Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Accompanied by the professor’s last mumble, Li Yao felt that he dropped heavily again. He seemed to be both falling into a bottomless abyss and floating in the high sky. Then, he suddenly shuddered, only to find himself enveloped in a cluster of warm, thick liquid.

He was back to reality and his own fleshly body that was still protected by Little Black and the Colossus.

The dependable, real, and clear feeling could not have made his mood better.

Chi…

A large mass of the exhausted spiritual energy spurted out of the gap of the plate armor on the shoulder of the Tartarean Skeleton, like pillars of smoke that were soaring up into the sky. The silver liquid metal that enshrouded the Colossus ebbed like a tide, and the strengthened helical armor at the chest slowly opened. Li Yao fell out of Little Black and the dark protective liquids.

Huchi! Huchi! Huchi! Huchi!

The sensation of time in the Spiriters’ Realm was several times longer than reality. There was no telling how much time had passed in the real world, but it was certainly the most soul-stirring experience for Li Yao in his entire life.

On one of his knees, he breathed heavily and enjoyed the slightly stinging but extremely comfortable feeling when fresh air flowed into his throat and his lungs.

When he raised his head, he saw the most unbelievable and splendid picture.

District 01 space station had been drowned by the silver liquid metal previously, and the glittering silver metal had even turned into hideous, terrifying figurines.

But at this moment, all the figurines were gone. The silver ocean was boiling, with bubbles popping up nonstop, before it quickly faded and froze.

From every bubble, a tiny, soft twig was growing out. Buds were appearing at the end of the twigs. The buds that were apparently about to blossom stretched the petals to be as thin as paper. It could be clearly seen the souls that were carefully protected inside!

District 01 space station immediately turned into an ocean of flowers.

Those twigs and buds were supposed to be silver. Yet, the souls that they enshrouded illuminated them into a plethora of glamorous colors. Billions of hues were like scattered ripples and tides, crashing, dying, and illuminating each other.

Li Yao had never seen such a splendid, glamorous, and wonderful view before.

A moment later, all the buds bloomed. Transparent light spots that looked like lotus seeds and pearls were formed inside the flowers. From every light spot, a soul was slowly woken up and moaned after the prolonged dream.

Li Yao understood everything.

They were the people who had been absorbed into the Spiriters’ Realm, the past Spiriters.

For Li Yao, Long Yangjun, the experts from the Ancient Sages Sector, and other living beings, they had their own flesh and blood. After the collapse of the Spiriters’ Realm, their souls naturally returned to their own bodies in the same way that they were sent away before, receiving the protection of the brain again.

However, for most of the Spiriters, like Wei Qingqing, they had long lost their natural-born bodies.

Souls were extremely vulnerable. They might vanish forever after being exposed to the air for less than an hour.

It was needless to say that those souls had just been through the collapse of the Spiriters’ Realm and were greatly damaged in the violent turbulence and storms.

If they were released into the real world recklessly, the only thing that awaited them would be death.

Therefore…

With the intensity of Professor Mo Xuan’s soul and his weird life form, he perhaps could have kept himself safe.

But he burnt his entire soul willingly and activated computational ability that was beyond his limits. With the last bit of his life, he controlled the enormous ocean of liquid metal and preserved thousands of Spiriters in such an amazing form.

Before an appropriate number of artificial bodies was found, they could live inside the flowers safely and stably!

Other than in District 01 space station, silver liquid metal was growing and spreading in the form of vines in every space station of Hundred Flowers City.

Countless branches were growing out of every vine and producing colorful, shining buds. The souls that had been trapped in the Spiriters’ Realm for a long time all woke up from their prolonged dreams and blossomed in the most glamorous forms.

Those space stations were extremely anoxic, extremely hot, or extremely cold in the beginning. Many people’s eyes rolled back because of the suffocation, many others were trembling in ice and frost, and the faces of a lot of seniors and children were blue and purple due to the lack of oxygen. They were scratching their necks and chests with their hands subconsciously.

The hundred space stations were about to become living hells when the air circulation system and the temperature adjustment rune arrays hummed and reactivated as the flowers of souls blossomed!

The first warm and moist breeze was blown into the lifeless space stations again. The frost frozen on the cabin wall as well as the desperation on everyone’s face was all melted.

All the people who knew or did not know each other burst into tears of joy after surviving the disaster and hugged each other. Then, over each other’s shoulders, they looked at the flowers that were blossoming all over the sky in confusion.

At this moment, Hundred Flowers City truly deserved its name. Hundreds of flowers were blossoming!

“Professor—”

Inside District 01 space station, Li Yao was choked with sobs in mixed feelings.

The silver liquid metal that enveloped the skyscrapers around all faded, and the silver statues were melted, too, revealing the people who were sealed inside.

Colonel Luo Qisheng, the commander of the 414 troop of the federal army, and the members of his daring team all looked at each other in bewilderment. The liquid metal that clung to their legs had not entirely disappeared. They could not help but scratch their heads, feeling that they had just had a dream, no, a hundred or a thousand dreams.

At the critical moment, countless soul pieces flew in the dark void randomly. Everybody burnt their life to their heart’s content and was attracted, moved, and amazed by the shining parts of other people’s lives, too!

The staff in the Grand-Unified Spiritual Nexus Interaction and Control Center woke up one after another, too.

Intense confusion lingered inside everyone’s eyes, but there was still the brilliance when they joined each other, sang the battle hymn, and declared their feelings, spirit, and will together!

Everybody stared at each other in a different way from before, as if an invisible barrier among them had been removed and certain ineffable things had been added.

In front of Li Yao, the liquid metal that was in the appearance of Professor Mo Xuan was melting like a candle that was burnt fast. It was flowing into the silver ocean on the ground that was barely fluctuating now.

Professor Mo Xuan could not say anything anymore. He could not even maintain the basic facial organs now.

He was merely straightening his arm and raising it high, as if he were trying to snatch something from the sky and the space, or to leave certain things that were condensed inside his palm to this world.

Professor Mo Xuan was slowly melted into the silver swamp. His legs, torso, and head all disappeared. In the end, the arm that was raised high was the only thing left.

The arm was descending slowly, but the opened hand was slowly clenched into a fist whose thumb was raised at Li Yao.

Good luck, Li Yao. Good luck, federation. Good luck, mankind!

Professor Mo Xuan was completely consumed by the silver swamp, marking a complicated, unjudgeable end to his life.

Long Yangjun had crawled out of the Yin Yang, her Colossus, at some point and observed everything behind Li Yao.

“One who dies without regrets has never lived a meaningful life. Every expedition has an end. Perhaps for Professor Mo Xuan, this is the best ending.”

She paused for a moment, and inhuman confusion beamed out of her eyes again. She said softly, “Human beings are so… sophisticated!”

“There’s no time now. Let’s clean up everything and prepare to jump to the Heaven’s Origin Sector!” His eyes red, Li Yao stared at the place where Professor Mo Xuan had vanished. He took a deep breath and said, “We cannot let Professor Mo Xuan have died for nothing. The last stop is still waiting for us!”

Professor Mo Xuan had done his best to protect all the Spiriters. He had also recovered thirty percent of the functions of Hundred Flowers City as a hub of the Spiritual Nexus and transportation in the federation.

However, Hundred Flowers City had been seriously affected in the previous corruption and sabotage after all. Right now, most of the communication routes were cut off, and the space sailing routes among the seven Sectors were an utter mess. Most of the citizens were either just freed from the frigidness, the high temperature, the lack of oxygen, and the zero gravity, or experienced the soul-stirring battle in the Spiritual Nexus. Their souls were extremely weak, and it was difficult for them to start working immediately.

Under such circumstances, every second must be seized if a dozen top-tier experts above the Nascent Soul Stage were to be projected to the Heaven’s Origin Sector!

Hang in there!

Looking at the bare cabin wall, Li Yao’s eyes seemed to have passed dozens of lightyears and saw Jin Xinyue, Ding Lingdang, Guo Chunfeng, Bai Kaixin, and a lot of other family and friends who were gritting their teeth to fight in the Heaven’s Origin Sector. He waved his hands and thought to himself, Hang in there. Hang in there just a while longer. I’ll be back very soon. I’ll be back with the strongest reinforcements at the edge of the cosmos!

…

Right when Li Yao and his companions were deeply trapped inside the Spiritual Nexus, the highest command center of the Defense Counsel of the Federation in the Heaven’s Origin Sector was in mayhem, too.

Until the knotted longsword slowly showed up, everything was under the control of the leadership of the federation, or more specifically speaking, Jin Xinyue, Guo Chunfeng, and Bai Kaixin.

Including ‘Black Swirl’, the flagship, the most elite forces of the Black Wind Fleet had been lured to the Heaven’s Origin Sector exactly as planned. Their follow-up troops had not completed the space jump yet and were still behind the brown dwarf. The fleet was divided into two parts, one at the front and one far behind, with dozens of lightyears between each other. They were definitely in the most awkward situation!

Jin Xinyue’s so-called ‘demon rebellion troops’ had torn apart their mask of ‘armed insurgency’, too, and participated in the assault against the Black Wind Fleet together with the Heaven’s Origin Fleet.

With the help of their stalling, the Burning Prairie Fleet, the ace troop of the federation, completed the first jump successfully, too. The latest and strongest main-force warships, including the flagship Burning Prairie, had all appeared between the No. 2 space gate and the No. 3 space gate!

Burning Prairie was no longer the warship modified from ‘Heavenly Phantom’ as it had been a hundred years ago. It was now a super warship that the most skilled specialists had produced after thirty years of hard work at the cost of tremendous resources!