Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

The drill of mystic rays was bouncing like unpredictable flames in Yan Xibei’s pupils, burning the last bit of his consciousness into oblivion.

The best warrior of Iron Plateau in the old days took a long breath, before he gradually froze, withered, and died with an indescribable expression on his face.

Li Yao didn’t know what to say. He scratched his helmet for a long time before he asked, ”How did you end up here?”

”We came to Iron Plateau to look for you and did not know it was so weird until we arrived. Without your specific coordinates, we could only wander aimlessly,” Mo Xuan explained. ”Later, we noticed that an Exo Society had landed on Iron Plateau. We had been following them secretly, but we lost them half a day ago.

”We detected that spiritual waves of this area were extremely intense, so we drew close below the ground.

”We did not anticipate that so many eccentric demon beasts were lurking here. To avoid them, we increased the speed of the drill, but we accidentally dug into a cluster of extremely strange mucus.

”The mucus seemed to be a living thing and attacked us, even trying to infiltrate Sparkle!

”But you also know that the five spectral Cultivators including me are all the crew members on board. Our bodies are made of nanotechnology-based alloys that were impenetrable for the mucus. Of course, we launched a counterattack mercilessly!

”The moment after we destroyed the central nerves of the mucus, we sensed your telepathic thoughts and drilled our way out!”

Li Yao realized that he had truly been lucky. Although the Blood Stripe Virus could corrupt living creatures and even germs, the bodies of Mo Xuan and the other spectral Cultivators were liquid metal, a kind of powerful magical equipment from the Star Ocean Imperium. It was definitely not something that the Blood Stripe Virus could conquer!

The crew members of Sparkle were the natural enemy for the Blood Stripe Virus!

”What’s the situation right now?” asked Mo Xuan.

Pondering for a moment, Li Yao replied quickly, ”The situation is rather complicated. You’d better keep lying low below the ground. Set the communication channel to No. 9; I’ll reach out to you later!”

Since they were on the same planet, communication was a lot easier. Although Iron Plateau was not covered in the Spiritual Nexus, Li Yao could contact Sparkle through telepathic thoughts enhanced by crystal processors at the agreed frequency. It was essentially a point-to-point super mini network.

The electromagnetic environment on Iron Plateau was quite erratic, but Li Yao’s capability had soared, too. The power of his soul was ten times stronger than in the past. Simple communication at a distance of several hundred kilometers wouldn’t be a problem.

Looking at Yan Xibei’s body one more time, Li Yao sighed with mixed thoughts.

Yan Xibei was truly the most formidable enemy he had ever met on his path of Cultivation. Although Skeleton Dragon, the ancient deadly demon from forty thousand years ago that he had encountered on Boneyard, was much more impressive than Yan Xibei in terms of absolute strength, the demon’s scheme, arrangement, and response to changes were far from the previous best warrior of Iron Plateau.

Manipulating Iron Plateau natives, space residents, and Immortal Cultivators at the same time purely on his own, and trying to twist the course of development of a planet and even a constellation in the next thousands of years…

How ambitious and bold that was!

Also, the man had been so close to victory at the end.

Although it was Yan Xibei who had died in the end, Li Yao did not think that he had defeated him. Maybe, the man had been just short of some luck.

If Yan Xibei were not possessed by the Blood Demon, and the future that he described was a plausible possibility, then—

Li Yao shook his head and tossed the philosophical problems away. For some reason, he found it hard to hate Yan Xibei.

Righteous or evil, Yan Xibei deserved to be the best warrior of the six tribes of Iron Plateau in the past!

Li Yao sighed. He then retrieved some crystal bombs that he had dismantled from the tank of the Burning Sun Tribe and placed them on Yan Xibei’s body solemnly.

Mo Xuan was dazed. ”What are you doing?”

Li Yao replied, ”Every living creature here, including the smallest insects, might have already been corrupted. Naturally, I’m going to bombard everything to the ground. As it happens, this very bomb contains fatal neurotoxins. I don’t know if they work on the foreign blood, but they should be better than nothing!

”I’ve set the bomb to explode in half a minute. You go back to where you came for now. I’ll send the map of the Furious Bears Tribe to you shortly. We’ll meet again later near the Furious Bears Tribe!”

”Alright!”

Mo Xuan also knew that Li Yao must’ve experienced a lot of adventures on Iron Plateau, but now was not a good time to talk yet. He maneuvered Sparkle and disappeared in the hole he had come from.

Li Yao looked at Yan Xibei’s body for the last time. Spiritual gas spurted out from the Sky Scorpion Armor as he flew off.

Just when his feet left the ground, weird redness suddenly leapt out of Yan Xibei’s body and pierced at Li Yao’s back like a lightning!

Just as I expected!

Li Yao had been waiting for it. He had condensed dozens of purple gold electric arcs inside his right palm. He opened his right hand, and the Purple Electric Blue Hellfire Claw Art was activated to the maximum. The electric arcs were all released and hit the bloody redness precisely!

Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!

The electric arcs locked the bloody brightness like a cage. It was screaming miserably and trying to rush out of the cage, only to be burnt into black stinky smoke when it reached the boundary. After ten seconds, its struggle became feebler and feebler, and it turned into ash in the end!

”Hu…”

Li Yao took a long breath in relief. A bloody streak suddenly blinked in the depths of his left eye, but he didn’t realize it and dashed to the earth without looking back.

On the earth, the heavy storm continued unabated.

The weird grey mist flooding out of the cave made everybody wary of getting too close. They could only hold their breath and gaze at the entrance of the cave.

Xiong Wuji managed to sit straight with the support of Wu Mayan and Sha Yulan. He gritted his teeth and stared with hope.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The thunderous explosions from underground seemed to indicate that a great earthquake had happened.

Before everybody had the chance to exclaim, a shadow dashed out of the cave.

It was Li Yao!

In that moment, the valley was seething with cheers and applause that even eclipsed the sound of the storm!

…

In the planetary ring outside Iron Plateau, the fleet of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City had already gathered. Countless Exos and armed shuttles were sent out to perform directional blasting jobs.

Although they could not destroy the whole defense array, they were capable of digging a hole through it.

Inside the bridge of Proud Sun, the flagship, Captain Wan Liyun was eyeing the space steles about to be detonated one after another coldly.

By controlling the direction, angle, and intensity of the explosions and deploying a huge number of magnetic devices, the soldiers were creating a channel in the dense array of meteoroids.

On the light beam, a Cultivator wearing the badge of the Burning Sun Alliance reported, ”In twenty-four hours, a channel that assault warships can pass through will be completed!”

”Very good. These are the last twenty-four hours. If we don’t receive a signal from the Great Horn Exo Society, we’ll send our main troops down!

”Remember, it is very possible that Iron Plateau has become a base of the Temple of Immortals. All the qi-trainers are our potential enemies. So, don’t consider this operation a simple rescue mission.

”This is war. A real war!”

Wan Liyun smashed the control panel and gnashed his teeth in fury. ”If the rescue mission fails, or the hostages are confirmed dead, retaliation is to be put into action immediately. I want Iron Plateau to be buried in flames!”

Next to Wan Liyun, a Cultivator wearing the emblem of the Furious Bears Union observed gravely, ”Captain Wan, we have always believed that there is much more to the incident. Should we act more judiciously until we have solid evidence proving that Iron Plateau natives were involved in the kidnapping?”

”Judiciously?” Taking a deep breath, Wan Liyun replied coldly, ”Brother Su, you must think that the Burning Sun Alliance has gone mad because our disciples were captured and even murdered, right?

”This is the latest news sent from the Heavenly Saints Space Zone. Brother Su, and everyone else, please take a look.

”Up until now, the Heavenly Saints Composite Index has dropped by more than forty percent compared to three months ago. The average share price of the major groups under the name of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City has plunged by fifty percent. The transportation sector suffered the heaviest losses. More than seventy percent of the share price has been vaporized.

”This is an out-and-out stock market crash!

”Right now, the financial market is in chaos. A lot of transportation companies are dying under the threat of the space pirates. The cargo passing through Heavenly Saints City this month was only sixty percent what it was during the same period last year. Don’t forget that Heavenly Saints City is the most heavily guarded metropolis in space!

”Some smaller space towns have shut their doors to the outside world in fear of the assault of space pirates. Their cargo throughput was only twenty to thirty percent of last year’s!

”You still think that the so-called space residents and the Temple of Immortals are merely skin diseases?

”They are most definitely not!

”The civilization of the Flying Star Sector is founded on the smooth, secure lines of transportation!

”The six sects of Heavenly Saints City are acknowledged by most ordinary people because we can protect the traffic lines and ensure the communication of people and goods in the bleak, dark universe!

”Transportation lines are the foundation of our civilization. Without transportation lines, we are but lone islands scattered in the sea of stars. Before long, our entire civilization will collapse!

”After the several months of rioting from the space pirates, all the people of the Flying Star Sector are hiding in their towns and fortresses, shuddering in fright. They are losing confidence in the six sects of Heavenly Saints City!

”If a rumor that we cannot even protect our family and disciple breaks out right now and that they were ruthlessly murdered by Immortal Cultivators whom we can only sit and watch to run away, how can we convince the ordinary people that we have the ability to protect them?

”If we don’t have the ability to protect ordinary people, why would they support us, buy our shares, receive the education that we provide, take our carriers, and stand on our side?

”Do you understand? This is not an issue of twenty hostages; it concerns whether or not everyone in the Flying Star Sector should continue trusting the six sects of Heavenly Saints City!

”It will certainly be for the best if we can rescue the hostages, but if we can’t, we have no other options except to launch a thunderous attack at Iron Plateau with all our might. We will rebuild people’s confidence in the six sects of Heavenly Saints City with the destruction of our enemy!

”Do you agree, everybody?”

There was a long silence inside the bridge.

Cultivators wearing the emblem of the Furious Bears Union slowly nodded their heads. ”Agreed.”

Those wearing the emblem of the Feathered Snakes Brotherhood replied, their eyelids twitching, ”Agreed.”

Heavenly Wolves Fortress, Giant Axe Hall, Silver Moon Clan… All the Cultivators sighed and nodded one after another. ”Agreed!”

Wan Liyun was flushed and appeared restless. He waved his hands, somewhat tired. ”Everybody, take a good rest in our last day. In twenty-four hours, ’Operation Thunder’ will be carried out!”

Right then, the light beam started shaking weirdly. Taking a deep breath, the officer exclaimed, his voice shaking, ”Ca—Captain, we received a message from the Great Horn Exo Society!

”The rescue mission was a success!

”The twenty hostages are all unharmed!”