Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

What bothered Li Yao most was not just the formidability of the soldier of the Nether World Watch but also the strengthening necklace he wore.

Li Yao could see that, in the research room that was one glass wall away from the test field, there were dozens of necklaces of the same model on the table, with almost a hundred different-colored strengthening drugs next to them.

The strengthening drugs and the necklaces could be paired freely. Other than the crimson drugs, there were also light gray, violet, and azure ones, each of which was emitting mysterious brilliance and dense spiritual energy.

It meant that such strengthening necklaces could very likely trigger frost, poison, corrosion, and a lot of other effects besides the incendiary effect.

If all the soldiers of the Nether World Watch are wearing strengthening necklaces, with the ‘biochemical firearms’, they will definitely be strong enough to crush any main-force legion of the federal army!

After observing dozens of research rooms and weapon test fields from the above, Li Yao was more and more shocked.

Elder Nether Spring was much more stronger than he had expected. His declaration of ‘the rise of the third life form’ was most certainly not a fantasy but a frightful future that was very likely to come true someday!

In the pathway before Neltharion, several exhausted soldiers of the Nether World Watch, who had just finished their testing, were walking to the lift at the end of the pathway.

Li Yao thought of something and tailed the soldiers into the lift, too.

On the control panel of the lift was a verification rune array. One of the soldiers stuck his right hand to the verification rune array. It was not until a scarlet mystic ray scanned his hand and then turned green that the lift was activated slowly.

Judging from the flashing crystals embedded in the lift, the ‘Nether World’ was extremely large in scale. The building they were in right now had more than fifty floors.

Just now, they were in the minus third floor. At this moment, they reached the minus twelfth floor.

The minus twelfth floor was a vast training camp where hundreds of soldiers of the Nether World Watch were doing high-intensity training. Even the most common soldiers who were only embedded with three to five cores were most carrying hundreds of kilograms on their wrists and ankles while they trained themselves under three to five times the standard gravity.

Despite the burdens, the force of their punch was almost always profound.

Sometimes, when intense brilliance burst out of their demon cores, they were even punching at a supersonic speed and exerting a force of more than ten thousand kilograms. Even an iron plate as thick as a palm might be broken through easily!

Li Yao secretly clicked his tongue after witnessing such strength.

Maybe, the newly established crystal legions of the Star Glory Federation were enough to compete with them. But by the same logic, the soldiers of the Nether World Watch would certainly be equipped with biochemical beasts, too!

The soldiers whom Li Yao had followed entered a dark chamber next to the training camp.

The temperature of the dark chamber was extremely low. The room was enshrouded in dead silence as if it were a spacious graveyard. In the middle of the vague icy mist stood almost a thousand deep sleep capsules of different sizes.

They are… the deep sleep capsules for the military of the Star Glory Federation. But they have undergone the same biochemical modifications. A lot of veins, biochemical brains and accessories whose usages are unknown have been added to them!

The four soldiers found their own deep sleep capsules and lay in them. On the light beam on the surface of the deep sleep capsules, figures and runes were changing quickly. Observing through the hole, Li Yao noticed that the deep sleep capsules were soon filled with a blue gas, and frost began appearing on the eyelids and nose tips of the four soldiers. They had entered the hibernation state in the low temperature, too.

I understand it now. After modification, those deep sleep capsules all boast a certain ‘hibernation’ effect.

But why?

Li Yao tapped his head softly, deep in thought. Right. Demon cores are extremely unstable amalgamations of spiritual energy after all. They might leak or explode if anything goes wrong. Therefore, the soldiers must go into the hibernation state every once in a while to stabilize the spiritual energy inside the demon cores!

There are 505 deep sleep capsules in this place. But it can’t be the only camp of the Nether World Watch. There seem to be two to three similar camps nearby. Other floors must have similar facilities, too.

Judging from my preliminary estimation, the headcount of the Nether World Watch should be around five thousand, which is very suitable for a secret troop. If there are more soldiers, the assets and resources supplied to the North Pole will be too huge. The risk of the place being exposed will be much higher.

Li Yao frowned at the thought.

The individual combat ability of the Nether World Watch was much higher than the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, not to mention the terrifying biochemical devices. Besides, the soldiers of the Nether World Watch were all intelligent creatures who had their own self-awareness. It was impossible that they would just give up their weapons and surrender the moment their command center was taken down.

Although Li Yao was quite confident about his combat ability, the best he could do was fight a hundred or so soldiers of the Nether World Watch. It was impossible that he could defeat all five thousand of them.

Besides, there was still ‘Mad Medic’ Lu Wuxin, an expert in the demon emperor stage, and Despot and Swirl, two captains who were very close to demon emperors.

Moreover, chances were that Elder Nether Spring had left some secret weapons in the place, too.

This battle is going to be more complicated than the one against Xiao Xuance!

However—

Li Yao moved his eyes and flew Neltharion around the top of the rest area of the Nether World Watch. He traced the wires behind the deep sleep capsules and eventually located the destination of all the wires.

Dozens of wires for different purposes were connected every deep sleep capsule. Some of them were responsible for the input of spiritual energy, and others were in charge of injecting high-nutrition materials into the users of the deep sleep capsules so that their body would recover during their sleep.

More importantly, one of the wires connected the deep sleep capsules to the mainframe crystal processor.

As he expected, the wires coming out of every deep sleep capsule joined together before they led deeper underground.

Elder Nether Spring has utilized a lot of magical equipment from the Star Glory Federation in this secret base. Therefore, other than the biochemical brains, he must have a mainframe crystal processor that is of a high level and boasts immense computational ability!

The deep sleep capsules should be controlled by the mainframe crystal processor!

Assuming that the base is run by a central biochemical brain and crystal processor at the same time, they cannot be very far away from each other. Or rather, they are probably installed in the same place.

As long as I find the two ‘brains’, I will be able to gain control over the entire Nether World and dig out all the secrets of Elder Nether Spring!

It was a pity that the wires and their tubes were flawless. The tiny gap, if there were any, was entirely blocked by the synthesized nerves. Neltharion could not crawl into the tubes at all.

Li Yao secretly learned the distribution of wires of the sleep area. He then waited outside of the lift patiently and entered the lift when other soldiers of the Nether World Watch were coming or going.

Just like that, Li Yao wandered through most of the areas of the buildings over the next couple of hours.

The building was in the shape a pyramid. The lower he got, the larger the floor became. The part of the building exposed on the surface of the planet was just the tip of the iceberg.

The top floors were the camps of the soldiers. The next few floors were test zones and weapon test areas. The interrogation chamber where the Fire Ant King was locked in was there, too.

Then, the lower few floors were still the camps of the Nether World Watch, followed by the warehouses of the biochemical beasts.

The lightning boa where Li Yao hid himself was stored in this place.

Below the warehouse of biochemical beasts was another test area that was extremely large in scale and highly confidential.

It was like a prison for the deceased. On the two sides of the cold pathway were independent prison cells that were sealed by the most solid crystals and hardened by crossed rebar. There were also dense rune arrays of the lightning class on the rebar, as if the warden was scared that the prisoners might escape.

In the few prison cells that were next to each other, some creatures, whose skin was gray, whose eyes were black, and whose pupils seemed to be melting, were sitting or lying.

Some of them were standard human beings, and others were demons with distinctive creatures.

But both the human beings and the demons were weary and did not move for a long time. Even their chests were absolutely still. Li Yao could not help but wonder whether or not they were already dead.

A few demons in white robes were pointing at them and writing something down.

Chi—

Right then, the gate of the life was opened again, and ‘Mad Medic’ Lu Wuxin strode out with delight and satisfaction all over his face.

Li Yao was dazed. He checked the time and realized that Lu Wuxin must’ve finished the first interrogation session with the Fire Ant King.

I hope the Fire Ant King’s nerves are strong enough for him to pass it!

Without any fuss, Lu Wuxin spoke to one of the demons in white robes. “Show me the combat status of Experiment Subject No.66778.”

Experiment Subject No.66778 was a human being with thick eyebrows.

Beside his left eye, there was a saber tattoo around his eye. Li Yao knew that it was a popular tattoo in the army of the Star Glory Federation, indicating that the human being was a saber expert.

However, the man’s face was gray, with death-like discoloration all over it, and he had not breathed for more than half an hour.

More importantly, there was a big hole on the left side of his chest, through which one could see his back. He could not have been deader.

Li Yao clenched his fists harder and harder.

Although the man was dead, he did not want a federal soldier to be insulted by the enemy in such a way!

A cage slowly dropped down from the ceiling. The barriers around the cage had barely been removed when the iron bars were ripped apart, and a dog-like demon beast with a scorpion tail dashed out.

Scorpion Wolf!

Li Yao recognized it at a glance. The Scorpion Wolf was not a high-level demon beast, but it was very fast, and there was lethal poison in its scorpion tail. It was also very vigilant and could be tricky to deal with.

The Scorpion Wolf was a carrion demon beast. Seeing a body in the corner, it beamed with joy and barked before it lunged at the corpse of the federal soldier.

However, the moment the Scorpion Wolf got close, the eyes of the federal soldier, which were pure black, seemed to be injected with crimson liquids, and his body suddenly jerked up in a rigid posture!

“Hiss!”

The mouth of the soldier reached his ears, and his jaw dropped to his chest. A cluster of venomous fog spurted out his throat and concentrated into a red pillar that pierced through the Scorpion Wolf from head to tail.

Despite the agility of the Scorpion Wolf, it could not dodge at all and died miserably on the spot!

However, after the attack, the soldier seemed to have used up the strength of his cells. His body withered at a visible speed, and his stomach collapsed like a swirl. He fell to the ground and quickly turned into foam.