Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

The exit to District 108 next to District 109 was an enormous gate more than twenty meters in diameter that was as indestructible as a dam.

Once the gate was locked from the outside through the mainframe crystal processor of Hundred Flowers City and all the barrier rune arrays were activated, it was practically impossible to open the gate by brute force.

Theoretically speaking, the gate could never be opened, unless it met a super refiner who was both adept at rune arrays and the internal structure magical equipment and also capable of destroying the necessary parts with the brute force of the high level of the Nascent Soul Stage.

Unfortunately, Li Yao happened to be one such super refiner who had the brute force above the high level of the Nascent Soul Stage!

Chi!

Under Li Yao’s coordination, a hundred Exos exerted their strength in two directions simultaneously. The carotid artery on every soldier’s neck were almost exploding before they finally opened a small gap on the airtight gate.

Passing through the long pathway, they did exactly the same on the gate that was the entrance to District 108, only to discover that District 108, or rather, the few areas that they opened later through all kinds of trouble, was so chaotic that it looked like the end of the world.

The entire Hundred Flowers City had entered the highest alarm state.

All the transportation channels among the hundred ball-shaped space stations that made up Hundred Flowers City were closed. Every space station was blocked from the space stations nearby with the enormous gates that weighed tons, turning them into independent individuals.

Such a design that was similar to an airtight cabin on starships was meant to avoid an accident where all the districts were exposed to the vacuum after one of the space stations was destroyed by intense hostile fire.

As a result, all the economic activities in the entire Hundred Flowers City stagnated. The daily lives of the citizens were seriously affected, too. The gravity control in quite a few districts became unstable. Now and then, residents, shuttles, and miscellaneous objects that were not fixed on the ground would float to the center of the ball-shaped towns. Then, a moment later, the man-made gravity was improved to more than twice the standard gravity. Most people were breathing heavily because of their own weight and unable to stand on their feet.

The entire Hundred Flowers City was in chaos!

The 3D light beams that constructed the beautiful environment of blue sky and white clouds had turned into twisted snowflakes and even revealed the cold silver cabin wall and rusted tubes on it in the end. The virtual signs and arrows on the major roads either disappeared or changed crazily, causing a lot of shuttles to almost run into each other. Thankfully, automatic emergency brakes and buffer rune arrays were the basic configuration for most of the shuttles nowadays. No serious traffic accidents took place when they were just moving at a low speed in the downtown area. But still, unprecedented traffic jams filled every district of the city!

There was no need to mention the oxygen supply system and the automatic heating system. Should anything go wrong, cold wind might be blown out, and the heatproof rune arrays might be shut off. As a result, the districts of Hundred Flowers City that were on the shadowy side would turn into a frigid hell where a drop of water would turn into ice immediately, and the districts facing the sun would become steamers with a temperature of more than fifty degrees.

Getting to the bottom of it, the seemingly splendid space metropolis was merely a series of thin, iron shells soaked in the freezing universe.

Compared with the life-and-death issues above, the Spiritual Nexus shutdown in the entire Hundred Flowers City seemed to be a minor problem not worth mentioning at all.

The only thing that suggested the existence of a government was the obscure broadcast whose source was barely distinguishable.

“Dear citizens, please don’t panic. Proceed to the nearest shelter if possible. Attach yourselves to soft objects if you prefer to stay indoors. Do not go outside. Repeat. The war has already broken out. This is not a drill. Please proceed to the nearest shelter in order!”

The voice was quite loud at first, but soon, it became twisted and feeble, before it was replaced by the shrieking attack alarms. Everybody felt that a beast was tearing their eardrums with sharp claws.

Li Yao, Long Yangjun, and Luo Qisheng looked at each other, all feeling grave.

They were not sure if the war had broken out.

However, according to the speculation of Li Yao and Long Yangjun, Jin Xinyue had reached the moment where she had to activate her plan, and there was no need for Professor Mo Xuan to hide his plan now.

So, the war was destined to break out today. It was not important whether it happened a few hours earlier or a few hours later.

What mattered was not how the war broke out but whose banner would be flying at the edge of the cosmos when the complicated war that involved multiple forces was over!

“Professor Mo Xuan’s pace has been disrupted. He knew that we would rush out without bothering anything. That’s why he caused such mayhem in order to prevent us from marching forward!” Li Yao analyzed the situation calmly. “Just like I said before, he could’ve taken over the Grand-Unified Spiritual Nexus Information Processing Center without alarming anyone and lurked in the darkness while the Star Glory Federation and the Black Wind Fleet had an ultimate competition before he finally jumped out to claim all the benefits.

“But our unexpected operation forced him to go to the stage in advance and reveal his existence.

“As a result, he will have to mobilize more computational ability to fabricate the information streams being sent from Hundred Flowers City to the outside world, pretending that this place is peaceful and quiet!

“For the virtual life living in the Spiritual Nexus, computational ability is their everything. Now that he is wasting so much of his computational ability on the pretension, it will certainly affect his real plan to some extent.

“What we are going to do is force him to consume even more computational ability!”

Li Yao, Long Yangjun, and the 414 troop accelerated to the central area of Hundred Flowers City.

However, the closer they got to the downtown area, the more citizens and shuttles were crowded in midair, and the more chaotic the situation was. As a result, they were inevitably slowed down.

In the meantime, they encountered some other troops who were stationed in various districts.

Thankfully, those troops did not attack them the moment the two parties met. After all, even though Professor Mo Xuan could fabricate orders through the Spiritual Nexus, it was impossible for him to make up such a ridiculous story that a thousand spies of the Imperium had snuck into Hundred Flowers City pretending to be an established troop of the federation.

Furthermore, Luo Qisheng had been stationed in Hundred Flowers City for more than twenty years. Even his family had moved there. He had quite a few comrades in the troops.

His face alone was enough to half convince many commanders of Li Yao and Long Yangjun’s story.

The real problem was that the last order those troops had received before the communication was shut off was to maintain order, pacify the citizens, and guide as many to the shelters as possible.

It was definitely the most complicated work.

Most of the soldiers had been dispersed among the panicked citizens. It was impossible to gather them anytime soon!

It was not until then that Li Yao and his companions realized that Professor Mo Xuan had cast the entire Hundred Flowers City in chaos not just to prevent them from moving forward but, more importantly, to hamstring the bottom-level soldiers who could possibly affect his plan!

“It is not going to work out this way!” Li Yao gnashed his teeth hard. “Where’s the nearest double airtight exit? It’s time to split. We will approach District 01 from the outside. Colonel, you will stay here and try to gather more people!”

“Alright!”

Luo Qisheng’s throat moved, as if he had something to say, but he said nothing in the end. He simply stood at attention and saluted Li Yao and Long Yangjun in the most standard way.

For the convenience of shell maintenance and emergency evacuation, there were quite a few exits that directly led to the space on the cabin wall of every district.

Naturally, such exits were usually locked by double and even triple airtight gates, and they were never opened unless there was an emergency.

Chi…

When the last airtight gate in front of Li Yao and Long Yangjun was slowly opened, the darkness of the entire universe flooded in like cold seawater.

However, due to the lack of the blockage of the atmosphere, when the first sunlight crashed into the cabin, the cold seawater was immediately heated into scorching magma.

Li Yao and Long Yangjun looked at each other and jumped into space!

Right now, they were floating in the middle of almost a hundred enormous silver ball-shaped space stations, like two tiny ants that were crawling on shiny silver balls.

Stepping on the shell of the ball-shaped space station below their feet and triggering colorful ripples with the power rune arrays on their crystal suits, the two of them sprinted toward District 01, leaving scattered exhaust flames behind them!

Behind them, more soldiers of the 414 troop crawled out and became their solid support!

In such a way, they reached the area near the enormous ball-shaped space station where District 01 was located without any trouble.

However…

Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!

The infinite runes that were carved on the shell of District 01 densely unleashed ten thousand thick electric arcs, which sloshed among the few most central space stations, weaving a frightening, forbidden area of death!

One was not supposed to hear any sound in the vacuum.

However, everybody who saw the deadly electric arcs could hear the sound of their brain nerves that were cracking in fear!

Hundreds of lifeless Exos were standing quietly among the deadly electric arcs. They were absolutely motionless, like statues, and simply allowed the electric arcs to dance around them. But after they discovered the intruders, they seemed to be activated at the same time. Destructive heat was emitting from the cold crystal cameras on the helmet of their crystal suits!

It was the ‘army of ghosts’ that Professor Mo Xuan had trained!

The battle shells made of the bodies of high-level battle-type Cultivators in the past—combined with the Fighting Spirits, which had condensed the battle experience of countless experts—became a terrifying troop that was ten times stronger than the Grand Illusionary Soldiers in the past and could fight more agilely and independently!

However…

Li Yao was ten times stronger than when he encountered the Grand Illusionary Soldiers!

Hu!

Li Yao narrowed his eyes, but the excitement in them was undisguisable. His scorching eyes tore apart the cold universe and glanced at each and every member in the army of ghosts on his opposite. In the end, he seemed even delighted.

“Come to think about it, it’s been a hundred years since I released my best strength to my heart’s content!” Li Yao smiled, baring his white and sharp teeth!