Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

‘Fist King’ Lei Zonglie’s camp was established in the depths of the Bloody Plateau in the Land of Sins.

As they approached the Fist King’s camp, the first thing they saw was Liberty City dozens of kilometers away on the horizon.

From this perspective, the asset transmission tubes that were connected to the Heavenly Rails were even more magnificent and eye-catching.

It could clearly be seen that those ‘towers’ were at least forty meters in diameter, surrounded by spiral stairs or racks.

The assets from the Heavenly Rails did not go straight down but descended along the spiral racks, which dived into the ground like an enormous drill.

Liberty City had perhaps been a prosperous, developed metropolis before ‘Judgment Day’. After the nurturing of the Heavenly Rails, it was developed even more abnormally into a cruel and glamorous Elysian World.

Li Yao activated the scanning function of his crystal cameras, which allowed him to see the colorful, chaotic districts in the city that were unfolded radially as well as the watch towers that could be found everywhere in every district. Countless experts, tanks, and crystal cannons had been set up on the streets and the valleys, too, transforming Liberty City into an impenetrable jungle of blades.

To conquer such an abnormal and chaotic city, there would certainly be a cruel street battle, in which countless people would be killed.

Perhaps that was the purpose of the bloody stage that the Immortal Cultivators were trying to establish.

Staring at Liberty City for a long time and scanning the messy, abnormally-developed city as well as the dense nodes of defense into his soul, Li Yao reconstructed a flashing, virtual Liberty City in his head. Then, he finally shifted his gaze and began to observe the Fist King’s camp that was closer.

He was immediately deeply awed by the magnificence and dominance of ‘Fist King’ Lei Zonglie’s camp.

The main body of the camp was an iron fortress almost a hundred meters tall. On the black shell of the fortress were complicated tubes, dense wastes holes, and countless attack rune arrays. A lot of spiritual energy circuits that had been connected to rune arrays were simply exposed to the air without having the protection of a defensive shell. Sparks were spluttering out every now and then.

There were also gears. Countless gears large and small bit each other, either revolving slowly or spinning fast. With steam popping out, they transmitted the overwhelming impetus to the bottom of the iron fortress.

The base of the iron fortress had adopted a track structure, too. Sixteen gargantuan track engine systems supported the almighty fortress to march slowly toward Liberty City, leaving deep marks behind. The deepest of the marks was almost five meters into the ground, enough to bury a hundred dead bodies.

The marks left by the iron fortress as it rolled on the earth extended over the horizon, showing their determination to not retreat.

It was more like a floating mountain that had been dragged to the ground and had sixteen simple and primitive tracks installed than an iron fortress!

What was most daunting was a black, glittering barrel that extended out of a gap that was as deep as a canyon at the center of the iron fortress. The barrel was almost thirty meters long and aimed directly at Liberty City.

More than a hundred thousand rune arrays had been carved on the barrel. Metal rings that could enhance or suppress the spiritual energy were slowly revolving on it, too.

Li Yao was uncertain what kind of weapon it was. However, judging from the scale, it was as impressive as the main guns of a heavy starship.

In contrast to the gargantuan main cannon, the other hundreds of lumpy turrets seemed rather insignificant.

Wu!

The iron fortress let out a peal of shrieks. From the ends of all the tubes, colorful waste gas spurted out and spread to a few kilometers away, further highlighting the magnificence of the fortress.

The one who had crafted such an unbelievable mobile battery was definitely a lunatic among lunatics.

“That is ‘Great Iron City’, the Fist King’s mobile palace!”

Looking at the iron fortress from which dense smoke was popping out, Xin Xiaoqi declared with great excitement, “It is said that the Fist King himself strengthened and modified it. It is awesome, isn’t it?”

Great Iron City was moving at a very slow speed. It was almost stationary and only kept the minimal functionality of the internal engine system, as if it were in some sort of ‘on hold’ state.

Around Great Iron City were countless tanks.

Almost all the tanks were embedded with iron plates and sharp thorns. Countless storm bolters and crystal cannons had been installed on them, too.

A lot of tents were established around the tanks, which were the temporary camps of the mobs.

Awed by the name of ‘Fist King’ Lei Zonglie, and drooling over the assets and profits in Liberty City as well as the opportunity to rise to the City in the Sky, the brutal bandits and experts everywhere had come to join him. They were all dispatched around Great Iron City and naturally formed a town.

The bizarre city was a great eye-opener for Li Yao.

It was needless to mention the chaos and lawlessness inside. Furthermore, a lot of the bandits in the city, because of the pollution and radiation in the Land of Sins, were a strange species with uncanny body shapes. Some of them had hair all over their bodies that felt like iron stings, some had been born with an additional arm on their chest, some had two heads on the same body, and some of them were half human, half animal. There were simply too many different kinds to be counted.

Li Yao could not help but compare the ‘Land of Sins’ with the ‘Blood Demon Sector’.

A lot of demons in the Blood Demon Sector were also naturally hideous and frightening.

However, demons only had evolved into what they looked like today after tens of thousands of years of mutations. However hideous and terrifying they were, they at least looked rather natural, as if they were supposed to be like that.

The mutants in the Land of Sins, on the other hand, were the victims of the Immortal Cultivators’ radical experiments. They had been utterly deformed in only several hundred years, if not decades. Their bodies had the obvious marks of artificial work and were clearly abnormal.

Also, the bandits in the Land of Sins seemed to be passionate about the biochemical and mechanical modifications on their bodies. All kinds of prosthetics were popular there.

A muscular man with tumors all over the head and sharp thorns on the body walked among the tents as if nobody were around with a mechanical arm that was even greater than his body and two strengthened power axles on his spine. Such a nightmare-like view could be seen everywhere.

Wiping the cold sweat on her forehead, Xin Xiaoqi said, “This is the temporary camp for the Fist King’s army. In the past half month, the elites of almost a hundred gangs have gathered here. A lot of ‘lone wolves’ who make their living on their own in the Land of Sins have come, too. Of course, there are also many people… like you.

“Please wait a moment. Those guys there work for the ‘Godly Fist Union’ under the command of the Fist King. I’ll go to them and register so that we have a place to park and camp.”

Li Yao noticed that, although the entire temporary camp was lively and chaotic, nobody was floating in midair except for some muscular men who were wearing black armor with a mark of a white fist painted on the breastplate. It seemed that the Fist King had made a rule.

Xin Xiaoqi found a few members of the ‘Godly Fist Union’ very quickly. Perhaps she had already prepared an invitation card for the three ‘players’. What she offered right now was the one that Li Yao retrieved from Double Dragons City. After communicating with the members of the ‘Godly Fist Union’ for a while, Xin Xiaoqi was given a crude and clumsy wrist crystal processor. She then returned to everywhere, sweating.

“As per your instructions, I have registered under the name ‘Red Viper Squad’,” Xin Xiaoqi said. “We have been allocated a location in the thirteenth zone to the east. If we do not apply for missions voluntarily, we will be launching an attack as the thirteenth team on the east flank during the battle to conquer the city.”

There were a lot of hunters and adventurers in the Land of Sins who did not like working with other people. Instead of founding an enormous gang, they often took action as an elite squad with only ten or so members.

Although such adventure squads had few people, they were often very dangerous beings since they were confident about their survival in the Land of Sins. Even normal gangs did not dare mess with them easily.

If they were not given a special name, an adventure squad would be named after the captain.

‘Red Viper’, the woman who had a viper tattoo on her face and the highest Cultivation among the three players, shook her head and said, “You should know our mission clearly. Now that we have joined the Fist King’s army, we are not here to work as common cannon fodder. We must meet the Fist King in private and have a deep communication with him.”

“Ever since the news that the Fist King was going to attack Liberty City was out, too many men have been coming to join him from every direction,” Xin Xiaoqi replied hesitantly. “Naturally, it is impossible for the Fist King to meet each of them alone. We only have a ‘three-star invitation card’ in our hands, but the highest level is nine-star. In other words, we are just a mediocre, insignificant force. There’s no reason for the Fist King to meet us.

According to Xin Xiaoqi, on one hand, they did not have any reputation right now and had not proved their capability in public. The Fist King would not waste his time on them.

More importantly, their ‘loyalty’ could not be guaranteed right now. Things always happened too fast in the Land of Sins, and information often spread too slowly. Many forces were rising and falling every day. It was hard to tell a person’s identity, whom they were loyal to, and whom they held grudges against.

Therefore, nobody was certain that the spies of the leader of Liberty City were not among the people who were coming to join the Fist King.

Even if they did reveal unbelievable strength, they would not win the Fist King’s absolute trust or have the privilege to speak to him in private.

“Sounds reasonable. Then, how should the problem be fixed?” Red Viper asked with great interest.

“First of all, we will have to accomplish a lot of quests to slowly win the Fist King’s fondness and trust,” Xin Xiaoqi answered. “Loyalty can only be proved through actions. If we can deal a heavy blow to the leader of Liberty City and make him suffer tremendous losses, we will naturally win the Fist King’s trust.”