Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

While Liao Fei was overwhelmed by devastation, enormous bloody bubbles popped up from the ocean and moved toward him, swallowing him one bite after another.

He struggled hard in the middle of the bloody bubbles, but he could not get rid of the skinny hands and the tentacles at all. Very soon, he was dragged into the depths of the blood ocean, and his screams turned into bubbling sounds before his soul was completely melted.

“What a ‘paradise’!” The mental devil grinned hideously. “It is indeed not a simple base to test new magical equipment and techniques. There are actually so many tricks behind it. This Wuying Lan is really a genius!”

“Indeed. Even my curiosity has been aroused. I want to meet this ‘Wuying Lan’ and explore the deepest secrets of the Imperium through him,” Li Yao said. “Also, I’m going to destroy the ‘paradise’ by the way!”

“According to Liao Fei, Manjusaka is a highly-dangerous prison and laboratory, which confirms our past speculation,” the mental devil said. “I predict that the strongest experts from the Land of Sins must be caged inside as ‘perfect test subjects’ screened naturally from the wilderness. When the mysteries of their body and soul are studied carefully, a lot of precious information and data will be found.”

After pondering for a moment, Li Yao said, “In that case, there must be ‘high-molecular layer-by-layer scanning magical equipment’ up there. Also, those highly-dangerous ‘perfect test subjects’ can’t be too happy about their fate. If we can find a way to sabotage the City in the Sky and set all of them free…”

The mental devil smiled. “Have you found a way to go to Manjusaka?”

“It is certainly not an option to fly directly into the place on our own,” Li Yao said. “The Immortal Cultivators have deployed barriers of the highest level on the entire sky. Manjusaka is definitely the most focused upon. It is impossible for us to compete with the super array that covers the entire planet. Even if we can break in by force, should the Immortal Cultivators notice our existence and strengthen their defense, it will be difficult for us to do anything after.

“However, I’m thinking about something else. So many players and tourists have come from the sky. They can naturally count on the invisible landing cabins when they come, but how are they going to return? They cannot simply fly to the Heavenly Rails, which would be too eye-catching and seen by the sinners, right?

“Also, the ‘Slaughter Game’ in the Land of Sins has a high death rate. The odds of being heavily wounded can’t be low. A lot of low-level Immortal Cultivators are incapable of flying into the clouds in the first place, and it will be even less possible for them to do so after they are heavily wounded.

“Therefore, there must be a secret and convenient channel that allows them to return to the Heavenly Rails comfortably.”

“Well…” The mental devil pondered for a moment and said, “Right, the towers to the sky!”

Li Yao was thrilled. “Yes. Every Elysian World has an asset transmission tube that is made of high-tenacity fiber, porcelain, and metal. They are connected to the Heavenly Rails to ship assets on a large scale. I’ve been feeling that it’s peculiar since a few days back. However many assets the Heavenly Rails intend to deliver, they can just toss them down, and gravity will do all the work. Why would they bother to build so many towers that lead to the sky with so much effort?

“Come to think of it, the greatest function of the towers should be to carry the players and tourists of the Immortal Cultivators back up to the Heavenly Rails!

“In the jargon of virtual games, the towers and the Elysian Worlds are the ‘spawn points’ and ‘recall points’ for most players. Of course, some of the players are randomly ‘spawned’ in the wilderness, but they will have to go to the towers in the Elysian Worlds after they accomplish their quests and prepare to return to the Heavenly Rails.”

“There are also the ‘perfect test subjects’ in the Land of Sins.” The mental devil smiled. “Other than the sinners, a lot of mutated beasts that have evolved greatly are the targets for the Immortal Cultivators. Some of the beasts are even huger than a super-heavy crystal tank. Naturally, it is impossible for them to fly into the sky. They can only be shipped through the towers.

“It is well known that the high and mighty angels will issue all kinds of quests through the Elysian Worlds. According to my investigation, most of the quests concern hunting mutated beasts, which must be captured alive. Think about it. After the experts among the sinners catch a king of mutated beasts through their arduous effort and accumulate enough contribution points, they can be shipped to the City in the Sky together to be sliced and studied. Can it be any more convenient? It both saves the valuable strength of the Immortal Cultivators and will not raise the resistance of the sinners in the Land of Sins. To the last moment, the perfect experiment subjects still think that they will become angels and live a good life in their ignorance. Hehehe!”

“In that case…” Li Yao thought of something. “If we can find an opportunity to blend into the Immortal Cultivators or the perfect test subjects, we will be able to follow them to enter the Heavenly Rails through the towers. It is a chance to break into the City in the Sky, right?”

“There is one such tower in Liberty City. Also, after the Battle of Liberty City, a lot of players and Immortal Cultivator tourists will certainly return to the Heavenly Rails and leave the planet,” the mental devil said. “If we can grasp or even create an opportunity to transform the Battle of Liberty City into mayhem, there will be a chance for us to sneak into the dirty water.”

“Indeed. Then, let’s continue lurking and waiting for an opportunity to fight with this Wuying Lan, the helmsman of the Heavenly Eye Group!”

Li Yao finished the communication with the mental devil and focused his attention on the outside world again.

A long time seemed to have passed when he invaded Liao Fei’s brain and established a bizarre, frightening illusion, but it had actually only taken three minutes.

However, during those three minutes, a lot of changes had taken place on the battlefield.

With the cover of the enormous airborne fire platform, Li Yao pushed Liao Fei’s body into the burning remnant without alarming anyone. He then tossed more than ten crystal bombs into it, blowing Liao Fei into bloody dust in the surging fire and smoke.

On the frontal defense line, however, the Fist King’s troop retreated like an ebbing tide. The defenders of Liberty City seemed to have high morale and were chasing the enemy, reaping their lives unstoppably.

Li Yao had long known from the Fist King’s battle formation earlier that it would only be a test attack today in order to locate the weaknesses of Liberty City’s defense line. He was not surprised by the result.

What gave him a headache was that one of the elite troops from Liberty City was charging in his direction.

“Run!”

Since he had been unmistakably informed that everything was just a game for the Immortal Cultivators and that the sinners’ battlefield was a paradise for the angels, Li Yao was naturally uninterested in fighting the ignorant sinners under the watch of so many viewers.

However, the moment he was about to run away at full speed, he noticed a familiar shadow by the scanning of his crystal camera.

It was Xin Xiaoqi, who had involved them in everything by accident and called herself a thief, a broker, and a black market dealer.

Li Yao hesitated for a moment, considering carefully if he should waste one second to save Xin Xiaoqi’s life. Compared to the atrocious bandits, the woman was not exactly an unpardonable person. When faced with the Red Viper Squad, despite her extreme fear, she still gritted her teeth to speak up for Han Te and Liu Li.

In the Land of Sins, those who had the slightest kindness in them were as rare as the Gold Barley that grew in loneliness. Li Yao did not want such Gold Barley to be completely obliterated in the radiation and blood.

At the same time, Xin Xiaoqi noticed Li Yao.

As if she had seen a life-saver, she shouted and ran at him.

The cat-like woman, like the first time they met, was still dodging and fleeing agilely with the spring-like propulsion magical equipment, evading from the blades and bullets. Although her movement looked rather disgraceful, she was miraculously unharmed.

Li Yao stopped hesitating. While boosting the power rune arrays to the maximum efficiency, making sure that he could run at full speed, he extended a mechanical arm at her and picked her up.

Right when Li Yao took action, an ear-splitting explosion burst out. From the smoke behind Xin Xiaoqi, four furiously burning crystal tanks were blown away, and a dark shadow almost five meters tall suddenly dashed out of the overwhelming scraps and remnants.

After the smoke was gone, a hideous monster was revealed. The lower half was a coldly-shining metal chassis, with six agile mechanical limbs that were fully embedded with iron nails and thorns. In the front, there were six honeycomb-type flying sword launches. Starry redness could be found on the launch holes of the flying swords, making them look like the crimson eyes of venomous spiders.

The upper half was a human covered in black hair who was wearing thick armor like an iron tower. He was holding an armor-penetrating cannon specially designed for crystal tanks at ease in one hand and a vibration hammer that could automatically extend in the other hand.

At this moment, the hammer was still vibrating at a frequency of more than five times per second, shattering the blood stains on it into a cluster of mists!

At first glance, it was like a beast puppet in the form of a metal spider had been transplanted onto the abnormal body of a serious mutant!

“Hehehe!”

The half-monster, half-machine bandit uttered low chuckles. His hammer tore apart the air, triggering rings of blasts, before it was thrown to where Li Yao was at an unbelievable speed.

Xin Xiaoqi shrieked and clutched Li Yao’s iron shell in panic.

What the f*ck is this?

Li Yao cursed loudly in his heart and retreated rapidly. The powerful hammer brushed past his face narrowly, smashing a crater more than three meters in diameter on the ground. The dead bodies and remnants around all bounced, as if they had lost the boundary of gravity in that moment.

It was truly happening. Li Yao noticed that the powerful hammer in the monster’s hand was also a rare piece of magical equipment. Other than the powerful blow and the high-frequency vibration, it employed a gravity disruption technique to some extent, which allowed it to disrupt the gravity in a range of about twenty square meters!

Things somehow got tricky.