even the skull below was twisting, scattering, and condensing, as if a giant hand was shaping it into a completely different appearance.

Although Li Yao and the other Cultivators did not come close, they saw the face clearly through Luo Xingzi’s crystal camera.

It was not Xiao Xuance. Although he was too slender to be recognized, the shape of his bones was entirely different!

The man was not Xiao Xuance!

Li Yao was dumbfounded!

“You are not Xiao Xuance. Who are you exactly?”

Luo Xingzi clutched the man’s hair hard. But hardly had he touched it when the hair mostly all fell out.

There was not the slightest vigor in the man’s body, but his big eyes, which were particularly bright, were full of derision. Weird sounds came from the mouth, where the teeth were all gone.

“I am… the Lotus King.”

Luo Xingzi was greatly alarmed.

“No need to fret.” The man cackled like a crow until everybody felt creepy. Then he continued. “The Lotus King is neither a battle-type Cultivator nor in the Nascent Soul Stage. My only technique is to simulate the aura of the Nascent Soul Stage with the Cultivation of the Core Formation Stage. Nothing else. Haha. Hahahaha!

“Usually, as the Lotus King, I suppress my emotions, feelings, and soul with my secret arts. The CEO’s tremendous telepathic thoughts will enter my body, and I will be the speaker of the CEO’s will!

“Even though I was unfortunately captured by you, the CEO can argue that I am merely a tool that the Temple of Immortals used to frame him and that I have nothing to do with him.

“But right now, it is no longer necessary. The CEO permitted me to tell you everything after I buy twenty minutes for him… as a reward for my lifelong devotion.

“Cough cough. Cough cough cough cough!”

The Lotus King vomited a mouthful of pure black blood and burst into laughter. “Today, I’ve indeed dedicated the best performance of my life. Haha. With the Cultivation of the Core Formation Stage, I triggered a dominating aura higher than the middle level of the Nascent Soul Stage and did not give myself away even though five Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators had locked onto me!

“Totally worth it. After my life as an Immortal Cultivator, I’ve scared five Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators to pale faces. My life has totally been worth it!”

The faces of Li Yao and the rest of the Cultivators blanched.

It was the Lotus King who had fallen into the trap, and the Lotus King was just a stand-in for Xiao Xuance.

Then, where was the real Xiao Xuance?

More importantly, since Xiao Xuance had allowed the Lotus King to tell them everything, he must have made up his mind to stop pretending!

They had wasted almost thirty minutes on the Lotus King. What had happened in the outside world in the meantime?

The Lotus King had been burning his life and soul in order to exude the aura of the middle level of the Nascent Soul Stage. Right now, he was already on the brink of death. At the last moment of his life, he was suddenly refreshed and stared at Li Yao with a weird smile while vomiting blood.

“Bai Xinghe, you truly deserve to be the Pirate Potentate. Your schemes are indeed lethal and sordid. Our cause was nearly jeopardized.

“It is a pity that the CEO sensed danger at the last moment and guessed your intentions, but he pretended that he didn’t and arranged the ‘assassination’ anyway!

“Hehe. You fished us up with two Great Pagoda VII communicators, but in exactly the same way, the CEO fished up all the elites of the Cultivators with three super-heavy crystal cannons and a false ‘Xiao Xuance’!

“You mentioned that a hundred super experts had arrived in the tenth space ring?

“That was great news. It suggests that few experts were left in the central area of Heavenly Saints City and the first space ring, right?

“You were wrong about one thing. Very wrong. Time was not on your side but on ours!

“While we were rambling on, the CEO should have already annihilated the Cultivators who entered the headquarters of the Grand Illusionary Group and Heavenly Phantom!”

Li Yao was rendered speechless. He cursed in the most profane language in his heart, and he felt that his face was hot with pain, as if Xiao Xuance had slapped it so hard from thousands of kilometers away that even his teeth were knocked out.

The Lotus King laughed confidently. “After tonight, the entire Heavenly Saints City will belong to the Immortal Cultivators. The new era has arrived. Nobody is going to stop the rise of the Imperium of True Human Beings!”

Luo Xingzi was infuriated. He pressed the Lotus King’s skull with his five fingers and bellowed, “Shut up. Tell us your whole plan, or I guarantee that you will regret being born into this world!”

There was nothing but contempt deep inside the Lotus King’s eyes. He shook his hard stubbornly under Luo Xingzi’s hands until his neck was almost cracking. “At this moment, do you still think that we are those cowardly false Immortal Cultivators?

“Fellow Cultivators!”

The Lotus King shouted at the loudest of his voice with the last bit of his strength, “The New Era Plan has been initiated. There is no need to hide ourselves anymore!

“Before the dawn of success comes, let the Cultivators see what the real Immortal Cultivators are!”

Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua!

The almost twenty Immortal Cultivators in the Core Formation Stage around were definitely no match for the five Cultivators in the Nascent Soul Stage. But after they heard the declaration, they burnt their life and soul and brought their combat ability to the peak without any hesitation.

Almost twenty torches seemed to be burning furiously in the dark night!

“Our mission has been completed. We’ve stalled the super experts of the Cultivators!”

“Right now, the central area of Heavenly Saints City must’ve been overturned already.

“The new era has come!”

“Fellow Cultivators, march on! Let the timid and hypocritical Cultivators see the demeanor of the real Immortal Cultivators!”

“Long live evolution! Long live the Immortal Cultivators!”

“Long live the civilization of mankind! Long live the Imperium of True Human Beings!”

Amid earsplitting roars, the twenty or so Immortal Cultivators in the Core Formation Stage launched a suicidal charge toward the five Cultivators in the Nascent Soul Stage!

Chapter 789: Super Decapitation Operation

 

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

When one was relentless, a thousand enemies might not stop him. Although they were absolutely no match for the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, the insane Immortal Cultivators burst out auras that even eclipsed their enemies and rushed toward their doom at a speed beyond their limits like shooting stars and moths that were darting into fire!

The four experts were all sweating in shock. But Li Yao roared inside the communication channel and woke them up. “Don’t kill them. Keep them alive for interrogation!”

The next moment, tremendous pressure was released from the five of them and covered the Immortal Cultivators’ heads like giant, invisible hands.

The Immortal Cultivators, however, were determined to die. Although they were suppressed by the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, they burnt their life and soul even harder and struggled to move their hands and feet.

Crack! Crack!

Because of the pressure from the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, their joints and bones fractured one after another, and even their crystal suits were twisted into wasted iron and copper.

But none of the Immortal Cultivators gave up. Just like that, they dragged their broken bodies toward the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators one millimeter after another!

“Long live the civilization of mankind!”

When they discovered that, blocked by the tide-like spiritual energy, it was impossible for them to reach the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators. The few Immortal Cultivators in the lead suddenly roared. The pressure inside their body suddenly soared, and light and heat was released from their crystal reactors before they turned into a series of enormous fireballs!

BOOM! BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!

The Immortal Cultivators detonated their cores and died for their belief!

The self-detonation of those in the Core Formation Stage was never to be underestimated. Even the five Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators had to defend themselves from the savaging blast. Their overwhelming spiritual energy somewhat retreated.

The other Immortal Cultivators finally got rid of the shackles of the spiritual energy. They sprinted forward like more than ten bloodstained leopards charging at five rhinos!

Pa! Pa! Pa!

Like the mantises holding their forelegs in front of cars, they were all asking for their own death. Within a breath, the Immortal Cultivators were either dissected or turned into a messy mix of steel and flesh together with their crystal suits.

But they successfully left unignorable traces on the crystal suits of the five Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, too!

Half a minute later, only the last Immortal Cultivator was floating in midair.

His crystal suit had been entirely shattered. His right thigh had been cut off from his waist, and the wound had been sealed with bright green foam. His left arm was bent backwards unnaturally. His helmet was gone, revealing a face that was quite attractive but twisted because of excitement.

“Ah Song!” Liao Huagu, who was from the Furious Bears Union, exclaimed in shock.

He recognized that Immortal Cultivator as Cheng Xuesong. The man was a member of the Furious Bears Union, and his master was Liao Huagu’s junior brother.

More importantly, Cheng Xuesong’s father was the deputy president of the Furious Bears Union!

Even the son of the deputy president of the Furious Bears Union had become an Immortal Cultivator.

Liao Huagu was more than pitiful. He yelled, “Ah Song, surrender now! Stop being pigheaded. The six sects of Heavenly Saints City will give you a fair trial!”

Cheng Xuesong was both fanatic and indifferent. He glanced over the enemies around him and stared at the dead bodies of his companions in the smoke. In the end, he looked in the direction of the central area of Heavenly Saints City in his imagination.

His final look was full of hope and vision.

Cheng Xuesong smiled. He looked at his senior in the Furious Bears Union as if the man were a moron.

“I am an Immortal Cultivator. I am a great warrior who fights for the civilization of mankind. Why do you think the six sects of Heavenly Saints City are qualified to try me?

“Stop wasting your time. Let history judge unbiasedly who is right and who is wrong!

“Long live the Imperium of True Human Beings!”

The last heavily wounded Immortal Cultivator charged at five Cultivators, who were hundreds of times stronger than him, unstoppably.

Maybe he had recognized that the enemies’ strength far exceeded his own. To avoid being captured alive, Cheng Xuesong poured his spiritual energy into his core and activated the self-detonation rune array of his crystal suit the moment he charged out.

The next second, both he and his crystal suit turned into flying red butterflies!

For a moment, the eyes of the six Cultivators were all dyed red by the blood of the Immortal Cultivator.

When their vision returned, they could only see the scraps of the melted crystal suit blowing their spiritual shield like meteorites, raising flowers of flames that were blossoming in the garden of destruction.

The last Immortal Cultivator had gone, but the aftereffects of his final moment did not disperse for a long time, like a black flag that was riddled with holes.

The six Cultivators looked at each other in bewilderment and did not know what to say for a long time.

Shua!

The barriers that covered the Complex Star Plaza were finally broken.

Hundreds of Cultivators lunged at the debris.

Although they were hundreds of meters away, Li Yao could already feel their intimidating aura.

Li Yao felt that he was sitting on a giant icy block with coldness spreading from his anus to his heart. He gasped and asked, “How many people did you send to the tenth space ring?”

“Not very many, for the sake of confidentiality. Four hundred people at most. Besides, most of them do not know the real mission.” Si Koulie sounded somewhat lost. “However, in order to make sure that Xiao Xuance is captured and that he does not go on a rampage, the reinforcements are all super experts. Quite a few of them are battle-type Cultivators in the Nascent Soul Stage. As for those in the Core Formation Stage, there are too many to count!”

Li Yao gnashed his teeth. “So, the central area of Heavenly Saints City is really empty right now?”

Si Koulie was silent for a moment. His body slightly shivered as he said softly, “Yes.”

Li Yao felt a headache coming. He suddenly realized three facts.

Firstly, the Grand Illusionary Group controlled the most and the best Grand Illusionary Soldiers of the Flying Star Sector. Even though there were no backdoors in the ‘Grand Illusionary Soldier Project’, those Grand Illusionary Soldiers were still under the direct command of Xiao Xuance.

Secondly, the super experts and the best warriors of the Cultivators had all been diverted to the tenth space ring, which was the furthest from the central area of Heavenly Saints City, because of Xiao Xuance’s trick.

It was a long journey between the central area and the tenth space ring. Getting out was quite easy, but it would be quite a different matter if they wanted to return.

Also—

Of the top 500 sects of the Flying Star Sector, the leaders, elders, and important figures of more than four hundred sects were now gathered in the hall of the Meeting of Next Millennium, attending strategical meetings and discussing the military arrangements for the battle of Spider Den.

Leaders needed to manage all the complicated affairs of a sect. Naturally, most of them were admin-type Cultivators; few of them were battle-type.

If Xiao Xuance wiped out the leaders and elders of more than four hundred sects…

“F*ck.”

Li Yao squinted and cursed in a low voice.

It was 20:40:33.

…

Thirty minutes earlier, at 21:10:33, a minor accident took place in the No.4 military space port between the central area of Heavenly Saints City and the first space ring.

In order to spare vehicles to transport the reinforcements of Iron Plateau, which was not part of the original plan, dozens of crystal warships had temporarily changed their locations.

A crystal warship of the Furious Bears Union, however, flew to the wrong sailing route and crashed into a carrier of the Star Fighters’ Alliance.

The crash led to a chain reaction. More than ten crystal warships scratched each other.

In the end, one of the crystal warships of the Silver Moon Clan, during the emergency, hit Heavenly Phantom, the flagship of the Grand Illusionary Group.

Heavenly Saints City was one the biggest rally points for the final battle. Crystal warships several times more than its capacity had gathered in this place.

The leadership of more than four hundred sects had come to Heavenly Saints City for the meeting. Although they did not bring all of their sect’s crystal warships, every sect had brought a few with them.

Therefore, every military space port of Heavenly Saints City had been particularly busy over the past month. Such accidents of had happened almost on a daily basis. It was not strange.

However, half a minute after the accident, a maintenance starship of the Star Fighters’ Alliance drew close to Heavenly Phantom and docked to it.

A batch of ‘refiners’ of the Star Fighters’ Alliance and several high officials of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City boarded Heavenly Phantom. They claimed that the previous collision might have damaged Heavenly Phantom’s space jump system, and a full examination was necessary.

The Grand Illusionary Group was not an independent sect but an enterprise co-established by the six sects of Heavenly Saints City. The original capital, workers, and managers all came from the six sects of Heavenly Saints City. Many high officials of the Grand Illusionary Group were from the six sects of Heavenly Saints City, too. Naturally, they had to receive the command of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City.

Since the visitors were high officials of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City, and they carried the orders of the command center, there was no reason to stop them.

The maintenance group entered Heavenly Phantom without any trouble, but they did not go to the central part of the starship where the space jump system was. Instead, they went directly to the bridge. It was said that they had to discuss the damage of the starship with the captain first.

Emotionlessly, Ning Wushuang walked into the bridge of Heavenly Phantom together with the maintenance group.

His heart was beating the fastest that he could remember since he had entered the Nascent Soul Stage.

Is Xiao Xuance really an Immortal Cultivator? Is the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project really a trap?

Ning Wushuang was a pure battle-type Cultivator in the Nascent Soul Stage, but his highly developed brain cells still granted him a thinking and analyzing ability much higher than normal people.

However, he had considered the two questions with his billions of brain cells for a long time and come up with no answers.

Ning Wushuang was one of the few people who knew the truth in the ‘maintenance group’.

The rest of the members were mostly gathered in a hurry three hours ago and informed that they were going to participate in an operation that was of paramount importance.

Some of them did not even know that it was an operation at all; they thought that it was really a maintenance task.

However, whether they knew the truth or not, every member had been vetted profoundly. They were absolutely loyal and reliable and did not have anything to do with the Grand Illusionary Group, the Feathered Snakes Brotherhood, Xiao Xuance, or the Xiao family.

Since Heavenly Phantom was docked at the port, it was running in the semi-automatic mode. The ‘star brain’, which boasted enormous computational ability, took care of most of the affairs. There were few people on the bridge.

The captain of Heavenly Phantom was standing in the middle of the bridge with his hands behind his back, waiting for them patiently.

Ning Wushuang felt somewhat relieved. It seemed that the enemy had not grown suspicious.

The captain of Heavenly Phantom was an admin-type Cultivator at the peak of the Core Formation Stage. He was definitely no match for Ning Wushuang and could be taken down easily.

When the captain was down, Heavenly Phantom was occupied, and the star brain was taken over, Xiao Xuance would not be able to cause any trouble even if he was an Immortal Cultivator.

Chapter 790: You Want to Play Chess? I Knock Over the Board!

 

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

Four thin metal patches on which several simple rune arrays were carved were pinned to Ning Wushuang’s chest. Their sole use was to receive the signals of Luo Xingzi and the other experts.

According to the deal, the four Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators would send a signal to him every other second. The metal patches would stay quiet when they received the signal.

But if they failed to receive any signal for three seconds, they would shake feebly.

It meant that the telepathic thoughts of four Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators were jammed at the same time.

Normally speaking, it was impossible.

One second passed after another. Although Ning Wushuang controlled his pores by force, cold sweat was still popping up on his forehead.

At this moment, the negotiation between Si Koulie and Bai Xinghe had already begun. If everything was normal in another ten minutes, it would be evident that Xiao Xuance was not an Immortal Cultivator and that it was a false alarm.

If so, they would retreat quietly after ‘maintaining’ Heavenly Phantom. Xiao Xuance would not know that he had gone through such a test at all.

Maybe after Spider Den was suppressed and the Temple of Immortals was demolished, they would publicize everything. It would not matter at all by then.

Most Cultivators did not believe in deities because, to some extent, they were the ‘deities’ in the eyes of the ordinary people in the past!

But right now, Ning Wushuang, as a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, started praying in secret, hoping that the gods that were watching over mankind, if there were any, did not get sloppy at the crucial moment.

However, half way through his prayer, the metal patches on his chest started shivering.

There was a moment when Ning Wushuang’s heart almost froze. The metal patches seemed to have turned into hundreds of cold bugs gnawing his heart.

The telepathic thoughts of four Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators have been jammed and cut off!

Xiao Xuance is really an Immortal Cultivator!

Ning Wushuang wanted to curse loudly, but he held back his feeling in the next 0.01 seconds. He snapped his fingers and sent out a command through his crystal processor.

Every member of the ‘maintenance group’ was allocated a crystal processor in which hundreds of commands were preset before the operation.

To avoid any suspicion when they checked their light beam at the same time, a tiny broadcast rune array had been planted to the ears of every team member.

As Ning Wushuang sent out the command, the rune array stimulated their eardrums, and the voice that only they could hear came over.

“An emergency has occurred. Stay calm. This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill.

“Xiao Xuance has rebelled and is the leader of the Immortal Cultivators. It is very likely that the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project is a trap!

“Right now, Xiao Xuance is being hunted. Everything is under control. Our task is to control the bridge, take over the star brain, and occupy Heavenly Phantom!”

Ning Wushuang could clearly feel that many people behind him shook slightly and that their spiritual waves were somewhat chaotic.

However, those Cultivators were the most calm and resolute people.

It was also one of the most important reasons why they were selected.

One second later, everybody calmed down.

Ning Wushuang was somewhat relieved, but his fluctuating chest could not calm down.

Right now, Heavenly Saints City, or rather, the fate of the entire Flying Star Sector, was in his hands.

There could not be too many Immortal Cultivators, and they would definitely be no match for the Cultivators in head-on clashes. The only thing that they could make use of was the Grand Illusionary Soldiers.

However, the Grand Illusionary Soldiers had to be connected to the enormous database of the star brain to read the combat data of the Cultivators who had fought in the Grand Illusionary Land before in order to maximize their combat ability.

As long as the star brain was controlled, or destroyed if necessary, the rebellion of the Immortal Cultivators would be extinguished before it began.

With a natural smile, Ning Wushuang walked to the captain of Heavenly Phantom in the most relaxed fashion.

Right now, they were taking the initiative. The opponent would be unaware that their identity had been exposed.

As he expected, there was no alert in the captain’s eyes. He merely frowned with confusion when he saw the strangers coming. He seemed to be baffled why a minor collision would require such a fuss.

There were the last five meters between the two of them.

The bridge suddenly shook slightly, as if another collision had happened, or the starship was caught in a minor cosmic storm.

However, everything went peaceful again in five seconds.

Ning Wushuang was dazed.

Of course, the central area of Heavenly Saints City never had cosmic storms. Also, in their plan, no crystal warships would hit Heavenly Phantom again.

Then what was the shaking about?

The captain of Heavenly Phantom seemed to be dumbfounded by the unexpected shaking, too. He looked at Ning Wushuang in confusion and walked over to him, while he said, “Fellow Cultivator Ning, what is going—”

A tiny broadcast rune array had been planted inside Ning Wushuang’s ears, too. At this moment, somebody was yelling in the loudest voice, “Terrible! An unprecedented explosion took place in the headquarters of the Grand Illusionary Group!

“The blast reached one kilometer away. Two blocks were demolished. The headquarters of the Grand Illusionary Group are now an ocean of flames. The Grand Illusionary Plaza has been entirely destroyed!”

Ning Wushuang felt that his head was dizzy, and he nearly tripped over.

It was very likely that the headquarters of the Grand Illusionary Group was another base of the Immortal Cultivators. At the same time as he entered Heavenly Phantom, another team that was larger in scale, made up of more than twenty experts above the peak of the Core Formation Stage, went into the Grand Illusionary Plaza to take over the Grand Illusionary Group!

But right now, such a horrendous explosion had taken place in the Grand Illusionary Group that a crystal warship floating in the space port dozens of kilometers away was affected by the blast.

How intense was the explosion?

Was it possible that any of the Cultivators who had gone into the Grand Illusionary Group survived?

Ning Wushuang’s head was almost shrieking in shock. It took him 0.1 seconds for him to realize that he must have been exposed, too.

Better to attack first!

Gritting his teeth, Ning Wushuang stepped forward. He launched an attack toward the captain of Heavenly Phantom while he summoned his crystal suit!

However, the moment before he launched his attack, the captain of Heavenly Phantom who was coming over slowly suddenly accelerated into a streak of brightness and initiated an overwhelming attack.

The attack was so powerful that it far exceeded the limits of the peak of the Core Formation Stage, nor did it befit an admit-type Cultivator. All signs suggested that—

The captain was a battle-type Cultivator in the high level of the Nascent Soul Stage!

Shua!

An elegantly-shaped crystal suit gradually covered Ning Wushuang.

But it could not be enclosed when it reached his chest, because a thick, strong arm had pierced into Ning Wushuang’s chest and burnt his heart into ash.

The furious spiritual energy savaged inside Ning Wushuang’s body like a flood and cut off all his vitality before he triggered the capability of the Nascent Soul Stage.

Ning Wushuang did not even have the chance to be surprised before his facial muscles were gradually frozen, and his eyes lost all color.

He had thought that his opponent would at least talk to him for a while.

But his opponent had merely looked at him indifferently. His lips, as thin as the edge of a saber, were held tight and showed no sign of opening.

Before he was consumed by darkness, Ning Wushuang saw that the opponent’s face was twisting and changing. His eyes were long and narrow and extended to his temples.

In the deepest part of his eyes, two bloody lotuses were blossoming.

Pa da!

Ning Wushuang’s body collapsed to the ground, cramping slightly.

Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua!

The killing lasted only one second. Before the operation squad of the Cultivators realized what was going on, the gate of the bridge had been closed, and the maintenance channels above were all opened, from which hundreds of Grand Illusionary Soldiers jumped down.

The Grand Illusionary Soldiers were totally different from those in service of other sects. They were all more than 2.2 meters tall, with a layer of purple, golden brilliance emanating from their shells. It was not dull lights that were blinking in the six crystal cameras on their head but bouncing flames, as if they boasted a real soul.

Since there was no need to accommodate a human being, the Grand Illusionary Soldiers could be loaded with more crystals and bigger crystal reactors. As a result, they could trigger an even more immense storm of spiritual energy!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Every Grand Illusionary Soldier was riddled of dense holes. At this moment, flames of light spurted out of the holes and gradually consolidated into translucent muscles, veins, and nerves, making them even more high and mighty!

The marines who were busy doing their job previously inside the bridge all tore off their disguises, too, unveiling their real faces as battle-type Immortal Cultivators.

The captain of Heavenly Phantom was a totally different person now, one mixed with calmness and frenzy, reality and illusions, and sordidness and brutality!

Xiao Xuance, an Immortal Cultivator!

Xiao Xuance’s eyes did not stop on the operation squad of the Cultivators at all. He stared at the wall of the bridge, as if his eyes could pierce through the thick plate into the sea of stars.

He raised his right hand and pressed down slightly, before he commanded, “Kill them all!”

Three minutes later, the battle was over. A river of blood was flowing inside the bridge.

Xiao Xuance could have floated over in midair, but he still chose to stride forward with his head held high through the pools of blood and the mountains of corpses, leaving a line of bloody footprints, before he entered the control room of the star brain behind the bridge.

Xiao Tianbao was still operating crazily below the star brain with a naïve face.

Xiao Yushan stepped forward. He stood at attention and raised his right arm. “Everything is ready. The ‘New Era Plan’ can be initiated at any moment!”

Pausing for a moment, he lowered his voice and said, “However, it’s a bit too hasty now that we decided to start it in advance. Many Fellow Cultivators are not ready yet. It is not flawless.”

He had been brought up by Xiao Xuance and was almost like his grandson. Right now, he was Xiao Xuance’s right hand man. It was his most important task to voice all his concerns without keeping anything to himself.

“There’s no time.” Xiao Xuance squinted, the lotuses inside his eyes shivering slightly. “It was indeed a critical move that Bai Xinghe played. My fate would have been at his mercy no matter which of the two roads I chose.

“Besides, since Bai Xinghe could influence the Star Fighters’ Alliance and the six sects of Heavenly Saints City, he must be backed by an even more powerful organization!

“I guarantee that, even if I did not arrange the assassination and they did not get any proof about my crime, the organization behind Bai Xinghe would still have put forward a non-confidence motion during the morale-boosting rally and tried to postpone the final battle!

“Right now, our entire organization is exerting all our strength. We are on the verge of being exposed and cannot afford an investigation.

“Therefore, neither to assassinate him nor to stay and do nothing was the right choice. The two roads were both dead ends.

“The only sensible choice was to rebel in advance!

“Hehe. Bai Xinghe is truly the Pirate Potentate. The moves that he has been playing are neat, lethal, and almost flawless!

“It’s a pity that I’m the crownless king of the Flying Star Sector. You are just a bandit, and you think that you are qualified to play chess with me?

“You want to play chess, but I will knock over the board. Not just that, I will smash the chess pieces and the board into smithereens and build a new world on them!”

Chapter 791: The Flying Star Sector Is Peaceful Tonight!

 

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

Xiao Xuance clenched his fists and smashed the table. The uniform of the captain was torn into pieces by his surging spiritual energy.

With the help of Xiao Yushan, he put on a pure white, neat uniform with a beautiful emblem that was a furiously burning planet on the chest.

The burning planet was the battle emblem of the Imperium of the True Human Beings. The incessant flames were a symbol that the Immortal Cultivators would burn everything as the fuel to push the civilization of mankind forward!

Xiao Xuance and Xiao Yushan looked at each other and nodded solemnly. Then, together with another dozen Immortal Cultivators, they took out a blood red ribbon and tied it on their left arms.

On the ribbon, six big words were neatly painted: Overturn the world with my blood!

The uniform was white, and the ribbon was blood red, fluttering even though there was no wind.

Protected by the dozens of Immortal Cultivators, Xiao Xuance walked to the front of the star brain.

More than ten crystal cameras aimed at him from different angles. With the blinking, unpredictable star brain as the background, he started his speech toward all the Immortal Cultivators in the Flying Star Sector.

“Fellow Cultivators, establishers of the Imperium of True Human Beings, and warriors who fight for our civilization.

“It’s been five thousand years since the apocalypse!

“Over the five thousand years, the Flying Star Sector has been governed by the Cultivators and turned into a tray of loose sand. It is weak, feeble, and breathing its last breath in the darkness of the universe, struggling against the various natural disasters!

“The shortsighted Cultivators placed the interests of their sects above the interests of the civilization of mankind. It is impossible for them, nor did they want to, rescue our civilization. They have never even thought to regain the glory of the Star Ocean Imperium and recover the magnificence of a great civilization and a great species!

“Unify the human beings, establish the new imperium, and embrace the renaissance of a great civilization. This sacred and splendid mission can only be accomplished by the Immortal Cultivators!

“The civilization of mankind should not sink in the weakness, selfishness, and hypocrisy of the Cultivators any longer. It is the Immortal Cultivators’ turn to guard the civilization, to shape the civilization, and the rebuild the civilization!

“Now, the most crucial moment has come!

“The shameless Cultivators have grown suspicious of us. We cannot wait until all of them are gathered in the Spider Den and must activate the ‘New Era Plan’ according to our backup plan!

“I hereby decree that all Immortal Cultivators in Heavenly Saints City, the Spider Den Space Zone, and the other space zones of the Flying Star Sector shall activate the New Era Plan according to the secondary plan when you hear the secret code!

“Here are our targets. Firstly, occupy the central area of Heavenly Saints City, break into the hall of the Meeting of the Next Millennium, control the leadership of the top five hundred sects of the Flying Star Sector, and kill them if necessary so that all the sects of the Flying Star Sector lose their commanders!

“Secondly, occupy the No.9 military space port of the first space ring!

“The No.9 military space port boasts the greatest arsenal for the battle to come. Countless powerful magical equipment and crystals are stored inside. It is even more valuable than the headquarters of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City!

“If we occupy the No.9 military space port and take over the magical equipment and crystals, the Cultivators in Heavenly Saints City will lose the ability to fight a protracted battle!

“Thirdly, the Immortal Cultivators on Spider Den should charge at the fleet of the Cultivators near the space gate immediately, leading all the space pirates, the Immortal Army, and the assassins of Spider’s Thorn!

“This time, the Grand Illusionary Soldiers will be on your side. It is hoped that your collective attack will eliminate all the Cultivators at the periphery of the Spider Den Space Zone with no survivors remaining!

“There’s no need to worry about the casualties of the space pirates. Use excessive nebulized exhilarants if necessary to trigger their slaughtering will. Do not let them stop fighting until they are dead!

“Fourthly, all the Immortal Cultivators of the other space zones should act with the local Grand Illusionary Soldiers to interfere with the guardians of your respective space zones and delay them from reinforcing Heavenly Saints City!

“Once we control the heads of the five hundred sects, take over the most important arsenal, and seize Heavenly Saints City, victory will be ours!

“Without the leadership and commanders, the dozens of space zones will be in disorder. Under the collective attack of Heavenly Saints City and Spider Den, they will be taken down one after another. If they do not surrender, their only destiny will be death!

“My Immortal Cultivators and my comrades!

“The future of the civilization of mankind depends on the battle! Let’s pave a way of survival in the dark forest for the civilization of mankind with blood, fire, iron, and strong will!

“Right now, as the commander-in-chief of the Imperium of True Human Beings, I now announce the secret code of our operation—the Flying Star Sector is peaceful tonight!”

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

Invisible spiritual waves spread out from Heavenly Phantom unstoppably and disseminated to other space zones through the secret spiritual towers that the Grand Illusionary Group had built throughout space in secret.

Some of the space zones were not able to hear Xiao Xuance’s full speech because of the instable signals or for the sake of confidentiality, but they all received the short secret code for the operation.

“The Flying Star Sector is peaceful tonight!”

Or rather, the secret code appeared in the contact points of major sects of dozens of space zones blatantly in plain text. It was scanned and received by every crystal warship.

While Xiao Xuance was making his blood-boiling speech, the star brain, the translucent super crystal processor almost a hundred meters in diameter, went through drastic changes, too.

Every ‘brain cell’ was shivering, swirling, and crashing crazily, leading to brilliant sparks. The enormous data contained in every spark was enough to burst any Cultivator’s head!

The star brain was sending commands to the millions of Grand Illusionary Soldiers scattered in dozens of space zones.

When the commands reached their destination, the Grand Illusionary Soldiers would run under brand new permissions. Only the Immortal Cultivators registered in the database would be able to control them.

It would take a certain amount of time for the signals of the Spiritual Nexus to jump to every space zone. For the space zones far away from Heavenly Saints City, it was possible for the Cultivators there to cut off the signals of the Spiritual Nexus before all the Grand Illusionary Soldiers went out of control.

However, over the past five years, the entire world of Cultivators had dedicated a lot of resources to the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project. The Grand Illusionary Soldiers were the largest in number and the strongest magical equipment for many sects.

Without the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, the combat ability of the sects would be lower than ever.

Besides, once the space zones decided to cut off the signals of the Spiritual Nexus with Heavenly Saints City, they would completely lose contact with Heavenly Saints City.

By the time they established new channels of communication with the spiritual towers that did not belong to the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, it was very possible that Heavenly Saints City would have fallen into the Immortal Cultivators’ hands, and the heads of the five hundred sects would be dead people.

“The Flying Star Sector is peaceful tonight.”

The somewhat ironic secret code contaminated every corner of every space zone of the Flying Star Sector at the speed of light like virus.

…

At that moment, Heavenly Saints City was mired in chaos.

Accusing the crownless king of the Flying Star Sector of being an Immortal Cultivator had dire consequences after all. If it was not handled carefully, a civil war between the six sects of Heavenly Saints City, the Star Fighters’ Alliance, and the Glorious Sunlight Group might break out instantly.

With the final battle drawing near, naturally, such a thing could not be allowed to happen.

Therefore, although Mo Xuan expressed strong non-confidence in Xiao Xuance to the six sects of Heavenly Saints City and the Star Fighters’ Alliance on behalf of the Glorious Sunlight Group and Iron Plateau, not many people knew of the matter. Only dozens of the most crucial people knew the details of the issue, and hundreds more knew only a thing or two about the accusation.

The moment before the shocking explosion took place in the headquarters of the Grand Illusionary Group, most of the Cultivators still did not have any idea what was going on and were still under the impression that an easy victory was on the way.

When the Grand Illusionary Plaza along with the hundreds of Cultivators inside soared into the sky because of the explosion, the headquarters of the Grand Illusionary Group was drowned in an ocean of flames, and the blast knocked down many skyscrapers several kilometers away. A lot of Cultivators were had their mouths open in bewilderment, holding their humming ears, as if invisible people were stuffing eggs to their mouth.

The headquarters of the Grand Illusionary Group was the center of the Grand Illusionary Land and the Spiritual Nexus. Even the enormous data of the command center of the final battle needed to be transmitted through the super crystal processors in the headquarters of the Grand Illusionary Group.

The explosion not only killed countless super experts among the Cultivators but also sabotaged their communication network.

All the Cultivators were running around like headless chickens, cursing loudly at the light beam of their crystal processor, which showed nothing but snowflakes.

The Immortal Cultivators, on the other hand, had been prepared for this. They had moved all the core data and the super crystal processors to Heavenly Phantom.

Heavenly Phantom was the real center for them. The headquarters of the Grand Illusionary Group was just an empty shell.

“The Flying Star Sector is peaceful tonight.”

The secret code lingered on like an apparition in the Flying Star Sector.

…

The first space ring of Heavenly Saints City had already been caught in havoc because of the great explosion in the city.

A luxury shuttle flew above the crowd in a hurry. Inside the shuttle was an elder of the Feathered Snakes Brotherhood.

He had received the news of the great explosion of the Grand Illusionary Group and knew that dangerous changes had taken place. He was in a hurry to go to the space port, ready to leave for the central area.

Right then, he heard a resolute voice from the wrist crystal processors of his chauffeur and his bodyguard.

“The Flying Star Sector is peaceful tonight!”

Before the elder of the Feathered Snakes Brotherhood realized what was going on, the chauffeur had driven the shuttle off the route to a dark valley.

The bodyguard was wearing a pair of colorful, thorny gloves on his tough hands. He patted the elder’s shoulder, and the eruptive spiritual energy immediately collapsed the admin-type Cultivator’s not-so-strong body.

The bodyguard looked at him and said solemnly, “Elder Ye, a new era has come. Cooperate with us and work for the rise of the Imperium of the True Human Beings!”

Elder Ye immediately understood everything. His facial muscles regained their calmness after half a second of twitching. He took a long breath and collapsed in his seat helplessly. He shook his head with a bitter smile and said, “I’ve been a Cultivator for more than a hundred and twenty years. I don’t want to change now.”

“Alright.” The bodyguard took out a black dagger from his pocket and stabbed into his chest. “Then, please die for the civilization of mankind!”

Chapter 792: Face for Face!

 

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

Inside a camp of Exos in the southeast part of the central area of Heavenly Saints City, the ‘Bloody Axe Legion’, the most excellent Exo Society of the Giant Axe Hall, one of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City, was stationed. It was made of five hundred Exos who were all above the Building Foundation Stage. With the strict and obedient fighting style of the Giant Axe Hall, they were a horrifying force.

At this moment, the captain of the Bloody Axe Legion turned off the light beam that was displaying ‘the Flying Star Sector is peaceful tonight’ silently. He stood on a high platform and stared at the five hundred warriors who were gathered.

They were temporarily gathered because of the great explosion of the Grand Illusionary Group’s headquarters. Although they did not know what was going on, they were ready to deal with any changes.

“Warriors of the Giant Axe Hall,” the captain of the Bloody Axe Legion shouted, “betrayed! A filthy betrayal has just taken place! The Star Fighters’ Alliance and the fifty-six middle-sized sects have betrayed Heavenly Saints City and the world of Cultivators!

“The so-called Temple of Immortals is just a plot of the Star Fighters’ Alliance. They were planning to destroy all of us on Spider Den together with the space pirates!

“Xiao Xuance, as leader of the Cultivators, has been suspicious of the Star Fighters’ Alliance and investigating in secret. Finally, he has got something!

“The Star Fighters’ Alliance realized it and initiated their plan in advance in their desperation. Just now, they blew up the headquarters of the Grand Illusionary Group!

“Now, Heavenly Saints City is in peril, the world of Cultivators is in peril, and the Flying Star Sector is in peril!

“I have received the secret command from our leader. We have been asked to take action immediately and attack the Star Fighters’ Plaza!

“In a moment, I’ll send the command of our leader to you. Then, you will cut off the connection of your crystal processor.

“Remember, the Star Fighters’ Alliance has hacked into the Spiritual Nexus and will very likely send false messages to you. Do not be disturbed by them!

“Some of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers have fallen into the Star Fighters’ Alliance’s hands and are attacking our fellow Cultivators. Do not waste time on them. It is our mission to break into the Star Fighters’ Plaza and annihilate all the traitors of the Star Fighters’ Alliance!

“The fate of the Giant Axe Hall is in our hands. Warriors of the Bloody Axe Legion, let’s go!”

Led by their captain, the five hundred Cultivators who had been fooled roared and marched out of their camp, heading toward the Star Fighters’ Plaza unstoppably.

…

The Grand Illusionary Group had proposed the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project. Naturally, Heavenly Saints City was the biggest place of production and utilization of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers.

The third space ring outside of Flying Star University and Heavenly Saint Institute, after five years of construction, had essentially become a manufacturing base of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers.

In the enormous assembly lines, countless magical equipment components slid by every second and were put together by the flipping artificial arms. The crystals were filled, and the crystal processor was embedded in.

Inside the warehouse, many products of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers were folded and stored on the shelves.

The Grand Illusionary Soldiers were not all the Grand Illusionary Group’s property. A majority of them were ordered by other sects and refined by the Grand Illusionary Group.

Considering that the battle of Spider Den was about to begin, there was no need to ship the Grand Illusionary Soldiers back to their respective space zones. It seemed a better idea to jump to Spider Den from Heavenly Saints City together and return to their space zones when the war was over. That way, less money and resources would be wasted.

Therefore, over the past month, the number of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers stored in this place had reached a new high.

At this moment, ‘the Flying Star Sector is peaceful tonight’ was resounding in the third space ring through the broadcast rune arrays on the ceiling.

Since it was the biggest base of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, the Immortal Cultivators had spent much time infiltrating the factory. Almost half of the guards were Immortal Cultivators.

After a brief slaughter resulting in countless corpses, only the Immortal Cultivators’ guards remained.

“The No.1 factory zone is now under our control.”

“The No.2 factory zone is now under our control.”

“The No.3 factory is being fought over. Estimated to be under our control in two minutes and fifty seconds.”

The dozens of Immortal Cultivators operated on the light beams quickly while they announced the progress.

“Firstly, deploy the defense rune arrays in case the Cultivators return to the refining center.

“Then, release the stock!

“Set all the assembly lines at the highest speed and do not worry about the cost. One more Grand Illusionary Soldier means one more hope for the imperium!”

Zi! Zi! Zi!

Countless spiritual energy circuits were emitting a feeble brightness as they activated the Grand Illusionary Soldiers they were docked to.

The crouching Grand Illusionary Soldiers were picked up by the artificial arms out of the warehouse and stretched out.

Other artificial arms brought them chainswords, vibration sabers, heated axes, and small crystal cannons.

Teams of Grand Illusionary Soldiers, after being fully equipped, flew toward the central area with flames of passion burning in their eyes.

…

On Spider Den…

One crystal warship after another soared into the sky. Every one of them was like a can because they were packed with space pirates.

Spider Den was almost empty. Every starship that could move for a few hours in space was being activated. The air of every city in the mining pits was injected with excessive exhilarants.

‘Incendiary’, ‘Bullet’, ‘Bloody Thorn’, ‘Last Shot’… All the awe-inspiring exhilarants would cause irrecoverable wounds to the human body when they ran their course. In the worse cases, the victims might be paralyzed or mentally deranged.

But at least for now, the nerve endings of all the space pirates were on fire. The space pirates who had been frustrated for an entire year regained their previous cruelty, brutality, and arrogance. They roared like animals and batted the cabin walls of the crystal warships with their chainswords while they lunged at the space gate at the periphery of the space zone.

Near the space gate, the daily battle of attrition was underway.

However, the space pirates and the Immortal Cultivators were suddenly ten times more aggressive than before, to the point that they seemed to have suddenly lost the fear of death.

While the Cultivators were baffled, the Grand Illusionary Soldiers who were fighting side by side with them came to a standstill simultaneously. They were like silent, iron tombs floating in the deep, dark universe, except for the rhythmic brilliance that was shining deep inside their eyes.

“The Flying Star Sector is peaceful tonight.”

…

In half hour, the entire Heavenly Saints City, or rather, almost the entire Flying Star Sector, was burning.

However, in the debris in the northwest district of the tenth space ring of Heavenly Saints City, the four Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators who were well respected in the six sects of Heavenly Saints City, the leader of the Star Fighters’ Alliance and the second in command in the world of Cultivators, and the young man who could command most of the resources of the Glorious Sunlight Group and Iron Plateau knew absolutely nothing about it.

Xiao Xuance did not want them to send messages to the outside world. Therefore, he had imposed special barriers to block all the waves entering and exiting the Complex Star Plaza.

The soundwaves, vibration waves, and spiritual waves were all blocked.

In the meantime, Li Yao and the rest of the Cultivators thought that they were hunting Xiao Xuance and did not wish for Xiao Xuance to contact his accomplices. Therefore, they had imposed an even larger barrier outside of Xiao Xuance’s.

Blocked by the double barriers, all the waves and telepathic thoughts inside could not be sent out, but no information of the outside world could be transmitted in, either.

Therefore, while Xiao Xuance initiated the ‘New Era Plan’ flagrantly and commanded his subordinates to take action, Li Yao, Si Koulie, and the other people who had the capability to influence the situation wasted almost half an hour for nothing!

It was not until the barrier was removed and the communication was restored that they learned of everything that had happened in the central area from the thousands of new messages.

After he learned the truth, even Li Yao wanted to slap his face hard.

“Xiao! Xuan! Ce!”

Li Yao burst into such a fury that he almost jumped into the air and pluck his hair to vent his anger.

Ever since he had gotten the nickname ‘Vulture’, he had never been fooled so humiliatingly!

However, Li Yao could not bear to waste a single second in outrage or frustration. He compressed his anger into a spark and buried it in his heart, while he began thinking calmly.

Xiao Xuance has won the first round, but the game is not over yet!

Xiao Xuance has played all his trump cards and is in an overwhelming advantage right now, but I have three trump cards that are yet to be revealed!

Firstly, after Li Yao reached out to Professor Mo Xuan half a month ago, he had spoken to Xiong Wuji, chief of the Furious Bears Tribe on Iron Plateau, through Mo Xuan. With the help of Xiong Wuji, he had mobilized the elites of the six tribes of Iron Plateau and formed an expedition army whose number was much larger than previously expected.

The expedition army was in Heavenly Saints City right now. They had left their crystal warships and moved into Heavenly Saints City under the pretext that the carriers of the Glorious Sunlight Group were too seriously damaged in the cosmic storm.

With everything in chaos right now, such a well-trained army would definitely be a pillar to stabilize the situation!

More importantly, the Iron Plateau natives never liked magical equipment that was too precise, and they simply despised the Grand Illusionary Soldiers.

Therefore, there were no Grand Illusionary Soldiers in the army of the qi-trainers at all!

Secondly, Xiao Xuance was not aware yet that Li Yao was not the recently reincarnated Bai Xinghe whose soul was unstable. The truth was that he was not scared of soul attacks at all. On the contrary, soul attacks were his favorite, and he could take however many there were!

Right now, the only people who knew his real identity were the five spectral Cultivators, Xiong Wuji, Lei Dalu, and Bai Kaixin. None of them were likely to be Immortal Cultivators.

Li Yao had planned to unveil his real identity after Xiao Xuance was captured, but it seemed to him now that playing ‘Bai Xinghe’ a while longer had many merits and no harms.

Thirdly, and most importantly, he still had the ‘Brain Concussion Plan’!

The Brain Concussion Plan, which had begun five years ago, had yielded fruits. The five star spirits, including Professor Mo Xuan, had cracked the deeper structure of the star brain and programmed a few viruses that specially targeted the star brain. As soon as they hacked the star brain, they would be able to take control over part of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers!

Xiao Xuance, Li Yao’s face is not something that you can slap easily!

Very soon, I’m going to make you pay an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and a face for a face!

Chapter 793: The Brave Will Win!

 

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

Anxious discussions were echoing inside the communication channel. Many experts in the Core Formation Stage and Nascent Soul Stage were somehow confused by the situation right now and did not know what to do.

“Don’t panic. We still have our chance!” Li Yao bellowed.

Veins bulged out of his temples as his computational ability surged out from the depths of his brain cells like a volcano eruption. He sorted through the progress of the battle so far.

“Our plan to lure the enemy did not completely fail. Instead, it has obviously disrupted Xiao Xuance’s plan!

“Xiao Xuance’s best plan must’ve been to annihilate the available warriors of the Cultivators together with the space pirates after the Grand Illusionary Soldiers and the elites jumped to the Spider Den Space Zone.

“Even though he had a backup plan, which was to rebel in Heavenly Saints City, I think it should not have been today, but tomorrow in the morale-boosting rally, because that would have been the only time when the leadership of almost five hundred sects was all gathered.”

Everybody pondered for a moment and immediately thought the whole thing through after hearing Li Yao’s words.

If Xiao Xuance were to activate the ‘New Era Plan’ in Heavenly Saints City, the available warriors of the other space zones would no longer be his target. His target would be the heads of the five hundred sects. It would be a large-scale ‘decapitation operation’.

Only in the morale-boosting rally tomorrow would the heads of the five hundred sects show up simultaneously.

Today, although many of the heads were attending strategical meetings, they were scattered everywhere in the meeting hall. The leadership of many sects were in different space rings, rearranging the crystal warships or checking the inventory of the war assets.

Even if Xiao Xuance took control over the hall of the Meeting of Next Millennium, it was impossible for him to control all the leaders and elders. Those outside the central area of Heavenly Saints City in the space rings could all be temporary commanders and summon the Cultivators nearby to fight with them!

Besides, after the Glorious Sunlight Group and Iron Plateau’s accusations against Xiao Xuance, the six sects of Heavenly Saints City had increased the defenses of the hall of the Meeting of Next Millennium, too. Two Exo Societies had been stationed inside the hall in advance. Three thousand qi-trainers from Iron Plateau who had just arrived in Heavenly Saints City were staying in a temporary camp near the No.3 space port in the central area.

The No.3 space port was only several kilometers away from the hall of the Meeting of the Next Millennium.

Should there be anything wrong, the three thousand qi-trainers who were all ready for action could reinforce them immediately.

All the factors guaranteed that Xiao Xuance’s decapitation strategy would not work out so easily.

The other twelve thousand qi-trainers were stationed in the important locations of the central area, the first space ring, and the second ring. It was very easy for them to reinforce their allies, too.

“Right now, although we have been caught off guard, the situation is not within Xiao Xuance’s plan, either. Both sides have weaknesses. Victory and failure have not been decided yet. It all depends on which party stabs into the other party’s weakness first!”

The sweat on Li Yao’s forehead became bright red. Because of the high-intensity computations, the temperature of his brain had exceeded eighty degrees. His cerebral vessels were all exploding, resulting in serious internal bleeding!

Li Yao’s eyes were bloodshot. Trying to hold back the dizziness, he spoke with a higher and higher voice. “The biggest manufacturing base of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers of the Flying Star Sector is in the third space ring. Xiao Xuance is definitely not going to let go of it!

“After seizing all the Grand Illusionary Soldiers in Heavenly Saints City, he will definitely command the Grand Illusionary Soldiers to seize the crystal warships and those inside the third space ring to attack the hall of the Meeting of the Next Millennium as well as the other important warehouses!

“When Xiao Xuance’s army breaks into the hall of the Meeting of the Next Millennium and takes over the most important arsenals, the Cultivators will be losing!

“Our only opportunity is to board on Heavenly Phantom, the flagship of the Grand Illusionary Group, and control or destroy the star brain!

“When the star brain is gone, the Grand Illusionary Soldiers will lose 90% of their combat ability. They will be no different than beast puppets. No harm will ever be done.

“Since confidentiality has been the Immortal Cultivators’ top priority, and they did not expose themselves after lurking for decades, there cannot be too many of them. They are highly dependent on the Grand Illusionary Soldiers.

“Without the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, the scheme of the Immortal Cultivators will be finished!

“Besides, Xiao Xuance must be protecting the star brain on Heavenly Phantom, too. If we take down Xiao Xuance, the Immortal Cultivators will lose their leader. They will be in a mess, too!

“We have almost ten experts in the Nascent Soul Stage and dozens in the Core Formation Stage here. Such an enormous force is as threatening as a fleet. We must not be stalled in the battlefield outside Heavenly Saints City. We have to penetrate into the central area of Heavenly Saints City, slay Xiao Xuance, and destroy the star brain!

“If things had happened as Xiao Xuance planned, we would’ve already jumped to the Spider Den Space Zone when he rebelled. In the vast space, Heaven Phantom would have been protected by the crystal warships that were under the control of the Immortal Cultivators. Besides, Heavenly Phantom could move around to avoid the infiltration of the Cultivators. There would have been no way that anybody could get close to the star brain.

“But right now, since Xiao Xuance took action in a hurry, Heavenly Phantom is still parked in the space port of the central area.

“There is only limited room between the central area and the first space ring. It is now packed with hundreds of crystal warships. During the fierce battle, many crystal warships will block the sailing route. Heavenly Phantom won’t be able to get away even if it wants to. Because of the intense bombardment, it cannot perform a space jump, either. It is now mired in a swamp, unable to move anywhere!

“In a head-on clash, the brave will be the winner. Breaking into Heavenly Phantom is our only chance!

“This is my opinion. Do you have any suggestions?”

All the Cultivators were staring at Li Yao in silence. Even the sound of their breathing was gone in the communication channel. Everybody seemed to be bewildered by what Li Yao had just said.

Li Yao frowned. “What’s wrong?”

Si Koulie coughed and said, “Nothing. I just felt that Boss Bai was quite… a man of honor and integrity when you said that!”

Li Yao blinked. He was not certain whether or not there were Xiao Xuance’s spies among the hundreds of Cultivators who reinforced them. Therefore, he simply said, “Just consider it atonement for what I did in the past, alright? Besides, my parents haven’t been avenged yet. I won’t die a peaceful death unless I kill Xiao Xuance!

“Anyways, don’t mind the irrelevant stuff. Our time is limited. We must be fast! Otherwise, if Xiao Xuance really breaks into the hall of the Meeting of the Next Millennium and kills hundreds of leaders and elders, the Flying Star Sector will suffer heavy losses even if the insurrection of the Immortal Cultivators is pacified in the end!”

Si Koulie and the other few Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators discussed for a moment and soon agreed on Li Yao’s plan.

They all boasted tremendous computational ability and were basically super crystal processors. It took them only a few seconds to realize that what Li Yao had proposed was their only choice.

Xiao Xuance was performing a decapitation operation on the hall of the Meeting of the Next Millennium.

Then, they would perform an even more shocking decapitation operation on Xiao Xuance!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Right then, the tenth space ring started shaking slighting in earsplitting explosions.

The artificial dome thousands of meters above the ground was sparking, as if the night sky was on fire.

“The crystal warships deployed outside the tenth space ring have exploded!

“Many of the crystal warships carried a lot of Grand Illusionary Soldiers. Some of them have already been taken over by the Immortal Cultivators. They are attacking all the space ports in the tenth space ring and trying to block the sailing route.

“It appears that they are planning to blow up all the space ports and seal the sailing route to stop us from going to the central area!”

The battle situation outside the tenth space ring was soon displayed on Luo Xingzi’s crystal processor.

“Thousands of Grand Illusionary Soldiers have breached the defense of the tenth space ring and are marching inside!

“Our defense on the tenth space ring is not very strong. To make matters worse, many critical locations are guarded by the Cultivators and the Grand Illusionary Soldiers together. Therefore, many nodes of defense have been broken through instantly!

“We are the targets of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers!

“Xiao Xuance knows we are here. He won’t let us go away so easily!”

All the Cultivators were wearing grave faces.

In terms of numbers, even counting the reinforcements that would arrive later, there were only hundreds of them, which was insignificant compared to the vastness of Heavenly Saints City.

However, in terms of the combat ability, they had almost ten Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, dozens in the Core Formation Stage, and hundreds in the Building Foundation Stage. They were unquestionably the most influential chess piece in the game.

Whether or not the chess piece could be moved to the hostile king for checkmate would decide the outcome of this chess game with the universe as the board and the stars as the chess pieces!

“Ask all the crystal warships of the Star Fighters’ Alliance, the Furious Bears Union, the Silver Moon Clan, and the Heavenly Wolves Fortress in the eighth, ninth, and tenth space rings to reinforce the tenth space ring after they clear out all the Grand Illusionary Soldiers!”

Si Koulie and the few Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators quickly issued their commands.

There was quite a long distance between the tenth space ring and the central area.

They could fly over in their crystal suits at the cost of their own spiritual energy.

But after a long journey in the storm of bullets and swirls of spiritual energy, where they might be engaged with countless Immortal Cultivators and Grand Illusionary Soldiers, their crystal suits would have been serious damaged, and their own spiritual energy would run dry, even if they did arrive at Heavenly Phantom in the end. How could they fight ‘the best expert of the Flying Star Sector’ under such circumstances? They would be committing suicide!

Therefore, they had to ask one of the crystal warships to fly them to the central area of Heavenly Saints City!

However, Heavenly Saints City was in chaos.

The secret command that the star brain had sent out might not have been enough to control all the Grand Illusionary Soldiers in the other dozens of space zones across the vast space. But at the very least, it was not problem to control all the Grand Illusionary Soldiers inside Heavenly Saints City.

Those Grand Illusionary Soldiers had originally been stored in the crystal warships ready to be shipped to the Spider Den Space Zone.

When there were enough of them, they would break into the bridge together with the lurking Immortal Cultivators and seize control over the crystal warship.

If there were not enough of them to occupy the crystal warship, they would simply cause havoc inside the crystal warship.

The latest model of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers developed by the Grand Illusionary Group was allegedly designed to destroy the crystal warships of the space pirates in the final battle. They were simple in structure and low in cost and essentially walking crystal bombs.

Therefore, many sects had purchased them in bulk.

But right now, they had turned into the most fatal daggers stabbing countless holes in the crystal warships.

Si Koulie and the other Cultivators did not receive any confirmation after they sent out their command.

Li Yao frowned and secretly called Sparkle!

Chapter 794: “Mirror”

 

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

---

After the ‘Brain Concussion Plan’ was activated five years ago, Professor Mo Xuan and the other spectral Cultivators had gathered critical data during a full-scale examination of the star brain while running pertinent cracking and research. They had found out methods to hack the crystal processor and paralyze it instantly!

There was short-distance, point-to-point communication between Li Yao and Sparkle via a mechanism that was similar to that of the Great Pagoda VII. It was encrypted seven times and barely monitorable.

However, such a way of communication would trigger very immense spiritual waves, which could be noticed by other people easily.

It was why Li Yao had not reached out to Sparkle in the past day.

But right now, Heavenly Saints City was in chaos. Countless spiritual waves were flooding in space disorderedly. He did not need to worry that somebody might notice the anomaly anymore.

“Professor, what is your status? Unharmed from the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, I presume? When can you hack Heavenly Phantom and paralyze the star brain?”

There was intense anxiety in Professor Mo Xuan’s voice as he replied, “The fleet of the Glorious Sunlight Group and the Great Horn Exo Society are fighting hard against the Grand Illusionary Soldiers near the fourth space ring, but since the third space ring is a base of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, the place has now been locked down. It will take us some time to break through the space ring.

“As for the star brain… We are working hard to crack the barrier of Heavenly Phantom now!”

Li Yao was greatly alarmed. “Say what? Didn’t you say a couple of days ago that the thirteen barriers of Heavenly Phantom had been deciphered and you could hack the star brain in five minutes?”

“Yes. That was the case a few days ago,” Professor Mo Xuan said helplessly. “However, the moment the rebellion took place in Heavenly Saints City, a new, almost flawless barrier appeared on the surface of Heavenly Phantom. It is like a one-sided reflection membrane that has covered the entire crystal warship. The information and telepathic thoughts inside can be sent out without the slightest hinderance, but any signals from the outside world are reflected when they reach the shell!”

Li Yao was dazed. “Reflected?”

“I have no time to explain the specific mechanism to you right now. You can imagine that Xiao Xuance decorated the shell of Heavenly Phantom with a ‘mirror’ that simply reflects all the ‘rays of light’ that we sent to it!” Professor Mo Xuan said bitterly. “Xiao Xuance truly deserves to be known as the best expert of the Flying Star Sector. He had made thorough plans. I only realized just now that the thirteen complicated barriers previously were just bait that he let out intentionally for other people to crack! The mirror-like, one-sided reflection membrane is his real defensive measure!”

“How long do you expect you will need to break through the one-sided reflection membrane?” Li Yao asked in a hurry.

“Hard to say,” Professor Mo Xuan replied. “The barrier is completely different from all the defense approaches for crystal processors that we’ve met before. I have a feeling that it is in a different style from that of the barriers of both the Heaven’s Origin Sector and the Flying Star Sector!

“I’ve never seen such a weird barrier before. I’m doing my best to calculate and analyze it. However, in the best case-scenario, it will take six to eight hours for us to figure out the structure of the one-sided reflection membrane and another six to eight hours for us to program our virus into a form that can penetrate through the ‘mirror’!”

“That will be a whole night!” Li Yao’s face immediately turned greener than a cucumber. He gnashed his teeth and said, “Absolutely no way. The central area will be smashed into smithereens by the Immortal Cultivators in one night!

“We don’t have so much time. We have to waste the star brain within three hours!”

“The computational ability of the five ‘star spirits’, including me, is already higher than that of most super crystal processors,” Professor Mo Xuan replied, “but we cannot destroy the star brain in three hours even if we join our hands, unless we attack the star brain from the inside. The previously-unseen one-side reflection membrane is so weird!”

“Attack the star brain from inside?” Li Yao was dazed for a moment. Then, his lips cured into a smile of determination. He said, “Professor, please pilot Sparkle to the tenth space ring as quickly as possible!

“Try not to catch the Grand Illusionary Soldiers’ attention by maintaining the appearance of a ragged carrier. Their primary targets will be the crystal warships with high firepower!

“In the meantime, warm up the rigs and prepare to trigger the real form of Sparkle, especially the drill of mystic rays that we’ve been modifying for seven years!”

After a moment of silence, Professor Mo Xuan raised his voice and said, “Understood!”

Li Yao took a deep breath. He felt as if every inch of his skin was burning.

His two fists were even scorching as if he were holding two clusters of flames.

Heavenly Phantom was the flagship of the Grand Illusionary Group, the control center of all the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, and the command starship of the coalition army of the Cultivators in the battle of Spider Den to come. It was indubitably the strongest crystal warship of the Flying Star Sector!

Heavenly Phantom was also one of Xiao Xuance’s trump cards for his rebellion.

One Heavenly Phantom was enough to suppress half of the central area. Even if dozens of regular crystal warships bombarded it at the same time, it would not bother to hide at all!

What would happen when such a behemoth ran into Sparkle, which had been modified with the body materials of Skeleton Dragon and scraps of ancient magical equipment by the spectral Cultivators from the Heaven’s Origin Sector?

Li Yao was going to discuss the details with Professor Mo Xuan, when noises suddenly occurred in the communication channel.

Li Yao was dazed for a moment. “What happened?”

Professor Mo Xuan sounded grave. “The Immortal Cultivators and the Grand Illusionary Soldiers just broke into ‘Cloud’, one of the crystal warships of the Surpassing Sky Sect. Master Sky Spirit, leader of the sect, happened to be on board. He led the remaining disciples into the engine compartment and detonated all the fuel, blowing up the starship and perishing together with the enemy. He has sacrificed himself for his belief!”

After a moment of silence, Li Yao asked softly, “What’s the situation inside the city? Give me the most important information.”

Professor Mo Xuan stopped talking and sent an enormous stream of information into Li Yao’s crystal processor.

Right now, Heavenly Saints City was like a groundless pavilion that was quickly being dissected in the swirl of steel and flames!

Ever since the secret code ‘the Flying Star Sector is peaceful tonight’ was sent out, all the Grand Illusionary Soldiers had become the sharpest blades of the Immortal Cultivators.

Most of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers had been packed into crystal warships ready to be shipped to the battlefield.

Therefore, the crystal warships took the first blow and suffered the heaviest losses.

Head-on clashes were taking place inside the dozens of enormous fleets. The seemingly tranquil starships were bursting out dazzling flames and fireballs, as if they were being attacked by an invisible army.

The crystal warships that went out of control bombarded the allies next to them. Because of the limited room in the space port, the victims could not dodge, and almost every attack hit its target.

Some of the starships were detonated by the Cultivators or the Immortal Cultivators. The blast swept everything. Every space port was like a furiously-burning iron graveyard!

Outside the central area, the moment he issued the secret code, Xiao Xuance had commanded Heavenly Phantom to open fire at the crystal warships nearby that had not been infiltrated by the Immortal Cultivators.

Caught unprepared, many crystal warships lost their combat ability after flowers of destruction blossomed.

However, the crystal warships were too large anyway. Although they were riddled with holes, their billions of tons of weight were not going anywhere.

The debris of countless crystal warships blocked every sailing route and Heavenly Phantom’s way.

Besides, not all the crystal warships were affected by the Grand Illusionary Soldiers.

Many assault starships and attack starships were not large but boasted tremendous firepower. To increase their capacity for magical equipment and ammunition, there were not warehouses on them. So, they did not carry any Grand Illusionary Soldiers.

They came back to themselves from the riot quickly.

Although they did not know what had happened, they counterattacked intuitionally when they were attacked by Heavenly Phantom.

Because of the fierce bombardment, Heavenly Phantom could not perform a space jump to move to a more secret and secure location.

Overall, the battle in space was in the Immortal Cultivators’ favor.

As they had planned, they messed up the Cultivators’ crystal warships and basically blocked the traffic between the third space ring and the fourth space ring so that the Immortal Cultivators and the Grand Illusionary Soldiers within the third space ring could attack the hall of the Meeting of the Next Millennium unhurriedly.

However, the attack on the ground did not go as smoothly as planned.

The biggest trouble came from the Glorious Sunlight Group.

Li Yao and Professor Mo Xuan had speculated that there might be something wrong with the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project five years ago. During those five years, although Professor Mo Xuan could not stop the Grand Illusionary Soldiers from being equipped on a large scale, he had secretly been developing magical equipment that could jam the Spiritual Nexus.

With the enormous resources of the Glorious Sunlight Group, Professor Mo Xuan had manufactured a batch of special bombs in secret. They were the size of grenades and shared the same usage. When they were tossed away and detonated, they would jam the Spiritual Nexus dozens square meters nearby for several seconds.

Several seconds were enough for a well-trained Cultivator or qi-trainer to do many things!

Therefore, when the Immortal Cultivators attacked the hall of the Meeting of the Next Millennium with a large back of Grand Illusionary Soldiers, they discovered that the defense was better than they had expected because of the two Exo Societies that appeared out of nowhere.

Then, when they fought hard against the two Exo Societies, three thousand qi-trainers marched close from the flank. Those barbaric warriors from Iron Plateau were not only carrying heavy sabers but also the jamming bombs that they had just been offered.

Similar things happened in the first space ring.

The three large warehouses of magical equipment and crystals were the arsenals for the last battle. In Xiao Xuance’s plan, they were also the most important locations that must be taken over.

However, when the Immortal Cultivators and the Grand Illusionary Soldiers attacked the arsenals, they encountered the qi-trainers from Iron Plateau, too.

The commander of the qi-trainers was Yan Chihuo from the Burning Sun Tribe.

Five years ago, Yan Chifeng, his brother, and Yan Xibei, his uncle, conspired to murder Yan Zhengdong, his father, who was also the chief of the Burning Sun Tribe. A total war between Iron Plateau and the six sects of Heavenly Saints City had nearly been caused.

During the incident, Yan Chihuo, who was uncalm and bad-tempered, had been the first to suspect Xiong Wuji, which almost led to a great disaster.

When the truth was out, guilt had grasped Yan Chihuo. He had even tried killing himself once to wash away his disgrace!

After Xiong Wuji learned of the matter, he had gone to Yan Chihuo and talked to him overnight many times. Later, he had even recruited as Yan Chihuo as his true disciple.

During the five years that followed, under the tutelage of Xiong Wuji, the irascible young man’s personality had greatly changed. He had also been training crazily and considered it an act of repentance for himself.

At this moment, with the guidance of his master and the help of the drugs, resources, and training facilities provided by the Glorious Sunlight Group, Yan Chihuo had advanced into the 95th level of the Refinement State and become one of the best experts on Iron Plateau!

---

Chapter 795: Cover the Retreat

 

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

---

“Five years ago, it was the Temple of Immortals that stirred up trouble on Iron Plateau and nearly triggered a great war between Iron Plateau and the six sects of Heavenly Saints City. Xiao Xuance has been proved to be the leader of the Temple of Immortals. He is every Iron Plateau native’s mortal enemy!

“Qi-trainers! Even the apocalypse failed to wipe us out. What can this scrap iron and copper do?

“Today, let our valor flourish in the heart of the Flying Star Sector!”

One was most motivated when looking for revenge. Yan Chihuo’s father had died in the scheme of the Temple of Immortals, and the leader at the back of the Temple of Immortals was Xiao Xuance!

The ten thousand qi-trainers led by Yan Chihuo were like torrents that were rushing everywhere inside the first space ring, raising sparks of iron and blood in their crashes. They guarded the most important warehouses stably and earned precious time for the Cultivators to gather!

…

In the second space ring, Wu Mayan was taking action, too.

The second space ring was the educational district of Heavenly Saints City. It was occupied by Flying Star University, Heavenly Saints Institute, and the various research centers, schools, and neighborhoods affiliated with the two supreme colleges.

The students of Flying Star University and Heavenly Saints Institute were all one-in-ten-thousand elites. Even the first-year students boasted tremendous capabilities. The faculty, especially the professors of the Combat Department, the Battlesuit Department, and the Firearms Department, were mostly the top-tier experts in the world of Cultivators.

Li Yao had informed Wu Mayan through Xiong Wuji more than half a month ago and asked him to make preparations in case Xiao Xuance suddenly rebelled.

However, considering the gossip in the college, he did not tell Wu Mayan that he was back.

During the five years, Wu Mayan had finished courses that would usually take more than ten years for other people. He had earned diplomas from the Combat Department, the Battlesuit Department, and three other departments. He was currently working at a research center affiliated to the Flying Star Sector on the subject of the reverberation of spiritual energy.

The reverberation of spiritual energy could only be performed by qi-trainers in the past, which meant that only the spiritual energy in the gaseous form could resonate.

Wu Mayan’s goal was to extrapolate the technique to the Building Foundation Stage and the Core Formation Stage so that the spiritual energy in the liquid and solid forms could resonate, too!

Barely anybody had been match for Wu Mayan five years ago. Now, after five years, he was unquestionably number one in the younger generation of the two colleges.

In a private competition, he had even defeated the rest of the ‘top ten experts of the two supreme colleges’ all by himself!

The Glorious Sunlight Group and Iron Plateau provided astronomical resources for him. The noble families of refining expressed their support for him because of Xie Anan, his junior sister, too.

Therefore, Wu Mayan was quite influential in the two colleges.

So, after Professor Mo Xuan told Wu Mayan what had happened in the central area, it had only taken him half an hour to gather the most capable teachers and students of the two supreme colleges and inform them of everything.

“Xiao Xuance is an Immortal Cultivator. The Grand Illusionary Soldiers have rebelled!”

As an educational district, the second space ring did not have many military ports or Grand Illusionary Soldiers.

The few Grand Illusionary Soldiers there were destroyed by the teachers and students quickly.

Those Grand Illusionary Soldiers that had apparently gone out of control further proved Wu Mayan’s words.

“March to the first space ring! Protect Heavenly Saints City! Protect the Flying Star Sector!”

The shuttles at the periphery of the second space ring had mostly been destroyed by the Grand Illusionary Soldiers together with the space ports.

But it was not important.

The second space ring and the first space ring were very close. Cultivators could fly over directly after they put on their crystal suits.

Hiu! Hiu! Hiu! Hiu!

Outside the second space ring, countless colorful mystic rays soared into the sky and darted toward the first space ring like a brilliant meteor shower!

…

While a heated battle was underway in the central area of Heavenly Saints City and the first space ring, Li Yao and his companions were involved in trouble in the tenth space ring, too.

During the disaster of the extraterrestrial devils five years ago, it was the Grand Illusionary Soldiers who had banished all the enemies once and for all.

Therefore, the residents of the tenth space ring particularly appreciated and trusted the Grand Illusionary Soldiers.

Also, since this place was the outermost part of Heavenly Saints City and habituated mostly by civilians, not many Cultivators lived or were asked to be stationed there.

Therefore, the Grand Illusionary Soldiers were the best choice of guardians for the tenth space ring. 70% of the defensive work was carried out by them.

Right now, the Cultivators were swallowing the bitter fruit that they had grown themselves.

All the Grand Illusionary Soldiers deployed in the tenth space ring crowded toward the northwest district. They surrounded the hundreds of Cultivators like a cold tsunami.

Although there were almost ten Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, they felt unease when they were faced with tens of thousands of Grand Illusionary Soldiers.

Besides, a lot more Grand Illusionary Soldiers were reinforcing nonstop. Observed from afar, they looked like an ever-expanding cloud!

“There are too many Grand Illusionary Soldiers. Our spiritual energy is dropping fast!”

“My crystal suit is already overloading. Luo Xingzi, cover me while I put on my second crystal suit. I only brought three crystal suits with me in total!”

“All the space ports of the tenth space ring have been destroyed by the Grand Illusionary Soldiers. Even if our crystal warships arrive in time, they will have no place to dock!”

There was nothing except bad news in Li Yao’s communication channel.

He gritted his teeth and waved his saber forward, extending the aura until it was dozens of meters long.

In front of him, all the Grand Illusionary Soldiers in the shape of a sector were like bamboo crafts that had been stomped on. They exploded amid cracking noises, their components flying everywhere.

One attack eliminated almost thirty Grand Illusionary Soldiers.

However, more Grand Illusionary Soldiers quickly filled the vacancy like mercury. They marched onward fearlessly and emotionlessly, draining Li Yao’s spiritual energy and crystal suit.

This is not going to work!

After almost three thousand Grand Illusionary Soldiers had been destroyed, many Cultivators were running out of spiritual energy. There were even casualties.

“Leader Si, have the crystal warships of the Star Fighters’ Alliance not arrived in the tenth space ring yet?” a Cultivator shouted in the communication channel.

“The main force crystal warships of the Star Fighters’ Alliance and the six sects of Heavenly Saints City are the important targets of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers. They are all being harassed!

“The Grand Illusionary Soldiers have also occupied the artilleries of several space rings. They’ve blocked the sailing route with railguns. The crystal warships will suffer heavy losses after they pass each space ring!”

Si Koulie’s throat sounded like smoking.

“A starship of the Glorious Sunlight Group has broken through the eighth space ring. It is arriving in the tenth space ring soon!” Li Yao roared, refreshed.

All the Cultivators were delighted first, but doubts surfaced very soon.

“The starship is going to carry us all through the ten space rings. It will be blocked and hunted. Therefore, it must be tough enough,” Si Koulie said straightforwardly “I’ve never heard that the Glorious Sunlight Group has ever refined any powerful crystal warships. What is the level of this particular starship?”

“Believe me!” Li Yao declared confidently. “It is definitely the best starship in the world! We should go to the No.17 space port right now to meet the starship!”

Si Koulie and the rest of them considered for only three seconds before they accepted Li Yao’s plan.

They had no other options.

“March toward the No.17 space port!”

When the dozens of Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and Core Formation Stage Cultivators went on a rampage, even all the Grand Illusionary Soldiers in the world were not enough to stop them!

In that moment, flying swords were raging, magical equipment was roaring, and smoke was rising nonstop. An iron forest seemed to be burning, and molten steel was flowing everywhere like magma!

Almost a hundred experts broke out of the siege!

But hundreds of Cultivators in the Building Foundation Stage were still mired in the swamp, unable to move.

More Grand Illusionary Soldiers were marching close from the flanks unstoppably, like the fangs of a viper that were biting together.

“If the Grand Illusionary Soldiers keep following us, there is no way that we can all board the crystal warship.”

Looking at the overwhelming Grand Illusionary Soldiers, Liao Huagu, a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator from the Furious Bears Union, suddenly said calmly, “The number doesn’t matter in the assault of Heavenly Phantom, but the speed must be high!

“Fellow Cultivators, leave now. I will cover your retreat!”

“Fellow Cultivator Liao!”

All the Cultivators were yelling. They knew what Liao Huagu meant.

Even though he was a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, nothing but doom awaited him if he was attacked by tens of thousands of Grand Illusionary Soldiers simultaneously.

“Leave now! Stop wasting your time here!”

Liao Huagu opened his arms. Flames of light leaked out of his crystal suit and formed a giant dozens of meters tall in midair. It could vaguely be seen that a light ball that looked like a baby was crouching in the center of the giant.

The Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator had started burning his life and soul. He was releasing the spirit and will that he had accumulated over his entire life!

“Even the Immortal Cultivators can defend their beliefs at the cost of their life. Are the Cultivators no match for them?

“No matter what, I will not let any Grand Illusionary Soldier pass by me before you all board the crystal warship!

“Go now! Go assault Heavenly Phantom and execute Xiao Xuance!” Liao Huagu roared almost crazily.

Above his real body, the giant, which was dozens of meters tall, was also thundering. The soaring flames of light were both like wings and a pair of hands that were going to rip apart the darkness of night!

“Let’s go!”

There was no time to dawdle. More arduous fights were awaiting them. All the Cultivators gritted their teeth and darted toward the No.17 space port.

Liao Huagu smiled. Faced with the tens of thousands of Grand Illusionary Soldiers, he closed his eyes and reminisced about his life, his eyes somewhat wet.

Right then, he sensed unfathomable strength appearing behind him. He opened his eyes and immediately frowned.

Another Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, Zhuge Ci from the Silver Moon Clan, had left the team and returned to him.

“What are you here for? You don’t believe that I will stop them?” Liao Huagu burst into fury.

“Exactly, I don’t believe in your soft bones,” Zhuge Ci scoffed. “In all the time I’ve known you, have you ever won a single competition between us? During the share meeting of the Furious Bears Tribe and the Silver Moon Clan, you even wept after you failed. Haha. Covering the retreat is such an important task. How can I trust that you will handle it well?”

“Bullsht! Bullsht! Bullsh*t! That was more than a hundred years ago. It doesn’t count!” Liao Huagu was more than angry. “You are shameless enough to talk about the fights when our spiritual roots had not even awakened yet more than a hundred years ago. Why don’t you talk about the competitions after we advanced into the Nascent Soul Stage? Have you ever won any of them?”

Zhuge ci smiled. “That’s because I went easy on you. You are more or less a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator and an elder of your sect. I was merely helping you preserve your face in front the juniors.”

Liao Huagu laughed so crazily that there were tears in his eyes. “Hahahaha. It’s been two hundred years. You have not changed at all. Shameless and rodomontade. One look at you is enough to piss me off. Just get out of here and stop being a nuisance!”

“What will you do if I don’t?” Zhuge Ci asked calmly.

Liao Huagu’s laughter came to an abrupt end. He was silently briefly, before he took a breath and said, one word after another, “Then let’s have one last competition and see who the better one is!”

“Alright. Then I’ll show you the latest accomplishments of my training over the past few decades,” Zhuge Ci said. “However many Grand Illusionary Soldiers you kill, I will kill one more!”

The two Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators stopped talking.

A monolithic giant gradually formed above Zhuge Ci’s real body, too.

The two Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators were dozens of meters away from each other.

But the two giants were very close to each other because of their enormous size.

Shoulder to shoulder, and the furious flames interweaving together, they confronted the sweeping black clouds alongside one another!

---

Chapter 796: Transformation

 

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

---

The No.17 space port had been bombarded into smithereens. All the airtight doors and the docking rune arrays had turned into the melted slag. The air inside the tenth space ring leaked out through the damage, raising minor swirls along with the debris on the ground.

The Grand Illusionary Soldiers were crowding toward the port from various direction like locusts. Xiao Xuance seemed to have discovered the aim of the experts and wanted to drown them in an ocean of iron with all the forces available. At least, he wanted to drain their spiritual energy and damage their crystal suits.

“Where is the crystal warship of the Glorious Sunlight Group right now?” Si Koulie asked, breathing heavily.

He was not good at fighting. Persisting in the storm for so long had hit his limits.

“The crystal warship has broken through the ninth space ring smoothly and will be arriving soon. However, it cannot be docked here. We’ll just fly out of the space port to board it!”

Li Yao and the Cultivators fought and moved out of the space port.

The situation in space was even more chaotic than the tenth space ring. The Grand Illusionary Soldiers that looked like red-headed flies were everywhere. Crystal warships were colliding and exploding as far as one’s eyes could reach. The ever-surging fireballs looked like fireworks and showed absolutely no sign of dwindling.

“We have suffered heavy casualties. There’s no time to look for a second starship!” Si Koulie scanned the status of all the Cultivators in the system. He said worriedly, “The crystal warship of the Glorious Sunlight Group is our only hope. Is it capable enough of bring us through nine space rings to somewhere near Heavenly Phantom?

“We must know that Heavenly Phantom is a super warship co-produced by the Star Fighters’ Alliance and the Grand Illusionary Group. At that time, we did not know that Xiao Xuance was an Immortal Cultivator. It was designed to be the flagship of the coalition army in the final battle. Therefore, it was refined with the most marvelous techniques. The main guns and the defense rune arrays have never even been used before in any main force warships of the Star Fighters’ Alliance!

“If a regular starship shows up in front Heavenly Phantom, it might be blown into oblivion after one shot!”

“Rest assured!” Li Yao licked his lips and said, “This crystal warship is the Glorious Sunlight Group’s secret weapon. Its firepower might not be as impressive as that of Heavenly Phantom, but it is definitely the fastest, the most inconspicuous, and the most distinguished in interference and anti-interference starship of the Flying Star Sector—It is here!”

All the Cultivators were overjoyed. Thousands of crystal cameras scanned the surroundings far and wide.

But as far as their eyes could reach, there were nothing but broken starships on the burning battlefield. There was not the slightest sign of a super starship.

Right then, a ragged starship crawled out of an area of debris.

It was a carrier no longer than two kilometers. It was round and looked like a fat buffalo. The anti-collision plates on the surface were mottled, dented, and rusted. On the shell of the starship, the heat-resistance and defensive patches were a mess. It was like a twelfth-hand antique that somebody had bought from a bankrupt ship factory and did not even bother to paint the anti-rust lacquer.

All the Cultivators were rendered speechless.

Their skeptical eyes pierced through their crystal suits and toward Li Yao without any disguise.

Si Koulie was dumbfounded, too. He failed to come up with any comment and could only gasp.

Thousands of Grand Illusionary Soldiers condensed into dozens of tornadoes and swept toward them and the old-aged carrier.

All the Cultivators believed that the carrier was doomed, because they did not detect any cannons or even a glimmering spiritual shield on the surface of the carrier.

When the Grand Illusionary Soldiers invaded the carrier, its only outcome would be destruction!

However, when hundreds of Grand Illusionary Soldiers moved to a hundred meters from the carrier, they came to a weird standstill in glittering sparks at first, before their limbs and spines were twisted into screws amid cracking noises.

In a moment, the hundreds of Grand Illusionary Soldiers were completely destroyed.

“This is the latest magnetic defense rune array that can deploy a very powerful, controllable magnetic field outside the starship. With sufficient spiritual energy, all the metal within range can be manipulated!” Li Yao explained to the bewildered Cultivators.

Si Koulie was the first to come back to himself. He flew toward Sparkle without any hesitation. “We don’t have any choice now. Get on board!”

The five gates on the right side of Sparkle were opened. More than a hundred Cultivators boarded the starship at the same time. More Grand Illusionary Soldiers followed them, only to be shredded into pieces by the special magnetic field when they entered Sparkle’s defenses’ range!

Sparkle turned around and marched toward the central area of Heavenly Saints City!

“Welcome aboard, fellow Cultivators.” Professor Mo Xuan greeted the hundred Cultivators gracefully in an artificial body. “Powerful medical and recovery magical equipment has been installed on Sparkle. Please make the best use of the facilities to recover your strength and restore spiritual energy for the fierce battle to come.”

The environment inside Sparkle was totally different from the shabby appearance on the outside.

Overall, every place was built with silver liquid metal. There was not the slightest gap on a single cabin door, much less traces of forging or riveting. It seemed to be made of an intact silver block.

It would not be exaggerating to say that it was flawless.

Even the experienced Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City were awed by the internal structure of Sparkle after they were aboard and did not know what to say for a long time.

Si Koulie, as an expert in starships, was glowing with interest. He scratched every corner of Sparkle and seemed to be willing to melt into it!

Si Koulie was the most skilled expert in the production of starships in the Flying Star Sector. Although Professor Mo Xuan and the other spectral Cultivators had turned into unique ‘star spirits’ by accident, their main specialty was crystal suits. In regard to starships, they were not as knowledgeable as Si Koulie.

However, the life forms of Professor Mo Xuan and the other star spirits were the souls of human beings combined with the mustard-seed-level liquid metal on the starship.

One might say that they were part of Sparkle, and Sparkle was their ‘body’!

The modifications that they did to their ‘body’ naturally far exceeded Si Koulie’s expectations.

“I didn’t know that the Glorious Sunlight Group had such a high expertise in the refining of starships. Even the Star Fighters’ Alliance might not be able to produce such a strong starship!” Si Koulie complimented sincerely.

Professor Mo Xuan smiled and waved his hands. The silver walls around immediately rippled as if they were water in a pond. Soon, they became almost transparent.

The whole of space was before them.

In front, a few other light beams displayed Sparkle’s form and the situation of dozens of battlefields captured from different perspectives.

At this moment, Sparkle had left the tenth space ring for the central area of Heavenly Saints City, but their trouble had not ended yet. Many Grand Illusionary Soldiers had captured the scene where the experts entered Sparkle.

A great number of Grand Illusionary Soldiers and starships that were controlled by the Immortal Cultivators marched toward Sparkle quickly, planning to block the starship on its way.

Faced with the overwhelming enemies, Professor Mo Xuan did not intend to fight the hard way. Instead, he piloted Sparkle into a battlefield that was packed by the debris of more than ten starships.

Si Koulie was dazed for a moment. He was an expert in starships and naturally knew a lot about the tactics of the starships.

Entering a zone of debris could allow the starship to get away from the enemy’s searching. However, it would also mean that the starship would be trapped in the zone forever and completely lose its mobility. Therefore, it was quite a passive tactic.

However, what happened next made him feel stunned even though he had been dealing with starships all his life!

When Sparkle flew into the debris zone, it had been a fat carrier.

However, after the ragged plate was shaken off inside the debris zone, it changed into a slender assault warship.

After a quick look, Si Koulie recognized that it was a ‘Red Shark’-level assault warship that the Star Fighters’ Alliance devised more than a hundred and thirty years ago. Since it was simple in structure and reliable in performance, it was very popular among the middle and small sects. Today, it was still many small sects’ favorite.

The Red Shark assault warship was also rusted and riddled with holes. Large clusters of fireballs were popping up everywhere, as if a large batch of Grand Illusionary Soldiers were raging inside the starship and the Cultivators on-board would lose control at any moment.

Si Koulie blinked and realized that it was a very smart camouflage.

The Grand Illusionary Soldiers were looking for a ragged carrier instead of a Red Shark assault warship.

Besides, judging from the appearance, the shaking and collapsing assault warship would not catch the Grand Illusionary Soldiers’ attention at all!

With such a disguise, Sparkle passed through the ninth and the eighth space rings easily. Such light assault warships boasted plain firepower and were not threats to Heavenly Phantom. On the priority rank of the Immortal Cultivators, they were in a very low position.

However, after analyzing the data in the battlefields carefully, Xiao Xuance did cast his suspicious eyes to the weird assault warship in the end.

At this moment, Professor Mo Xuan played the same move. Sparkle entered another packed battlefield and took off another ‘shell’, pretending to be a ‘Light’ rapid starship that was much smaller in size!

“The surface of Sparkle is adorned with both mechanical structures and the camouflage of mystic rays. It can pretend to be fourteen different models of crystal warships according to our demand in a battle. Moreover, it can also fake six forms, including ‘slightly damaged’, ‘heavily damaged’, ‘loss of momentum’ and ‘total loss’, in order to bait the enemy!” Professor Mo Xuan declared proudly.

Later, they changed into six different disguises, from a rapid starship, to a maintenance starship, to a medical starship, and to debris that had completely lost all impetus. Finally, in the storm of bullets and cannon fire, it reached the central area of Heavenly Saints City without being damaged at all!

However, in the central area, the disguises would not work anymore!

---

Chapter 797: Brilliant Sparkle!

 

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

---

The central area of Heavenly Saints City was the focus of the Immortal Cultivators. The majority of their crystal warships and Grand Illusionary Soldiers had been gathered in this place.

Most of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers there were larger, faster, and protected by brighter spiritual shields. The flying swords and mystic rays that they triggered were more agile and destructive, too!

Li Yao even saw dozens of Grand Illusionary Soldiers shoot out almost eight hundred flying swords, which riddled a crystal warship with holes immediately and made it lose all its combat ability!

“They are all the masterpieces crafted by the Grand Illusionary Group themselves without bothering about the cost. They are far better than the inhomogeneous products that other sects refined!”

The Grand Illusionary Soldiers in the central area was not only better in quality but also larger in quantity. Instead of thin tornadoes, they formed wriggling black clouds that consumed the sky.

Some of the smaller crystal warships were completely wreathed by the Grand Illusionary Soldiers. When the Grand Illusionary Soldiers dispersed, the glamorous-looking starships turned into broken, lackluster debris!

The scene was both like a shoal of piranhas biting the prey that had fallen into the water crazily and an ant army marching on the ground, turning all the creatures in their way into bones!

Protected by the millions of Grand Illusionary Soldiers, Heavenly Phantom was like a majestic king in silver armor, aweing the entire space zone!

“The main gun of Heavenly Phantom was developed by the Star Fighters’ Alliance, the Grand Illusionary Group, and almost twenty other sects that are famous for their crystal cannons,” Si Koulie said in an almost desperate tone. “It is known as ‘Heavenly Might Artillery’!

“The Heavenly Might Artillery has ninety-nine ball-like turrets. However, the turrets are not fixed on the surface of Heavenly Phantom but floating around Heavenly Phantom, connected by the electromagnetic force. They can move along any trajectory, like ninety-nine satellites that surround Heavenly Phantom!

“The ninety-nine turrets can either be evenly distributed around Heavenly Phantom and attack individually or move to the same location and constitute a super cannon whose damage is unimaginable.

“One shot is enough to vaporize an entire crystal warship!

“The Heavenly Might Artillery is the strongest aggressive magical equipment in the Flying Star Sector. No cannons are a match for it!”

Li Yao observed from afar and, thanks to his amazing eyesight, indeed found almost a hundred light spots that were circling around the body of Heavenly Phantom.

Every turret of the Heavenly Might Artillery was around one hundred meters in diameter. They were round, translucent, and looked like glittering pearls from a distance.

The glamorous brilliance they shot out, however, boasted unbelievable damage. It was as powerful as the main gun of regular crystal warships. Moreover, the cooldown of the turrets was extremely short. They were shooting almost consecutively without a break!

Pulled by the electromagnetic force, the ninety-nine floating turrets moved around Heavenly Phantom quickly. There was not a blind spot at all!

No break, no blind spot, and extremely powerful. According to the defense of the target, one, two, or even more turrets could be gathered together in order to increase the intensity of the attack. This was the Heavenly Might Artillery, a super weapon that the refiners of the entire Flying Star Sector had worked hard on for a long time!

In the most crucial battlefield that was supervised by Xiao Xuance in person, every crystal warship had been locked onto by the Grand Illusionary Soldiers. Even if they had become empty shells and lost all momentum, they would not be let go of until they were completely ripped apart!

Sparkle could not fake its way forward now.

“We can only break in by force now!” Bloody flames were flowing crazily inside Li Yao’s eyes. His lips curled in excitement as he said, “Leader Si, please give a command to the starships in the battlefield that are still under the control of Cultivators. Ask them to stall the enemy no matter what the cost is. We are about to launch the final charge!

“Professor Mo, Leader Si has sent the structural design of Heavenly Phantom to the mainframe crystal processor of Sparkle. Now, let’s march forward at full speed with the bridge of Heavenly Phantom as our target!”

Si Koulie lost his cool. “Bridge? The bridge is the heart of Heavenly Phantom. Besides, the star brain is right behind the bridge! When we devised Heavenly Phantom, the defense of the bridge was the highest priority! We are definitely going to suffer the most brutal attack from Heavenly Phantom if we choose that place as our destination!”

Professor Mo Xuan smiled. “Then, please sit in the buffer rune arrays, everybody, because the remaining part of our journey might be a bit… bumpy.”

Crack! Crack! Crack!

The souls of Professor Mo Xuan and the other spirits completely melded into the mainframe crystal processor of Sparkle.

All the disguises outside Sparkle was taken off during the acceleration.

The rusted and dented plate was gone, replaced by a splendid, translucent body that was immaculate!

Hiss!

When the Cultivators saw Sparkle’s real form through the light beam, they all gasped in shock.

Si Koulie was so thrilled that he found it hard to breathe.

The starship in front of their eyes was less than nine hundred meters long. Faced with the super starships that could easily be more than ten kilometers long, it seemed to be insignificant.

However, the neat and delicate starship was like a brilliant diamond emitting dazzling brilliance that immediately attracted everyone’s attention!

Although they were merely observing the starship on the light beam, every Cultivator could feel the untamable urges of Sparkle, as if it was not a crystal warship but a ferocious animal that had travelled from the primordial era to the present day!

Si Koulie could not help but compare Sparkle to Heavenly Phantom, which he refined in person.

Although the sizes of the two starships were vastly different, one of which looked like an elephant and the other a mouse, the aura and brilliance of Sparkle were as daunting as Heavenly Phantom, if not more!

It was like a firefly suddenly emitting endless flames and trying to burn the sun up!

“Please sit down, everybody. We will now distribute most of the spiritual energy and the computational ability to the power rune arrays and the defense rune arrays. We won’t be able to ensure the stability of the starship!”

Professor Mo Xuan’s voice, which was generated by the vibrating metal patches, sounded quite excited. “Sparkle, move forward. Target: Heavenly Phantom, the flagship!”

Hiu!

In the next moment, all the Cultivators seemed to be bashed hard right in their faces. Even the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators fell into the buffer rune arrays all of a sudden and did not adapted themselves to the high speed for a staggeringly long time.

The shining starship was immediately noticed by Xiao Xuance.

After analyzing the speed, agility, and the spiritual waves it released, the star brain determined Sparkle to be the most dangerous enemy!

“Block it!” Xiao Xuance bellowed.

Within a breath, commanded by the star brain, whose computational ability was as vast as an ocean, countless Grand Illusionary Soldiers and crystal warships under the control of the Immortal Cultivators crowded toward Sparkle.

In the meantime, forty-one out of the ninety-nine turrets on Heavenly Phantom locked onto Sparkle!

Zi! Zi! Zi! Zi!

Deep purple brilliance flashed on the forty-one turrets at the same time. Then, forty-one bolts of lightning flashed across space and split into a storm of lightning!

Many Cultivators and crystal warships that were standing in the way of the lightning were torn apart ruthlessly.

Some of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers were unfortunate enough to be captured by the lightning storm, too. They all turned into broken, empty shells after spluttering sparks.

However, defense shields that looked like golden scales appeared around Sparkle, turning it into a dragon that had soared into the sky. It rushed forward in the dazzling lightning, completely undamaged. Even its speed was not affected at all. The starship turned into a streak of brightness and moved forward!

Two crystal warships controlled by the Immortal Cultivators blocked Sparkle’s way, one on the left and the other on the right. They planned to force Sparkle to change its direction, only to be crushed immediately like a dark cloud that was torn apart by sunlight!

Sparkle leapt out of the cloud and split the darkness of the universe like a golden sword!

There was no need to mention the Grand Illusionary Soldiers. In front of Sparkle, which had accelerated to the highest speed, they were like thousands of ants trying to stop a sprinting crystal train. The only possible outcome for them was to be crushed into smithereens instantly!

Standing on the bridge and looking at Sparkle, which was charging close, Xiao Xuance was lost for a moment.

The thousands of light beams on the bridge were displaying bad news on the ground incessantly.

It had been three hours since the New Era Plan was initiated. However, the Immortal Cultivators had not taken over the hall of the Meeting of the Next Millennium and the few important warehouses of magical equipment in the first space ring.

The qi-trainers who jumped out of nowhere and the elites of Flying Star University and Heavenly Saints Institute, who had organized themselves much faster than he had expected, had all caught him unprepared.

But so far, those difficulties were all conquerable.

Although the battle was stagnant right now, the Cultivators would be tired and wounded, and they needed rest. After all, their bodies were made of flesh and blood.

After two hours of high-intensity combat, the spiritual energy of most Cultivators was already running dry.

With the help of Heavenly Phantom, he had basically suppressed all the crystal warships above the central area of Heavenly Saints City.

Most of the crystal warships had either been taken over by the Immortal Cultivators or utterly broken apart!

In half an hour, the battle would be completely under his control. He would be able to spare his hands and suppress the central area with Heavenly Phantom.

If it was necessary, he could aim the Heavenly Might Artillery at the hall of the Meeting of the Next Millennium and bombard it directly. He would be glad to find out how many strikes that defense rune array of the great hall could resist exactly.

Despite all the unfavorable circumstances, Xiao Xuance had thought that the balance of victory was slowly leaning toward him.

However, at the most crucial moment, an unbelievably cutting-edge starship jumped out of nowhere. According to the calculation of the star brain, the starship did not hide its target at all. It was darting directly toward the heart and the head of Heavenly Phantom!

“Deploy three times, no, five times more Grand Illusionary Soldiers to defend the bridge. I want the bridge and the chamber where the star brain is placed filled with Grand Illusionary Soldiers until nothing can pass through!

“Turn all the turrets to the left side of Heavenly Phantom and aim them at the target together!”

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Chapter 798: Instant Movement, Breaking In!

 

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

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Shua! Shua Shua!

The ninety-nine turrets that were evenly distributed around Heavenly Phantom now all glided to the left side.

Ninety-nine giant ‘marbles’ that were perfectly round and smooth were piled up high. Starting from the foundation of the tower, every turret glittered suddenly and transmitted surging spiritual energy forward.

When the spiritual energy of different marbles was concentrated to the front of the giant artillery, it seemed to be a bright purple solar prominence that contained endless power and could stab a hole in the universe!

“The spiritual energy is charged. The ninety-nine turrets have been adjusted to the same frequency!”

“The trajectory of the target has been locked. It does not change its course at all and simply comes straight at us!”

“Prepare to open fire in three seconds!”

For all the Cultivators and Immortal Cultivators inside Heavenly Saints City, those were perhaps the longest, most painful three seconds of their life.

Everyone who was placed in the battlefield, be they Cultivators or Immortal Cultivators, could not help but slow down their attack. They gazed at the streak of gold that was darting at Heavenly Phantom at a high speed with scorching eyes.

Even the Grand Illusionary Soldiers became somewhat inert because the star brain had shifted a huge amount of computational ability to control the Heavenly Might Artillery and analyze Sparkle’s path.

It felt as if everything in the entire universe except for Heavenly Phantom and Sparkle halted for three seconds!

The mainframe crystal processor of Sparkle sensed that the starship had been locked onto, but it had no intention of decelerating or dodging.

The speed of the starship had been brought to the maximum. It was impossible to slow down or take down. Not only would a great amount of time and fuel be wasted, the starship would risk being harassed by the Grand Illusionary Soldiers again.

Although Sparkle could paralyze the Grand Illusionary Soldiers with the electromagnetic defense system, it would have to consume a lot of spiritual energy. When it was drowned in an ocean of Grand Illusionary Soldiers, there would be no way to accelerate again.

Therefore, Sparkle could only take the chance. It moved faster and faster, leaving a magnificent blurred shadow trailing behind!

“Open fire!” Xiao Xuance said coldly.

“Activate!” Li Yao shouted, with veins bulging on his face.

There was no sound. In the universe of silence, a silver dragon mixed with purple electric arcs spurted out and exploded into billions of crazily dancing snakes, sweeping the more than ten cubic kilometers on the left side of Heavenly Phantom.

All the Exos, Grand Illusionary Soldiers, and crystal warships within range were torn apart and obliterated into scorching torrents of particles. Pushed by the billions of dazzling snakes, they congregated into a sea of destruction and lunged at Sparkle!

However, Sparkle was still marching forward, like a lone warrior on the battlefield who was charging toward the barrage of ten thousand sharp arrows!

Many Cultivators who saw the scene closed their eyes sadly, unwilling to witness the doom.

Inside Sparkle, quite a few Cultivators who were wreathed in the buffer rune arrays exclaimed in shock, too.

However, the next second, Sparkle disappeared!

The surging tsunami of spiritual energy and the heated torrents of particles only tore Sparkle’s golden blurred shadow into pieces!

Including Xiao Xuance, no one realized what had happened.

The star brain, on the other hand, calculated Sparkle’s location at the earliest chance—It was now on the right side of Heavenly Phantom!

Instant movement!

Sparkle had performed an instant movement, or rather, a super short-distance space jump, in the last second.

Although space jump was a mature technique in the Flying Star Sector, the super long-distance jumps across Sectors and the super short-distance jumps were both problems that had baffled the scientists for a long time.

Super short-distance space jumps were especially troublesome. Because the distance was too short, it had a high demand on the instant changes between the three-dimensional universe and the four-dimensional universe. It was like sewing on a cell and had been an impossible conundrum!

Besides, for normal space jumps, the starships had to warm up for a few hours while remaining absolutely still before they performed one if they intended to arrive at a specific location.

Otherwise, the outcome of the starships would be exactly like when Li Yao jumped together with Skeleton Dragon. They would not be able to set their destination, and there would absolutely be no telling where they would end up.

But right now, Sparkle had performed an incredible high-precision instant movement while it was at a rushing speed against the bombardment of immense spiritual energy!

Such a technique had far exceeded the highest of the Flying Star Sector!

“It’s impossible!” Xiao Xuance’s face had become twisted. He roared, “Stop it! Stop it now!”

“It’s impossible!”

All the Cultivators who saw the scene, on the other hand, were all overjoyed and exclaimed in disbelief.

In their earnest eyes, Sparkle crawled out on the right side of Heavenly Phantom, as if it had just passed through an invisible wormhole. Its speed was not in the least affected. Moreover, crimson flames in the shape of a torch flooded out of the head of the starship and revolved rapidly into a giant drill that seemed to be able to blow up the sky!

Right now, the tip of the drill was less than ten kilometers from Heavenly Phantom.

Given the velocity of starships, the distance was shorter than the width of hair.

Nothing could stop the assault of Sparkle now.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

The ninety-nine turrets quickly glided to the right side of Heavenly Sparkle. Intense brightness was beaming out while they were on their way, indicating that they had been recharged before they arrived at their destination.

However, before they condensed into an enormous artillery again, Sparkle had already pierced through five layers of the spiritual shields of Heavenly Phantom, as easily as an awl stabbing through five pieces of paper.

Before the surging spiritual energy in the turrets was triggered, Sparkle had already drilled the artillery apart. All the turrets were swinging in various directions crazily!

The drill of mystic rays penetrated through the solid plate that was dozens of meters thick. Sparkle had stabbed into the head of Heavenly Phantom!

Although there was no sound in space, all the Cultivators who saw the scene seemed to hear earsplitting noises. They felt that their heads aching, as if something had drilled a hole in their skull brutally!

Heavenly Phantom, which was more than thirty kilometers long, and Sparkle, which was hundreds of meters long, were two extremities. They were like an elephant and a mouse.

However, when the ‘little mouse’ that was Sparkle crept into Heavenly Phantom’s body and swept aside everything in its way with the help of the drill of mystic rays and the tremendous impetus of the engine, the elephant could do absolutely nothing to stop it from moving forward despite its outrage!

Inside Heavenly Phantom, countless cabins were quickly filled up with quick-drying foam, which soon consolidated into stiff rocks.

However, Sparkle had been designed to roam below the solid rock stratums of Boneyard, so Sparkle did not met any problem when it was pushing forward. It did not stop drilling until it was less than a hundred meters from the bridge.

Li Yao clenched his fists and shouted excitedly, “One step forward, and we will drill through the star brain!”

“Can’t do that. Sparkle has reached its limits. One more step forward, and it might crumble immediately. Besides, the souls of the five of us are already burning up, too!” Professor Mo Xuan’s voice was feeble. “The super short-distance space jump was a state-of-the-art technique even in the era of the Star Ocean Imperium. Although we managed to perform it, the ‘instant movement’ has caused great damage to both Sparkle and us. Our computational ability has been consumed a lot!

“Drilling through the solid defense rune arrays and shell of Heavenly Phantom was a major undertaking for the drill of mystic rays. Sparkle right now is an arrow that has run its course. It cannot take a step further!”

Li Yao thought for a moment and asked, “Then, right now, the ‘mirror’ outside Heavenly Phantom should’ve been broken, right? Can you hack the star brain and paralyze all the Grand Illusionary Soldiers?

“We can stay here while you paralyze the Grand Illusionary Soldiers. Then, we will march out and take down Xiao Xuance!”

“It’s impossible!” Professor Mo Xuan said. “The star brain is too powerful and complicated. It will take at least ten minutes for us to infiltrate and trigger the virus.

“The star brain is likely to detect us during the process. If so, an intense combat of computational ability will begin.

“This is the head and heart of Heavenly Phantom, guarded by countless Grand Illusionary Soldiers. If the star brain detects us, they will come over very quickly and rip Sparkle together with us into shreds before we manage to activate the virus!

“Therefore, you have to attack the bridge and try to slay Xiao Xuance. That way, you will distract the Grand Illusionary Soldiers’ attention and buy more time for us!

“The Grand Illusionary Soldiers in this place are basically Xiao Xuance’s personal guardians. They must be controlled by the star brain directly, which means that the star brain must spend a lot of computational ability on them!

“The more heated your fight is, the more computational ability the star brain will have to summon to deal with you. We will be able to take advantage of its weakness and perhaps activate the virus after fooling the star brain completely!”

Li Yao realized that distracting its attention was quite a good plan.

Then, what else was there to say? Time to fight!

They were immediately divided into two groups. Part of the Cultivators, including Si Koulie, stayed to protect Sparkle, while the rest of the Cultivators went to march toward the bridge led by Li Yao and Luo Xingzi!

With everything coming this far, there was no need to preserve spiritual energy anymore. Li Yao ushered the six dragon heads on the back of his crystal suit to blow out extremely powerful dragon balls, which blew up the cabin walls along with the Immortal Cultivators and the Grand Illusionary Soldiers behind the walls. The road leading to the bridge was created!

On their way, countless Grand Illusionary Soldiers came at them from the pathways on the left and right.

Those Grand Illusionary Soldiers were slightly different from those that the Cultivators had seen in space.

Not only were they made of much better materials, more importantly, they were also much more agile, and their choice of tactics was much more mysterious and unpredictable, as if living souls were hiding behind the thick armor. There was no feeling of machinery in them at all.

Li Yao knew that the Grand Illusionary Soldiers were directly manipulated by the star brain. Their computational ability could be ten times higher than those out in space!

Faced with the Grand Illusionary Soldiers that were marching close like tides, countless Cultivators in the Building Foundation Stage and the Core Formation Stage volunteered to stay and resist them, earning precious time for Li Yao and the rest of the high-level Cultivators. After three minutes of high-intensity fighting, they finally broke into the bridge.

Li Yao, however, gasped when he saw what was inside the bridge. He swallowed difficultly and felt the hair on the back of his head standing up one by one!

---

Chapter 799: Life and Cell

 

Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97

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As a super starship more than thirty kilometers long, Heavenly Phantom boasted an extremely spacious bridge. The tallest section was almost a hundred meters. It was essentially a splendid palace!

On the cabin walls were dense crystal processors that were emitting lackluster brilliance. Like weird eyes, they stared at the intruders without blinking.

The crystal processors were surrounded by defense rune arrays that looked like membranes. They were shivering and shining like bubbles below sunlight. In the rear of the bridge where the star brain was located, more than ten defense rune arrays had been established, drowning the star brain in a mysterious, flowing mist.

At this moment, on the bridge, thousands of Grand Illusionary Soldiers were piled up from the ground into the air neatly in the shape of a cube.

The Grand Illusionary Soldiers were tall, slender and elegantly-designed. Their bodies seemed to be made of white jade, and there was not the slightest incongruity, except for the battle emblem of a burning golden planet that was embedded on the chest.

Li Yao had never seen such delicate, glamorous Grand Illusionary Soldiers before. They were essentially lifeless combinations of machinery and crystals, and yet they were releasing spiritual energy to the surroundings blatantly as if they were intelligent creatures.

The spiritual energy of so many Grand Illusionary Soldiers interweaved into an indestructible cage!

The cage was slowly pushing close to the Cultivators.

Li Yao could not find a trace of Xiao Xuance.

Did I make a mistake? Has Xiao Xuance entered the central area to attack the hall of the Meeting of the Next Millennium instead of staying on Heavenly Phantom to command the battle?

Li Yao was somewhat confused. Logically, it was simply impossible. The star brain was of paramount importance for the Immortal Cultivators. It was unlikely that Xiao Xuance would give up its protection and move somewhere else.

Or, did Xiao Xuance think that the unprecedently strong Grand Illusionary Soldiers were enough to block all the Cultivators?

“Give it up!” Right then, a cold voice came from the broadcasting rune arrays below the skull of a Grand Illusionary Soldier. “You have come a long way from the tenth space ring. You are running out of strength. You are doomed to be drowned by the ocean of Grand Illusionary Soldiers. You do not stand a chance.

“Give up the futile resistance and the meaningless sacrifice.

“We are all the strongest warriors in the lead of the path of evolution. We are the hopes of the civilization of mankind. There is no reason we should attack each other!

“If you surrender now, I will not care about your doings in the past. Even Bai Xinghe can be pardoned. We will work together to build the Imperium of True Human Beings and realize the renaissance of the civilization of mankind. We will fight against the horrifying foreign species in the dark forest side by side!”

Li Yao was suddenly alarmed. He vaguely guessed the tactic that Xiao Xuance had chosen.

Before he opened his mouth, Luo Xingzi, Xiao Xuance’s junior brother, had already roared in the utmost fury, “Shut up!

“Xiao Xuance, you are talking about the civilization of mankind all the time. Greatness, glory, and renaissance. They are indeed high-sounding and righteous!

“But look at what you’ve been doing when you were talking about the rise of the civilization of mankind!

“Seven years ago, in the Skyhill Sword Seminar, you blew up tens of thousands of people through the Temple of Immortals!

“On Iron Plateau, your scheme nearly put Iron Plateau and Heavenly Saints City at loggerheads against each other. Should the civil war have begun, countless innocent people would have lost their family and buried themselves in space!

“Five years ago, in the tenth space ring, the arrival of the extraterrestrial devils, directed by you, resulted in the deaths of more than a hundred thousand people. Even more suffered severe life-changing injuries!

“During the past five years, the crimes that the Immortal Cultivators have committed in the Flying Star Sector are simply too many to count!

“How many innocent victims have been killed by you, the sordid Immortal Cultivators? They were all living souls made of flesh and blood. They were somebody’s father, mother, son, daughter, husband, or wife!

“You filthy bastards used living human beings as chess pieces, as your tools, and as the ‘fuel’ that kept your ambitions burning. Even your own son was killed without any hesitation when the situation demanded it. And you are shameless enough to talk about the civilization of mankind? Damn you!”

The Grand Illusionary Soldier fell silent.

However, not far away, another Grand Illusionary Soldier raised its head, with crimson colors beaming out of its eyes. It commented calmly, “In mankind’s millions of years of glory, what is the difference between the so-called son and a hair? Will you hesitate when you pluck out one of your hairs?”

After saying that, the Grand Illusionary Soldier fell silent, too.

Far away from the two Grand Illusionary Soldiers, a third Grand Illusionary Soldier at a another corner of the cube opened its mouth. “In the boundless sea of stars, in the dark forest where the strong prey upon the weak and only the fittest survive, and in the everlasting war that has been on for billions of years, individuals are absolutely meaningless. Only the civilization of mankind as a whole is invaluable!”

A fourth Grand Illusionary Soldier at the center of the cube continued, its voice piercing through the distance of dozens of meters like a sharp sword, as tough as iron. “Every human being is a cell. When all the cells are gathered, the great civilization of mankind is formed.”

A fifth Grand Illusionary Soldier next to the fourth one went on. “For a living creature, its metabolism, the death and birth of its cells, is the least unusual thing in the world. The weak cells may wither, but they will give place to the cells that are even stronger. Only after countless cycles of metabolism can the creature become stronger.”

A sixth Grand Illusionary Soldier, which was right before the Cultivators, said, “This is the path of evolution! This is the path of immortality! For the immortality of the civilization of mankind, what’s the big deal about sacrificing some tiny cells? Not just millions of people, even if billions of people must be sacrificed, we Immortal Cultivators will be justified and unwavering!”

All the Cultivators failed to come up with a response.

Li Yao was so worried that he was having a headache.

It was not because of Xiao Xuance’s bewildering propaganda, but because he had finally found out the tactic that Xiao Xuance had adopted!

Xiao Xuance was truly sordid enough. He was on Heavenly Phantom, but he was wearing a crystal suit that looked exactly like the Grand Illusionary Soldiers and hiding himself among the thousands of counterfeits!

The thousands of Grand Illusionary Soldiers had become the best camouflage for him.

Since the Cultivators were not able to tell which of them was a Grand Illusionary Soldier and which was the real Xiao Xuance, the Cultivators had to focus all their attention and go at full strength prudently when they were faced with every Grand Illusionary Soldier.

Even for the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, their spiritual energy was still limited. It would be used up very quickly in high-intensity combat.

Before, when they were faced with the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, which were basically expendable, the Core Formation Stage Cultivators and the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators could suppress their strength and fight the battles in a frugal manner.

However, right now, they knew that one of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers was the best expert of the Flying Star Sector. Who dared to preserve their strength anymore?

The cost of one moment of carelessness would probably be their own life!

Li Yao cursed within his heart. Are you kidding me? As the best expert of the Flying Star Sector, he could have crushed the enemy with his muscles. And yet, he is now fighting with his brain. He is really not giving other people any chance at all!

“For the last time.” The thousands of Grand Illusionary Soldiers each raised one finger at the same time. “Is there anybody willing to pledge their loyalty to the Imperium of True Human Beings, and to me, Xiao Xuance?”

All the Cultivators bit their lips hard, as if their tongues had all be cut off.

Luo Xingzi burst into laughter. “Xiao Xuance, save your time! Our beliefs are different. In the eyes of the Cultivators, human beings are just human beings. They are not monkeys or ants, much less cells! As long as there is a single breath in the last Cultivator, they will fight your Imperium of True Human Beings until the end!”

Xiao Xuance sniffed. The giant cube made of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers moved again slowly and drew close to the Cultivators.

“Li Yao, we’ve broken through the first defense line. The virus will be planted very shortly. Not only will it be able to paralyze the star brain, a large batch of Grand Illusionary Soldiers will also fall into our control! Do something and buy us more time!” Professor Mo Xuan shouted in the secret communication channel.

Li Yao shuddered. He suddenly raised his hands high in the posture of surrender and said, “Wait, Xiao Xuance. After hearing what you’ve said, on second thought, I suddenly feel as if you are very reasonable, and I can barely find any rebuttals!

“It’s quite right that every weak human being is just a cell. The death of millions of people is just the loss of a hair or a fingernail for the civilization of mankind. Honestly, we rub off some of our dead skin when we are taking a shower every day, right?

“Therefore, Fellow Cultivator Xiao, I wonder, can you give a little more introduction about your Imperium of True Human Beings? For example, what kind of benefits are there if we join the imperium, what will the constitution of the imperium be when the regime is in place, and what are the ranks of nobility of the imperium? For the men of justice who abandon the darkness for the brightness in the frontline such as myself, can you knight me? Why don’t you tell me about that?”

All the Cultivators looked at Li Yao, dumbfounded.

Li Yao felt as if he heard a feeble curse in the communication channel, too.

All the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, on the other hand, chuckled in amusement.

“Alright.” The Grand Illusionary Soldier in the front extended three fingers and said, “I’ll give you three seconds. Attack any Cultivator with your strongest move sparing no effort, and I will believe your sincerity and introduce to you the future of the Imperium of the True Human Beings in great detail.”

“Huh?” Li Yao was stunned.

“Beep. Time is up. The window is closed!”

All the Grand Illusionary Soldiers unsheathed their sabers, their spiritual energy all bursting out!

The bird that takes the lead is often shot first. Hundreds of intimidating auras locked onto Li Yao at the same time!

Damn you! It’s only been one second!

Li Yao felt like crying. Every time he meant to stall his enemy, his enemy was always smarter than he thought!

Hiu! Hiu!

The thousands of Grand Illusionary Soldiers shrieked earsplittingly. The soundwaves pierced into the Cultivators’ crystal suits without any hinderance and blew into their ears. Everybody’s head was aching, as if somebody was twisting their brain with sharp knives!

The cube suddenly crumbled. The thousands of Grand Illusionary Soldiers, mixed with Xiao Xuance, the best expert of the Flying Star Sector, lunged at the dozens of Cultivators from various angles!

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Li Yao threw out countless crystal bombs that could jam the Spiritual Nexus.

However, this place was the center of the star brain, and the intensity of the signals of the Spiritual Nexus was unbelievably high. Other than making the eyes of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers blink for a moment, the crystal bombs had absolutely no effect!