Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“No!”

Bulging his eyes, Li Jialing asked in fury, “Why were you so sure that there were such things in my portal crystal processor?”

“Jialing, you are a passionate, hotblooded young man in your twenties, and unlike Han Te, you don’t have so many girls around you all the time. Isn’t it perfectly normal that you have such things in your crystal processor?”

Li Yao patted the young man’s shoulder considerately. “There’s no need to feel embarrassed. Your Sister Long and I both went through the phase before. We understand you.”

“Cut the crap!”

Li Jialing blew Li Yao’s hand away. “I am a passionate, hotblooded young man, but you are a middle-aged uncle who is somewhere far away from your wife. Don’t you have any of those things in your own portal crystal processor?”

“Like I said just now, with the level I am at right now, I don’t need such vivid things anymore.”

Li Yao said casually, “Nothing is everything, and everything is nothing. I know it is too sophisticated for you to understand right now, so let me translate it in a way that you can understand—I prefer to delete them after I watch them. Do you understand?”

“…”

Li Jialing massaged his neck and mumbled, “Are the three of us really qualified to save the civilization of mankind and even the Pangu universe?”

“Let’s cut the crap and concentrate!”

Li Yao suddenly changed his facial expression and hinted to Li Jialing and Long Yangjun to be quiet. “The few remote crystal cameras that I sent into the heavy tractors have entered the underground hole along with the tractors. We’ll see what Wuying Qi is up to in a minute!”

Li Jialing and Long Yangjun immediately dropped the minor episode a moment ago.

Fine. It was perhaps not a “minor episode”, and it could not be completely dropped behind. All in all, they managed to focus 90% of their attention on the hologram that Li Yao displayed just now.

The hologram this time, however, was mottled and blurry. The details were obscure.

“So unclear?”

Li Jialing asked, “Is it possible to make it clearer?”

“No. Wuying Qi must’ve deployed certain defense rune arrays that can disrupt and block unusual waves in his secret base. Our signals have been terribly affected.”

Li Yao said, “If I were to increase the power output by force to increase the clarity, we would likely be discovered by the defense rune arrays. So, let’s deal with it!”

The three of them calmed down and observed, all shocked at the scale of the underground hole and the boundless darkness.

Even though they had foreseen that Wuying Qi would dig the underground base regardless of the cost, they did not see it coming that he would almost dig through the entire shell of the planet in only a couple of months.

When the crystal cameras were used to the new environment and sent back clearer pictures, a vague, magnificent building was gradually revealed.

It could be seen that Wuying Qi had asked the Imperial Guards to dig quite a few spiral channels on the cliff. Every channel was wide enough for two heavy tractors to pass at the same time. They extended all the way to the top of the cave.

Many heavy tractors unloaded the crystals on the top of the gigantic cave.

“Wuying Qi must’ve dug countless holes in the rocks above this gigantic cave and planted tremendous crystal bombs into them.”

Li Yao analyzed, “When the time is ripe, the rocks between the cave and the ground will be blown up. Together with the carefully calculated tectonic movements, it will be indeed possible to lift the secret base up to the surface of the planet.”

The few crystal cameras that arrived at the top of the cave with the tractors observed the general picture of the gigantic cave from the high stance, and they soon discovered an oval building with various floors. It was like a huge and abnormal iron heart. Countless tubes that were as thick as boas extended out of the “heart”. Smoke was also popping up from the joints of the tubes and the building.

Many heavy tractors entered the building slowly.

“This… seems to be a massive energy center.”

Pondering for a moment, Li Yao snapped his fingers. “Got it. The crystals that Wuying Qi has gathered by draining the whole capital planet are of different sources and qualities. They cannot be used directly. Therefore, they have to be shipped to this energy center to be purified and melted, before they are supplied to his brainwashing factory.

“Judging from the size of this energy center and the number of tractors that enter it every minute, the energy that it can steadily output is almost astronomical. Is Wuying Qi out of his mind to wager all his chances on a brainwashing factory below the ground?”

In the next moment, the crystal cameras scanned the platforms and the caves deployed on the cliff. The three of them all clicked their tongues when they saw the cubic defense system and the garrisons in the place.

“The defense here is almost flawless and impenetrable.”

Li Yao vaguely felt a toothache. “How many soldiers did Wuying Qi summon to defend the underground base? An Imperial Guard is basically squatting on every stalagmite! It is needless to mention the dense crystal cannons. Even if we activate our Colossi and march over at the same time, we will only be blown back by the overwhelming firepower. The firepower density here is higher than that of an Adamantine Super Arsenal Warship!”

“It seems that Wuying Qi has almost given up the defense on the ground and the orbit. He’s betting his future on this secret weapon.”

Long Yangjun glanced at Li Yao and smiled. “Has Wuying Qi established any massive ventilation system that supports the oxygen of the Imperial Guards living in this place?”

“Forget it. There’s no chance.”

Li Yao sighed and said helplessly, “The plan to attack the Godly Might Prison was made by me and Li Linghai together. Li Linghai knew very well that there was nothing I could do about the ventilation tubes of the Godly Might Prison, so Wuying Qi must know it too. Do you think he will not adopt the same design?”

“It does make sense. It seems that we have to find a different way.”

Long Yangjun said, “However, let’s locate the brainwashing factory by the tubes that extend from the energy center first… Huh?”

As the few crystal cameras were turned to the deepest part of the cave, the glittering pyramid with esoteric runes carved on the surface was displayed in front of them.

It was glowing so splendidly that even the space around was illuminated clearly.

“What’s this?”

Li Yao couldn’t help but get hooked by the mysterious, vintage building that was filled with power. For some reason, the runes carved on it reminded him of billions of pieces of the sun. “Is that… the brainwashing factory. It seems entirely different from the ‘human manufacture center’ that we discovered in Kunlun.”

“Judging from the structure, it looks like some sort of massive cannon.”

Li Jialing also said, “The kind of cannon that is designed to penetrate through the atmosphere and deal with starships.”

Long Yangjun, however, fell silent and was in a trance. The runes on the pyramid seemed to have been carved on her retina and then leaked into her soul.

“I… remember the building.”

Her pupils and her eyes were melted together, turning her eyes into two glittering swirls. She said gloomily, “Or rather, my previous self saw similar magical equipment somewhere else and accepted the mission to destroy it!”

“Huh?”

Li Yao and Li Jialing looked at each other and hurried to ask, “What is that? A piece of brainwashing magical equipment to perform massive mental attacks?”

“No, no, it doesn’t seem to be one. Let me think. Let me think carefully…”

Long Yangjun held her forehead in great pain. She breathed heavily, and hundreds of lights seemed to have travelled hundreds of thousands of years and glowed in her eyes, making her utter broken moans. “The Houyi Clan… the sun… the song of the stars, fire, the eternal fire that burns up a whole space zone… Gold… Gold Crystal Pyramid. Yes, I remember it now. This is a Gold Crystal Pyramid, a piece of super magical equipment that can boost the energy of the star for a battle. Its power can sweep across the whole space zone. It’s an out-and-out stellar-level weapon!”

“A piece of stellar-level magical equipment?”

Li Yao and Li Jialing were both greatly alarmed.

However, they were rather puzzled too, because the magical equipment had nothing to do with brainwashing but was related to the stars, or more specifically, the sun.

“The Gold Crystal Pyramid was an invention of the Houyi Clan, a member of the Pangu civilizations’ alliance. It can cast minor interferences to the magnetic field of a star and increase the star’s activity, allowing the ultra-intense radiations, spiritual waves, particles, and heat to spread throughout the space zone. All the magical equipment in the range will be paralyzed. The Spiritual Nexus and the spiritual roots of the trainers will be affected. The carbon-based lives may even be wiped out directly. It is a rather dominating weapon.”

The gate deep inside Long Yangjun’s memories was opened, spurting out infinite information, but her face was filled with fear. “However, while the superweapon is very powerful, it has obvious shortcomings. First of all, the attack it launches aims at everybody in the range indiscriminately. It is barely possible for the allies to defend against it.

“In other words, once the Gold Crystal Pyramid ignites the fury of a star, it will usually lead to a lose-lose outcome. After a solar storm, it is possible that half of the troops of both sides, as well as the civilians living in the stellar system, will be killed instantly. It will be a war that has no winners.

“What is more dreadful is that such a superweapon has a terrible controllability. It is easy to start a fire, but it is not as easy to distinguish one. While infuriating a star was not difficult, restoring the calmness of the star was beyond the technological limits of the Pangu civilization.

“Once a certain star enters the intensely active period because of the Gold Crystal Pyramid, it may last dozens if not hundreds of years. During the hundreds of years, the star will spurt powerful radiations and high-energy particles incessantly, reducing the previously vigorous Sector into a burning inferno where no intelligent lives can be found. Even the Houyi Clan and the Kuafu Clan who worshipped the sun couldn’t have survived in such a rigorous environment!

“Do you understand it now? Using the Gold Crystal Pyramid once may be enough to destroy one Sector. At least within several hundred years, the Sector will not be able to be used by any civilization again!”