Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

While Heiye Ming was dwelling on the conversation with Lu Qingchen deep inside his brain, his soul being repetitively cleansed by the wind from the four-dimensional, weird things were happening on the bridge of Black Swirl!

Although no source of disturbance was found, the light beams of the crystal processors of the advisors, the Chief Mate, the analysts, and the fire control officers were all bouncing crazily, with ripples that looked like sharp teeth spreading out.

Those ripples danced peculiarly as if they were alive, baring their sharp tusks like fiends that had snuck into the crystal processors.

In the meantime, creepy roars were echoing deep inside their crystal processors, which pierced through the blockage of all defense rune arrays and plate layers. Not just the leadership on the bridge, everybody in every cabin on the entire enormous warship was under the scourge of the shrieks. Their heads were dizzy, and the world was swirling before their eyes. Ten thousand ants seemed to be crawling and digging inside their ears!

“Ou!”

The hominoid slave soldiers whose spiritual roots had not awoken were the first to collapse. A lot of them fell to their knees and vomited violently. It was neither blood nor undigested food that they threw out but black liquids that were as thick as ink.

Even the Immortal Cultivators were blinking quickly. They felt as if countless black bugs were flying randomly on their retina.

On the bridge, inside the command capsule, Heiye Ming was trembling violently in the boiling bubbles. His skin that was exposed to the hair was releasing black air, which focused on his forehead and temples into webs that looked like nerves.

Before anybody realized what was going on, the anomaly was already gone.

The sawtooth-like ripples and the ear-splitting noises all faded away. Heiye Ming stopped cramping and struggling, too, and opened his deep, dark eyes inside the command capsule.

Black flames were burning furiously deep inside his eyes, creating what appeared to be a new universe!

Chi!

The nervous interaction liquids inside the command capsule quickly dropped. Heiye Ming walked out slowly to the front of the mainframe crystal processor on the bridge.

The Chief Advisor, the Chief Mate, and his secretary officers all looked at him in fear. They all noticed something unusual from Heiye Ming’s smile and his eyes. Something drastic seemed to have happened to their commander in only several minutes.

Heiye Ming stared at the light beam wholeheartedly, examining the starships that were attacking, tangling, and even crashing each other.

“We have been completely mixed up with the enemy. The speed of both parties has been reduced to the minimum. No sailing route that is unaffected from interference can be found,” the Chief Advisor of the Black Wind Fleet reported helplessly. “The Burning Prairie Fleet, the Big Bai Fleet, and the enemy’s assault team of Colossi are all ambushing the star beacon troops in the rear, forcing us to be engaged in the most unorganized, chaotic battle. There is not the slightest battle formation at all.

“We have the best starships and the strongest warriors of the entire Imperium. Naturally, we are not scared of close-distance battles, but we are deep inside the enemy’s heartland all by ourselves after all, and we only have a finite number of starships and Immortal Cultivators. Such a war of attrition is not going to work out. Should the enemy’s reinforcements arrive in time before we establish our space gate, we will be caught in a rather awkward situation!

“The enemy’s flagship, Burning Prairie, is leading the charge right now and slightly separated from the starships nearby. Should we launch all the Colossi we have to fight together with Black Swirl, hoping to knock down Burning Prairie? We are waiting for your order, commander!”

“The most unorganized, chaotic battle? That’s exactly what I’m hoping to see!” Heiye Ming smiled and said, “Ask all the remaining Colossi to run the final tests and be ready to take action at any time. But before that, pass my order to them that the mainframe crystal processors of those Colossi, as well as all the starships and the crystal suits of the Black Wind Fleet, should open all their ports and that everybody must be deeply melted with their crystal processors.”

The Chief Advisor of the Black Wind Fleet and the Chief Mate of Black Swirl were both greatly surprised. They found it hard to believe their ears. “W—What? Open all the ports of all the crystal processors? That’s really—

“We’ve been engaged with the enemy for a very long time. The cyberwar of the two parties has reached the climax, too. The interference and invasions to each other are too many to be counted. The ultra-powerful interferential starships are unleashing spiritual and magnetic storms nearby!

“Even with the blockage of the defense rune arrays and the firewalls right now, our tactical network is still being bombarded crazily and may fall into chaos at any moment. If we open all the ports of the Spiritual Nexus, wouldn’t we—”

Halfway through his sentence, the Chief Advisor saw Heiye Ming’s chilly eyes and then lost his courage to finish the rest of his speech.

“Carry out the order.” Heiye Ming patted the Chief Advisor’s shoulder softly. Looking at the guy’s hesitating eyes, he said, “I will speak to everyone in the Black Wind Fleet.”

Even if the highest commander intended to speak to every individual of the whole fleet, it was still unnecessary to open all the ports of all the crystal processors.

However, burnt by Heiye Ming’s deep and profound eyes, both the Chief Advisor and the Chief Mate ignored the problem very wisely.

The military law was ruthless. In the world of Immortal Cultivators, no mercy would ever be shown to the weak who defied the orders of the strong.

Heiye Ming’s order was soon carried out dutifully. After only one moment, most of the starships of the Imperium as well as the crystal suits and the space shuttles that were offering dazzling performances in space opened all the ports on their crystal processors.

Most of the Immortal Cultivators were in the state of ‘Half-Step Grand Illusionary Land’ to help themselves fight in the first place. Data and information streams were pouring before their eyes like storms and flooding into their brains incessantly.

Their souls were already deeply melted with the crystal processors. So, not much needed to be changed about that.

“All the ports have been opened. We await your orders, commander!”

The Chief Advisor was very anxious, but his absolute trust in Heiye Ming after hundreds of years of space battles and Heiye Ming’s absolute confidence right now still made him complete the work at the highest efficiency.

“Very good. Then, next…” Heiye Ming grinned. His white teeth and his black eyes made a vivid contrast. “Let’s welcome our reinforcements!”

Before the Chief Advisor and the Chief Mate understood what ‘our reinforcements’ meant, an black tide had already surged out of the cabin at the rear of the starship where Lu Qingchen was caged and swept across the entire starship as fast as lightning!

Black Swirl seemed to be tangled and enhanced by black, enormous lightning. Every slave soldier and Immortal Cultivator on the starship was covered in dark mist. Black streaks popped up inside their eyes, which gradually interweaved into what appeared to be a synaptic network and vanished into the depths of their brains!

All their feelings and emotions were rolled up and compressed into the feeble strength named ‘tenebrum energy’, which stimulated their nerves and brain cells, making their heads clearer, their mind sharper, and their computational ability higher!

Through the fully open Spiritual Nexus, the weird force from the extraterrestrial land swept across the entire fleet within the moment. The same things were happening to every starship and even every Immortal Cultivator who was fighting fiercely in their crystal suit.

Compared to the crew members of the starships, the Exos on the frontline suffered much greater influence. Their desire to kill and destroy were increased infinitely, and large masses of black air spurted out of their nostrils and mouths. By burning their life and soul through the tenebrum energy, they unleashed unparalleled strength, speed, and computational ability!

Lu Qingchen had got the keys to hack the mainframe crystal processor of the starships of the Imperium through Su Changfa’s and the star child’s memory pieces in the first place.

During the space jump, he had also implanted a lot of tiny ‘gifts’ in the brains of the crucial figures of the Black Wind Fleet, including Heiye Ming.

After a prolonged battle between the federal fleet and the Black Wind Fleet, everybody was exhausted and had burnt their soul to the limit. They had lost most of their ability to resist.

For a moment, the entire Black Wind Fleet and most of the Immortal Cultivators including the pilots of the Colossi were consumed by the dark mist!

It was not just a common ‘arrival of extraterrestrial devils’ but a ‘tenebrum energy outbreak’ carefully planned and controlled by Lu Qingchen. He merely simulated the brains of every Immortal Cultivator through the Spiritual Nexus while controlling all the mainframe crystal processors of the Black Wind Fleet so that their ‘limits of exhaustion’ would be improved.

They would be more bloodthirsty, violent, and insane, but they did not lose their memories and self-awareness. They could still control the most precise magical equipment and carry out the missions designated to them.

On the battlefield, it was quite a common phenomenon for one to lose their mind briefly after going on a killing spree. Also, since Heiye Ming was supervising the whole battle as the highest commander, nobody would notice the insignificant change at all.

Even if they grew suspicious, what could they do in the middle of such a fierce battle?

But for the federal fleet, it was entirely different.

Right now, the federal fleet and the Black Wind Fleet had been deeply mixed up with each other. The two parties were almost engaged in a close-distance combat.

The hole inside Lu Qingchen’s brain was wide open, summoning countless extraterrestrial devils. Other than making an accurate ‘tenebrum energy outbreak’ within the Black Wind Fleet—greatly boosting the Immortal Cultivators’ morale, combat ability, and desire to kill—a lot of invisible devils also lunged at the fleets of the federation!

The fleet of the federation had fully activated the backup network after the previous virus attack and the paralysis of the Spiritual Nexus. It was already highly blocked from the outside world.

But the sturdiness of the backup network was limited. Under the bombardment of the Black Wind Fleet, many loopholes were bound to occur.

Besides, Lu Qingchen did not intend to control the crystal processors of the entire federal fleet. All he needed to do was send out the unsubstantial devils to sneak into the crystal suits, the space shuttles, and the starships of the federation to cast interference to the Cultivators!

“Ah!”

A pilot of the federation who was flying up and down to dodge the enemy’s attacks inside a space shuttle suddenly ‘saw’ a worm that had tusks grown all over its body lurking inside his cockpit and spitting out fatal venom at him. He could not help but cry out and block the attack.

In that momentary distraction, he was already locked onto by the armed shuttles of the Imperium and blown into a fireball.

“This is—”

Another Exo of the federation was fighting the enemy wholeheartedly when he suddenly sensed boundless fear rising from the depths of his brain. His nerves turned so feeble that he almost fled in fear. He could barely hold on to his magical equipment. Naturally, the enemy took the opportunity and chopped him in half.

The same illusions and horrors were spreading inside the federal fleet like a fatal virus.