Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Even with the probe magical equipment on Neltharion whose perceptive range was not far, Li Yao could still sense the ripples of various sorts of spiritual waves spreading in the sea of stars.

It was certainly not natural radiation but the remaining traces left by some marvelous weapons after they were activated to the maximum.

The metal debris that was captured by Neltharion every now and then dated back to different time periods, too. Some of the remnants were obviously torn apart and melted only recently.

Li Yao also vaguely sensed that the most resourceful area at the center of the galaxy had signs that many starships were sailing, and there was an enormous space gate made of hundreds of star beacons.

Fleets from other Sectors would occasionally jump to this place, guided by the space gate.

Even the unmanned crystal cameras floating in the vacuum of the space were growing larger and larger in number, too, forming an impenetrable line of alarm.

The signs all suggested that this place should be a test field of new magical equipment for the Imperium of True Human Beings.

Li Yao was not bold enough to pilot ‘Jingle Bell’ too close to the fourth planet of the galaxy.

Despite the advanced stealth system on ‘Jingle Bell’, the starship had suffered in the nebula storm. It was riddled with holes and contaminated by radiation. If it got too close to the main planet of the galaxy, it would likely be scanned by the unmanned crystal cameras that were everywhere.

Li Yao hovered for three days at the periphery of the Martial Meritocrats Sector before he finally chose the ninth satellite of the fifth planet of the galaxy.

It was a barren asteroid without the fewest spiritual waves and did not even have much metal reaction.

It was not even qualified to serve as a ‘test field of weapons’.

Li Yao secretly investigated for a long time, only to find no human activity or signs of magical equipment on the satellite which was no larger than a pebble.

It was the best location to hide ‘Jingle Bell’.

Li Yao found a ravine thousands of meters deep on the satellite. Other than keeping the hibernation capsule that sealed his fleshly body running at the minimal efficiency, he turned off all the units on ‘Jingle Bell’.

He then created a minor landslide that appeared to be caused by a meteor, burying ‘Jingle Bell’ below the rocks.

After the flawless camouflage was completed, Li Yao’s soul and the mental devil flew toward the main planet of the Martial Meritocrats Sector on Neltharion together.

The greatest problem about Neltharion was that it was too small and could not make use of Cosmos Rings. Therefore, the fuel and energy it could load were pitifully limited.

So, after breaking away from the gravity of the satellite and accelerating to the highest speed, Li Yao adjusted Neltharion to coast on its initial inertia and only slightly changed the direction in order to avoid the patrolling fleets and the unmanned crystal cameras of the Imperium of True Human Beings.

Neltharion was only the size of a finger. After Li Yao ascended to the Divinity Transformation Stage, his control over spiritual energy had been improved to a higher level. In the vast, boundless space, how could the defense network of the Imperium have stopped a starship that was no larger than a needle?

Li Yao broke through the defense network outside of the main planet smoothly. He then observed the planet that was of great significance in the history of the development of mankind from far away in silence.

If thirty percent of the Imperium of True Human Beings’ propaganda was to be believed, the monstrous Immortal Cultivators had been born in this place.

The main planet of the Martial Meritocrats Sector, however, was enshrouded in vague gray mists, which did not seem natural but more like some sort of weird magnetic field or defense array.

In the middle of the mists, it could faintly be seen that several long, narrow rails ran parallel to the equator whereas some others were perpendicular to it, surrounding the main planet of the Martial Meritocrats Sector.

Since those rails were visible to the naked eye, they must be astonishingly thick. It was possible that they were some super huge facilities like the ‘orbit docks’ in the Uranian Ring Sector.

The main planet of the Martial Meritocrats Sector had only one satellite, and the space gate was deployed right next to it. A military base of an enormous base seemed to have been established in the place, too. At the very least, Li Yao had sensed quite a few heavy starships entering and exiting the area in only three hours.

What should he do now? Which place should he choose as his primary target of infiltration?

Li Yao pondered for a moment and decided to consider the main planet of the Martial Meritocrats Sector as the point of breakthrough.

The warships of the Imperium were fully sealed in space voyages. They were also under the protection of spiritual shields and magnetic interference arrays, which made it practically impossible to infiltrate such starships. If he touched the plate armor on the surface, he would very likely be discovered by the defense system of the warship.

Besides, not all the warships of the Imperium had ‘high-molecular layer-by-layer scanning magical equipment’. Li Yao estimated that he could only find such tools on the ‘comprehensive maintenance starship’.

The issue was the same to sneak into the satellite. The place must be heavily guarded as a military base of the Imperium of True Human Beings.

Due to the limited fuel and energy on Neltharion, his soul might be incapable of performing any highly difficult movements.

Should Neltharion run out of fuel during his infiltration into the military base, turning his soul into a wandering ghost running about in the Immortal Cultivators’ base, it would certainly be an awkward situation.

The main planet of the Martial Meritocrats Sector was even huger than the planet of the Heaven’s Origin Sector, and the superficial area was almost twice as large. It was impossible for the Immortal Cultivators to keep every corner under their surveillance. There was certainly room for his stealthy operations.

Besides, as a habitable planet, the main planet of the Martial Meritocrats Sector boasted a thick atmosphere that could resist ninety-nine percent of the radiation and particles.

For the soul without the protection of the body, it was a relatively comfortable and stable environment.

For him personally, Li Yao was interested in visiting the planet, too, to see what the hometown of the legendary Blackstar the Great was like.

However…

“The entire planet is covered in an enormous magnetic field, which is suppressing it like some sort of barrier or seal,” the mental devil said. “The barrier is activated by the dozens of rails that surround the whole planet. There’s no telling if there are more mysteries to it or if Neltharion will be detected when breaking through the atmosphere.”

It was certainly an important issue.

Li Yao focused his attention on observing the main planet Martial Meritocrats Sector again.

“Huh?” His soul shook slightly, allowing a tiny crystal camera to protrude out of the head of Neltharion. “What is that?”

An impressive fleet had just taken off from the satellite of the planet and sprayed abundant materials to the planet outside of its orbit.

Those materials collapsed at a high speed, raising blossoming red lotuses in the atmosphere of the planet due to the friction, as if they were the most glamorous shooting stars.

It was too far away for Li Yao to tell what exactly the fleet had thrown down.

It did not seem to be a bombardment from the orbit of the planet, but it seemed weird if they were merely dumping debris and garbage.

Li Yao’s soul constructed multiple models as he calculated the falling trajectories of those materials crazily. He discovered that the materials were sprayed without any pattern. They were colliding and spluttering, and a lot of them flew to the ground aslant.

The barrier or seal that surrounded the entire planet did not respond to any of the materials. Dumping the junk at a fixed time seemed to be a daily routine of the fleet of the Imperium.

Li Yao thought of something and made up his mind. He set Neltharion’s speed and the angle to break into the atmosphere to the most appropriate parameters.

The moment before it entered the atmosphere of the planet, it had a subtle scratch with an object that was spurted out of the starships of the Imperium. As if it were part of the object that had been disintegrated, it snuck into the atmosphere without meeting any hindrance!

Hiss! Hiss! Hiss! Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!

Neltharion moved through the atmosphere at a high speed, leading to the most splendid fire. Li Yao’s soul seemed to be placed in the middle of an ocean of flames, which was both soul-stirring and enjoyable.

Hiu!

There was no telling how long it took, but the boundless ocean of flames finally dispersed. Neltharion successfully broke into the atmosphere of the planet.

Li Yao had cut into the atmosphere obliquely from quite a distance in the first place. His trajectory was different from most of the other objects. After penetrating through the atmosphere, the ‘shooting stars’ around him were long gone, allowing him to observe the famous planet without the least hindrance.

The first impression Li Yao had at the altitude of thousands of meters was that it was a planet catching its last breath.

The sky was gray, and the earth was yellow and brown. It was practically impossible to find any greenness even when he was observing from thousands of meters high. The planet looked like a rotten apple and a squeezed orange.

Jampacked skyscrapers that constituted enormous metropolises could be seen everywhere on the ground, suggesting that the place had once had the most developed and brilliant civilization.

But today, all the cities were filled with dimness and silence, with dilapidated buildings and empty frameworks everywhere. The convenient crystal rails had been contorted into spirals before they were buried by yellow dust and turned into broken tombs that nobody had visited for hundreds of years.

Li Yao also saw a lot of bottomless craters on the ground. Every crater looked like an insatiable bloody mouth that was going to swallow the remnants of the cities around them.

In terms of size, the smallest craters were hundreds of kilometers in diameter, and the largest ones were simply inestimable.

Li Yao saw the folds and ripples caused by blasts at the edge of the craters. He also saw signs of melting.

It meant that those colossal craters that had swallowed half of the cities had likely been caused by the bombardment of some sort of destructive weapon.

There was no telling whether the cities around them were already desolate when the craters were formed, or they were still lively, vigorous, and teeming with people.

“The planet seems to have been through more than a hundred world wars. Blackstar the Great was rather rigorous for his hometown!”

Li Yao’s soul released telepathic thoughts in all directions. He seemed to have found the signs of life activities on the horizon, which was more or less a relief.

However, he did not dare continue the investigation with his telepathic thoughts blatantly anymore, partly due to the insufficiency of spiritual energy and partly because he noticed the waves of a lot of high-precision crystal cameras and scanning rays.

This was a planet that was under high surveillance.

His every move needed to be made with utmost caution.

“We cannot take action with Neltharion all the time,” the mental devil said. “We must find a new body.”