Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

The sharpest crystals and minerals that had consolidated after a drought of hundreds of thousands of years in the energy transmission tube were everywhere.

Li Yao constricted the bones and the flesh all over his body to the minimum, slowly wriggling forward like a boa. He carefully controlled his skin and his muscles and tried to prevent them from being cut by the sharp edges of the residues.

It was not the pain or the poison in the residues that he was scared of. He was merely fearing that the stench of blood from his injury might be perceived by Deity Raincloud.

After stopping at a narrow turn that was almost a right-angle and squeezing himself into the other end almost one bone after the other, Li Yao successfully entered the warehouse of the Colossi.

Feeble light and raucous noises were coming over from the end of the energy transmission tube up ahead.

Theoretically speaking, the tube should have been connected to the Colossi to provide external spiritual energy for them while they were under maintenance.

However, Long Yangjun had carefully observed and analyzed the situation from the Grand Illusionary Land just now. This particular tube had been ripped apart from the middle and was dangling like a boa that had been cut in half. That must have been caused by the destructive battle hundreds of thousands of years ago.

Therefore, Li Yao needed only to crawl forward for a while longer before he had the chance to jump off from the fracture of the tube.

The key was timing.

Lying on his back near the fracture of the tube, Li Yao retrieved a probe camera that could be twisted to any angle from his Cosmos Ring. He extended part of the probe camera out of the fracture and stuck his eyes to the other end of the tube, observing the situation in the outside world.

During the time that he had snuck into the warehouse of the Colossi, almost thirty Cultivators had already kneeled around the black-skeleton-like Colossi.

Most of them were the elders and leaders of the six major sects. Some were the soldiers from the Heaven Battering Army, the White Lotus Cult, and Ghost Qin.

Everybody lowered their eyes in silence, not looking at the brothers and companions around them. However, the ecstasy and greed in their eyes were obvious.

It was a relief for Li Yao that none of the nine super Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators—including the Three Saints, the Four Rapscallions, Emperor Phoenix, and Master Bitter Cicada—had kneeled down and pledged loyalty.

Of course, Emperor Phoenix was a special case. The young emperor had only just struggled from the barrier reactions that caused him an excruciating headache. He was still cramping subconsciously on the ground.

The little emperor seemed to have finally come to the realization that ‘Deity Raincloud’ was unlikely to be his ancestor and that he had been manipulated like a puppet by the guy. He was in a daze with a twisted and devastated face, as if the blow was too fierce for him to bear.

This is not good. Almost thirty high-level Cultivators have pledged loyalty to the special agent of the Imperium. There are also the Fiery Phoenix imperial guards equipped with the string-light crystal suits from the Imperium whom he has already controlled since the very beginning. The locals of the Ancient Sages Sector’s advantage of numbers has been lost!

Li Yao calculated the comparison of the enemy’s abilities and his and felt that the battle was going to be perilous.

To make matters worse, those guys who had not kneeled down and pledged loyalty to ‘Deity Raincloud’ yet were not necessarily reliable. Their decision was based on some very simple logic. The promise of ‘Deity Raincloud’ was that whoever kneeled and surrendered to him first would be rewarded with a Cloud Qin Gold Statue. However, thirty people had already kneeled down, and there were only twenty Cloud Qin Gold Statues in total.

So, for the latecomers, they did not seem to be in a hurry to show their attitude, and they could negotiate more about the possible benefits.

Gloomy chuckles came over from the black-skeleton-like Colossus. Deity Raincloud laughed and said, “Very good, the twenty-eight of you have proved your connections with the deities’ realm. As long as you are loyal to me and obey my commands dutifully, I will certain fulfil my promise and grant all the Cloud Qin Gold Statues here to you after they are repaired!

“As for those who haven’t made a decision yet, the twenty-eight Cultivators here will be your example! The Cloud Qin Gold Statues here have been claimed. But it doesn’t matter. The Divine Palace is a large place. Relics from the primeval battles are everywhere. Naturally, more remains of the Cloud Qin Gold Statues can be repaired and made use of! As long as you surrender to me, I will certainly repair more Cloud Qin Gold Statues and give them to you!

“Even without the Cloud Qin Gold Statues, the divine armor that I have brought from the deities’ realm is also priceless. You have seen their power just now, but I only have a limited number, too. Hehehehe. Not everybody will have the privilege of enjoying them!

“The Cloud Qin Gold Statues and the divine armor are both my generosity and a gesture of kindness from the heavens. If you refuse the gifts from the deities’ realm time and time again, don’t blame me for launching thunderous attacks to discipline you!

“Ascend to the deities’ realm together with me or go to hell together with the few ignorant fools here—make your choice now, everybody!”

Both sweating hard, Qi Zhongdao and Han Baling roared at almost the same time, “Don’t believe his bullsh*t!”

“He who offers generosity without any reason certainly has other ill intentions!” Qi Zhongdao shouted. “The fact that he promises such abundant rewards when we have just met proves that he is certainly up to something else. A great plot must be hidden behind all this. Whoever believes his words will be entirely devoured from the body to the soul without leaving the slightest residue. Even your sect, your family, your hometown, and even the entire Ancient Sages Sector may be doomed forever!”

Han Baling, on the other hand, rolled his eyes and said, “Let’s attack together. There are so many Core Formation Stage Cultivators and Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators here. If we work together to suppress him, we will still be able to elicit the secrets about the Cloud Qin Gold Statues and the deities’ realm from him. The information will definitely be more trustworthy than what he deigns to tell us!”

Han Baling truly deserved to be a rising hero on the prairies. His words were much more seditious than Qi Zhongdao’s.

Even if ‘Deity Raincloud’ was not a real deity, he still looked intimidating enough when he controlled the Colossus.

However, Han Baling was not in the least frightened. He was even trying to persuade everybody to defeat and interrogate the ‘deity’ by taking advantage of the weakness of humanity!

The situation was caught in an impasse again.

Those who were qualified to appear in the warehouse of the Colossi were all high-level Cultivators above the Core Formation Stage. Naturally, none of them were easily tricked.

Everybody knew that Deity Raincloud’s additional promise was too inflated. It was true that other Cloud Qin Gold Statues might exist in the corners of the Divine Palace. However, from what they had seen on their way there, most of the Cloud Qin Gold Statues had been shattered and were beyond repair. Some of the remains had even heavily rusted.

Even if the Cloud Qin Gold Statues could truly be repaired, they would not be nearly as powerful as the twenty Cloud Qin Gold Statues there.

That was the thing about humanity. They had all surrendered, except that some surrendered faster than others did. As a result, the rewards they would be given were of different qualities. Also, the rewards were super magical equipment that concerned a Cultivator’s life. Nobody would find such an outcome acceptable. Their minds that had lost balance needed time to recover.

Many people began to carefully think about Han Baling’s proposal.

Was it possible that they would get more valuable intelligence if they suppressed this ‘Deity Raincloud’ together and interrogated him?

The things that Deity Raincloud offered to say were highly untrustworthy. Perhaps only one out of a hundred statements would be true.

However, if he fell into the hands of the many Cultivators there, they would have all the time in the world to dig out whatever information was inside his head!

The air immediately grew intense.

The Cultivators standing and kneeling, even if they were next to each other, seemed to be divided by bottomless chasms!

The brothers and life-and-death companions a moment ago were all releasing unmistakable killing intent.

Li Yao looked for opportunities in the invisible forest of killing intent.

He glanced at the other floor of the warehouse, only to discover that a ‘corpse’ was slithering slowly and quietly toward the maintenance platforms.

It was exactly Long Yangjun who had transformed into the form of ‘Wang Xi’.

Time to work!

Li Yao licked the black-skeleton-like Colossus with his eyes affectionately.

He still could not quench his desire for this particular Colossus.

He secretly made up his mind that he would kick Deity Raincloud brutally and occupy the dream Colossus!

Li Yao calmed himself down and adjusted the angle of the probe camera, scanning the few Colossi on the maintenance platforms near the exit of the energy transmission tube.

There was a small Colossus around fifteen meters tall on a maintenance platform to his left. Although the left arm had been shattered, the rest of the body was still intact. Also, Li Yao had used Draconic Phoenix with only one arm before. With his abundant experience in using a crippled Colossus, he was seventy percent certain that he could activate it!

There was also a super heavy Colossus in the corner to his right, which was about twenty-five meters tall but more than twenty meters wide, making it look like an enormous tortoise that had stood up on its feet. The Colossus was also very tempting, but it was too far away. Li Yao was not confident that he could sneak into the place safely without alerting anyone.

As for their performance differences, it was not the most important factor. Based on Li Yao’s abundant experience in dealing with Colossi, it would take at least a year and a half to familiarize oneself with a brand-new Colossus.

The special agent of the Imperium had only just accessed the black-skeleton-like Colossus. Chances were that he had not figured out the basic operation menus yet.

It would be impressive if he could activate ten percent of its combat ability!

Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua!

Thousands of routes and ten times more data entries popped up in front of Li Yao’s eyes, congregating into seven different operation plans!

A battle was to break out soon. He had to take action immediately!

Taking a deep breath, while the black-skeleton-like Colossus was dealing with Qi Zhongdao and Han Baling with its back against him, Li Yao extended his head out of the fracture of the energy transmission tube!

Right then, out of the blue, a Cultivator standing on the ground accidentally raised his head and noticed Li Yao.

There were more than a hundred Cultivators with the keenest senses below him. Li Yao could not wait until everybody was lowering their head before he crawled out.

Li Yao was about to jump out, when he perceived the stare. He immediately felt cold sweat coming on. He zipped his mouth at the Cultivator, hinting for him not to talk.

Speaking of which, he had once met the Cultivator from the Thunderstorm Valley before and even helped the guy adjust his flying sword.

The astonishment on the elder of the Thunderstorm Valley flashed and soon disappeared. He slightly nodded in acknowledgement before he took a deep breath, widened his eyes, and shouted at the top of his voice, “If I may inform the deity, somebody is up there!”