Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Hearing Li Yao’s freezing voice, Long Yangjun and Li Jialing both looked as if they were just woken up from a nightmare, only to fall into another one that was even more horrible.

The three of them looked at each other in thoughtfulness.

“Are you saying—” Long Yangjun struggled to say, “—what I’m thinking?”

“In order to perform massive brainwashing on billions of people in a whole space zone, a most powerful energy source and a ‘magnifier’ or ‘enhancer’ with a high performance are required.”

Li Jialing also said in a shivering voice, “We thought that it was impossible for Wuying Qi to get those things, but from what we have seen just now, he is much crazier and more talented than we imagined. He… He can regard the sun as an ‘energy source’ and ‘magnifier’. No expert can possibly compete with an exasperated sun!

“Is it technologically possible?”

Long Yangjun was more or less overwhelmed. “I don’t know. I don’t know.”

“Nobody does. That’s why I have to get in.”

Li Yao pointed at the Gold Crystal Pyramid. With a pair of eyes as sharp as those of an eagle, he said, “I have to get into this pyramid to observe its mechanism, collect more concrete proofs, send them to more people, and figure out a way to resolve it.”

“Are you out of your mind? There are so many people around the Gold Crystal Pyramid, as well as many Imperial Guards who are armed to teeth and who are utterly fearless of death thanks to being brainwashed!”

Long Yangjun bellowed, “Open your eyes and watch! This is a narrow cave below the ground. The speed and agility of the Colossi are highly limited! In the boundless space, you are free to divide and conquer through guerilla warfare as fast as lightning, but in this place, when the iron tide is made of a thousand soldiers who were flooding forward, you will have nowhere to run to!

“It is needless to say that Wuying Qi may show up at any moment. You wouldn’t think that you are capable of challenging Wuying Qi because you have touched the ceiling of the Divinity Transformation Stage after Xiaoming and Wenwen’s modification, would you?”

“I’m not out of my mind. On the contrary, I have never been more conscious!”

Taking a deep breath, Li Yao pressed his forehead and stimulated his brain cells to jump crazily. “Listen, the most dangerous place is the safest place. One can only live if they are ready for death! We are beleaguered by Wuying Qi’s army in the first place after sneaking into the capital planet in secret. It’s difficult to sneak away now. Our only opportunity is to break in and hijack the ‘Gold Crystal Pyramid’!

“The Gold Crystal Pyramid will be the best ‘hostage’ and the greatest bargaining chip for us to deal with Wuying Qi. Also, judging from the solid shell of the stellar-level magical equipment, it is impossible to destroy it from the outside. Even if we are equipped with Colossi, we can’t shoot through the shell. Then, the only way to stop Wuying Qi’s scheme is to dig into the pyramid, find the most critical core, and blow up its heart!”

Long Yangjun and Li Jialing looked at each other. They were about to persuade Li Yao to try other approaches when Li Yao’s portable crystal processor suddenly shivered.

Li Yao raised his wrist, only to look even more awful.

“Many people just came from the teleportation array at the end of the tunnel. No, not the heavy tractors that ship crystals, but the abundant Exos as well as fully-armed crystal tanks and battle puppets. Judging from their emblems and epaulets, they are the best troop in the Imperial Guards. It is possible that Wuying Qi is leading them in person.

“It appears that he has learned that we snuck into the base, and he is about to activate his… crazy plan of brainwashing with the sun in advance!

“There’s no time for any hesitation. Just listen to me on this one. Trust me, no matter how idiotic I usually pretended to be, I never let you down at critical moments, did I? So, trust me. We will succeed! We will!”

Looking at Li Yao’s eyes, which seemed to be spurting magma, Long Yangjun sighed and said helplessly, “How are you going in?”

“There’s no time for a prudent sneak-in.”

Li Yao’s chest moved fast. “Let’s resort to the emergency plan!”

Long Yangjun’s eyelids twitched fast. She bit her lips hard and said, “I swear that this is the last time that I will ever team up with you. The last time!”

“If we fail, there won’t be a next time.”

Li Yao chuckled and turned to Li Jialing. He hesitated for a moment but still asked, “Jialing, you are the target that Wuying Qi is determined to capture. Regarding the plan we discussed last time, are you… ready?”

Li Jialing nodded in silence and declared resolutely, “I will figure out the queen’s real stance. If she did have understandable reasons, or if she was completely controlled by Wuying Qi, I will return my life to her by dying together with Wuying Qi!”

“You are my only brother, so I will not let you die today.”

Li Yao grimaced, baring his pure and sharp teeth. “Somebody is going to die today, but not us. Let’s move!”

…

In the meantime, on the massive teleportation array at the end of the tunnel, rows of Imperial Guards that looked like iron woods showed up and gathered into aggressive battle formations.

Very soon, Li Linghai appeared at the center of the teleportation array too, and she gradually drifted to the midair. The transparent white hair behind her head turned deep dark.

“I can smell rats.”

She… He sniffed, as if he could directly sense the feeble spiritual waves spreading in the air. He suddenly extended his hand. A tide of waves spread out, raising earsplitting noises, as he snatched a few crystal cameras in the stealth state.

Those crystal cameras were deployed by Li Yao earlier to monitor the movements of the troops.

The crystal cameras turned into flames in Li Linghai—or Wuying Qi’s hands. In infinite fury, he tossed the broken pieces of the crystal cameras to the ground heavily and rushed into the tunnel.

…

In the space battlefield, on the No. 5 planet not far away from the capital planet, the main warriors of the four families’ ace fleets had already finished the final refilling and loading. The warriors had examined their crystal suits, space shuttles, and Colossi again and filled their stomachs with all kinds of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures. Like sweating and excited horses, they boarded on their starships in a hurry. Very soon, the starships spurted out brilliant torrents of fire and soared to the sky.

In terms of number, the four families’ ace fleets were slightly less impressive than the “grand alliance of million starships” that marched to the Seven Seas Space Zone earlier.

However, different from the untrained mobsters in that coalition fleet, all the warriors here were the sharpest sabers of the nobles.

It could be seen by the fact that the starships kept a safe distance from each other when thousands of them were launched at the same time. It was as if countless scalpels were cutting the cosmos at the same time.

It was the sunrise of the No. 5 planet.

The magnificent brilliance of the sun was turned into a colorful, dreamy halo when it was reflected on the spiritual shield and the mirrored armor of the main-force warriors. The emblems of the sour families looked even more splendid and invincible.

The warriors of the four families were all deeply attracted by the sunrise. They couldn’t help but lean against the virtual window and observed without blinking.

Was the glamor in space a symbol that the four families were rising unstoppably like the sun in the morning?

“For the glory of the family!”

“Victory! Victory!”

“Get the capital planet! Capture Li Linghai!”

The noble warriors opened their arms and howled desperately under the glorious sunlight.

…

“Halt! Halt! All starships of the Deep Sea Fleet and the Imperial Guards, turn off the main power units and only keep the anti-gravity rune arrays running at the minimum efficiency to offset the gravity of the capital planet!”

Dongfang Sheng, the reformists’ commander in the frontier and the highest commander of the Deep Sea Fleet, also instructed all the soldiers that had retreated to the orbit of the capital planet to further retreat. “All starships that are capable of flying within the atmosphere, retreat into the atmosphere. Yes, all of them! The massive motherships that cannot fly in the high-gravity environment will return to the back of space fortresses and space towns to avoid the sunlight!

“This is an order. Move according to the latest map of defense now!

“After the latest deployment, all starships will adjust their spiritual shields to a certain frequency. The specific frequency is as follows—

“In the meantime, all starships will open their public communication channels and the interfaces to accept external messages. Lord Regent will speak to the devoted soldiers of the Imperium who have fought to the last moment!

“Trust me, no matter how aggressive and unstoppable the enemy might be, the final victory will be ours. It will belong to the strongest experts who truly believe in the civilization of mankind!”

…

Inside the underground hole, Neltharion had entered the stealth mode and snuck into the purification and activation factory that powered the Gold Crystal Pyramid next to it.

Due to the lack of knowledge on the internal structure of the energy center, it could only move forward slowly following the heavy tractor. In the meantime, under the delicate control of the mental devil, it tossed one Cosmos Ring after another into the bucket of the tractor.

The tactic was similar to the remote explosion tactic that Li Yao adopted in the Seven Seas Grand Market.

However, thanks to the resource support of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, Li Yao had more Cosmos Rings to squander now.

In the meantime, the energy center was clearly ten times better defended than the Seven Seas Grand Market too.

A sentry post had been set up after every few steps. Anti-stealth scanning rays were activated now and then. Even though the mental devil was moving and dodging agilely the whole time, it was still caught by the mystic rays after throwing down almost ten Cosmos Rings.

Devastating alarms immediately echoed deep inside the energy center!