Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

The battlefield had expanded from a ‘narrow area’ of a million square kilometers to hundreds of millions of kilometers away and even further.

Although the winner and the loser had been decided, the battle was far from over.

The situation was like a recurrence of the last phase of the Uranian Ring War. Although the core force of the Black Wind Fleet had been blown apart, a lot of claw fleets still had the strength to resist and were only short of supplies. They were even madder and more dangerous, like wounded animals, and might attempt anything in their desperation.

Faced with such unpredictable enemies, the federal fleets did not want to press them too hard. They chose to keep a certain distance from the enemy and maintain the immense, incessant mental pressure on them, hoping to find an appropriate solution.

It was a feature of the space battles. No cover from high mountains, deep rivers, or dense forests existed in the vacuum of space, nor did friction and air resistance. As long as the initial speed was high enough, a starship would be able to rapidly flee in any direction with the minimal power.

Not just days, even a year and a half might not be enough to catch all the fish that had run free. Firefly, for example, had escaped for a thousand years in the past!

Of course, Firefly’s escape had been planned for a long time. It was itself a Deep Sky exploration starship of an enormous scale, which boasted perfect internal ecological circulation and resource recycling systems. Furthermore, it had absorbed tremendous starships and supplies from dozens of Sectors on its way. They were all the factors that made the amazing voyage possible.

Those starships of the Imperium that were fleeing in haste, on the other hand, had run out of food and supplies. Even if they did get away from the federation’s pursuit, dog-eat-dog tragedies were bound to happen sooner or later due to the high shortage of resources, until small ‘dark forests’ were created. Both the people of federation and the people of the Imperium were well aware of the future.

Making use of that fact, the federation began to push the runners to surrender and even offered a ‘warm reminder’ to the members of the Black Wind Fleet who were escaping together, advising them to be wary of each other in case their friends killed them and claimed their starships to refill the supplies.

Perhaps the people of the Black Wind Fleet had done enough of such things in past space battles. The federation’s tactic of persuasion worked out.

Although none of the runners had surrendered yet, the high-level Immortal Cultivators on some of the stars who had enough prestige and capability had already begun their dialogue with the federal fleets.

By the estimation of the highest command center, few Immortal Cultivators would be obstinate enough to resist to the end, although it would take a long course of contact and negotiation before all the Immortal Cultivators accepted the cruel reality.

The war was far from over. Small-scale hunting battles and interstellar bandit-clearing battles would perhaps last several years. The negotiation between the two parties would be another troublesome battlefield.

In any case, the Star Glory Federation was finally freed from the swirl of chaos and regained the initiative of the situation. The small battles and the details of the negotiation would no longer be Li Yao’s concern.

After hearing Ding Lingdang’s introduction, Li Yao took a deep breath in relief.

His only fear now was whether or not his family, friends, and disciples were fine.

“Fortunately, everybody is safe and sound!” Ding Lingdang counted on her fingers. “Wu Mayan, Jin Xinyue, Bai Kaixin, the Fire Ant King, and Fiend Blade Peng Hai, those experts that rank among the top in the federation, did not suffer any irreversible wounds despite the exhaustion of their body and soul. Our treatment today is much more advanced than a hundred years ago, too. It won’t be long before they fully recover.

“Also, Xie Anan, Guo Chunfeng, and the rest of them are coming on a starship to meet you!”

“That’s great.” Li Yao smiled in great relief. Then he thought of somebody else. “Right, before the three Colossi including mine invaded Black Swirl, a starship had crashed into it brutally and seriously wrecked its internal structure, disrupting its mobility. Judging from the paint, it was from the Big Bai Fleet, wasn’t it? I’ve seen Bai Xingjian, the commander of the Big Bai Fleet, before. What’s up with him?”

Bai Xingjian had left quite a deep impression on Li Yao. He was a terrifying man who had triggered the strongest fighting will of Yan Liren, the Sword Maniac!

Also, Li Yao and his companions had merely slain Heiye Ming and the extraterrestrial devils. The great explosion and the meltdown of Black Swirl were obviously not their doing but thanks to the starship of the Big Bai Fleet as well as the members of the assault team on it.

For some reason, Li Yao had a feeling that the mysterious Bai Xingjian was quite weird.

He was more and more interested in the man and decided to chat with him in a day or two to figure out more details about him.

But out of his expectations, Ding Lingdang put on an expression of confusion and sadness and hesitated. Then she said, “Yes. That was ‘Infinite Fire’, the flagship of the Big Bai Fleet.

“Besides the twelve experts of the Ancient Sages Sector, the Big Bai Fleet is almost the greatest unexpected factor and contributor to the war. Had it not been their startling assault and relentless harassment, the space gate of the Black Wind Fleet would long have been assembled and summoned the enemy’s main troops to the Heaven’s Origin Sector.

“If the enemy’s main troops had crushed the elites of the federal fleet before you arrived, there would have been nothing you could’ve done even if you arrived. With the overwhelming, incessant firepower, the thousands of starships would’ve won if they waged a war of attrition against you!

“It is needless to say that at the last moment, Infinite Fire even crashed Black Swirl without caring about itself and completely blew up the enemy’s flagship, which was really a shock for us. None of us saw it coming!”

Li Yao nodded and said, “Exactly. That’s why I’m hoping to meet their commander, Bai Xingjian, and see what a remarkable person he is.”

Ding Lingdang smiled bitterly and shook her head. “Everybody in the federal army and the parliament would love to find out the answer, but it is impossible. Bai Xingjian… has perished!”

Li Yao was greatly shocked. “What!”

“The explosion of Black Swirl was so intense that Infinite Fire, which was deeply embedded in its body, was blown to smithereens. It was the area we searched first when we cleared the battlefield. A lot of remnants of the critical parts of Infinite Fire were found, suggesting that it was completely disintegrated. But the bodies of Bai Xingjian and other leaders of the Big Bai Fleet were not found. They must’ve been broken apart or entirely vaporized, mustn’t they?”

The space battles were usually most cruel. The surging mystic rays and the explosions of starships could emanate a high temperature of thousands of degrees easily. Even if the victims were not vaporized, it was not unusual for the broken limbs to be blown away to the end of the sea of stars after they were killed.

The dead bodies in ground battles would lie in craters or trenches dutifully, waiting to be collected when the battlefield was cleared. The corpses in space battles, on the other hand, would move about randomly. The rate of missing soldiers in the post-battle statistics in space was often hundreds of times higher than on the ground.

In 99.99% of the cases, missing meant death. Even if they were not killed immediately when they were blown away from the battlefield, they would still be dead for sure after floating in the dark space for several days when their crystal suits lost all energy.

Therefore, the missing Bai Xingjian and leaders of the Big Bai Fleet were not too unexpected for the highest command center.

After all, everybody had seen the enormous explosion of Black Swirl with their own eyes.

Despite the computational and commanding abilities of the Divinity Transformation Stage, Bai Xingjian was merely a commander of a fleet. There were no records of the sturdiness of his body. It was not surprising that he failed to survive an explosion of such enormity.

Li Yao, however, was deeply suspicious.

Nobody knew the strongest killing intent of ‘Sword Maniac’ Yan Liren with his sword of ten thousand kilometers better than Li Yao.

But even such a terrifying ‘Sword Maniac’ had taken interest in Bai Xingjian. Was the highest commander of the Big Bai Fleet really a pure admin-type Cultivator?

“Bai Xingjian, who are you exactly?” Li Yao mumbled and narrowed his eyes, looking out into the sea of stars.

In a place where his eyes could not reach, a glittering star was accelerating to escape.

…

At the periphery of the Heaven’s Origin Sector, almost two billion kilometers away from the capital planet, in the dark, cold outer space, a seemingly ragged and lackluster comprehensive supply starship was moving at a high speed that was utterly disproportionate to its garbage-like appearance with its back to the capital.

Because of the mess in the central battlefield, thousands of starships were escaping crazily, and ten times more hunters were closely after them. It was easy for them to lose contact with each other or lose their direction during the escape and end up moving on their own like the supply starship.

Therefore, the supply starship from the Big Bai Fleet was like a block of ice thrown into the ocean, unattractive and unsuspicious.

At such a distance, there was not a second starship for millions of kilometers. Even if somebody grew suspicious of the starship, nothing could ever catch up to it.

At the rear of the supply starship, on the deck where the escape capsules were to be projected, dozens of members of the Big Bai Fleet were stuffed into three capsules. Their bloodshot eyes were wide open while they roared in confusion and anger, “Commander, what is the meaning of this? What do you want exactly? Our loyalty to the fleet and the federation is unquestionable, and we didn’t flinch once in the battle. Why are you doing this to us?”

“I know.” Looking at his subordinates who felt wronged and who were struggling hard, Bai Xingjian replied with mixed feelings. “In both this battle and all the years before it, your performances have always been immaculate. You are top-tier soldiers of the federation. To have subordinates like you is the greatest pride of my life.

“Therefore, I have written recommendations of the highest regard for each of you, clearly listing your specialties and military credits. I believe that you will certainly distinguish yourselves in new posts after you return to the federation. One day, you may even command your own starships and even fleets as pillars of the federal army.

“However, you and I are not the same kind of people after all. Every party has an end. Since our paths are different, we have to go our separate ways now.”

Bai Xingjian slowly raised his hand and saluted the lost, blushing subordinates in the most standard way. Then…

He took off the Rising Dragon of the Nine Stars emblem on his military hat, the epaulette of three flowers and two stars on his shoulder, and the special mark of the highest commander of a fleet on his chest, before he inserted them into one of the escape capsules casually.

“Launch now!”

As if he had taken off a heavy suit of armor, he smiled with great relief. Despite the lingering affection in his eyes, he waved his arms heavily without any hesitation.