Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“It’s… the boxing champion!” Judging from the unique identification of the distress signal, it was ‘Iron Fist’, the model of the boxing champion.

Li Yao’s pupils constricted violently. ‘Hunting Falcon’ locked onto ‘Iron Fist’, while he sent telepathic thoughts to read the more detailed distress messages.

As the data and information flowed in, the awkward situation of Iron Fist and the broken parameters of the starship appeared on the mainframe crystal processor of Falcon.

The boxing champion was truly unlucky.

His starship did not jump to the rainbow dust belt outside of the ancient giants like other starships did. Instead, as Li Yao had feared, it directly jumped to the newly generated ringthe stone belt.

The cosmic dust the size of sand was enough to collapse a starship that had just jumped out of the four-dimensional space, not to mention meteorites the size of fingernails and fists. They were like ten thousand cannonballs that were bombarding every corner of Iron Fist. No human captain could deal with such a dense rain of bullets. Chances were that the starship would break up the moment they jumped out of the four-dimensional space.

Thankfully, the information life-form named ‘Fist King’ had planned the route and the defense of the spiritual shield with his amazing computational ability. He had also manipulated the mustard-level adhesive to repair the damage at a high efficiency. That was how he managed to maintain 30% of the impetus of Iron Fist and complete the soul-stirring ‘landing’.

But as soon as he entered the stone belt, a new problem occurred.

Their ‘landing spot’ was too close to the ancient star. It had been captured by the enormous gravity of the planet and was falling toward the surface of the planet.

If they had 100% impetus, or even more than 50%, they might have been able to escape.

But right now, he was only left with 30% of the impetus. Besides, the structure of the starship was seriously damaged. He did not dare overload the power unit at all. Like a drowning man in a swamp, the more he struggled, the faster he would sink. He could only watch himself sinking deeper and deeper until he was swallowed by the darkness.

Through the remote monitoring system, Li Yao could see that all the parameters of the power units on Iron Fist had turned into orange, crimson, crimson, and black, followed by a pale, dead gray.

He seemed to be able to hear the noises of the power units exploding and being paralyzed and the main structure of the starship being twisted and broken due to metal fatigue. There was no force that could stop the fall of Iron Fist. They would either fall into the ocean of methane and hydrogen from the ancient giants and be crushed into iron lumps less than a hundred meters in diameter from several kilometers long, or they would be swallowed by the lightning. The fragile structure of the warship would be torn apart together with the flesh and blood of the human beings. The latter way was more straightforward. “Punching King!”

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The interference of the magnetic field was too severe. Even though Li Yao’s ‘Hunting Falcon’ was closest to the Fist King’s ‘Iron Fist’, it still took him a lot of effort to reach out to the other party through point-to-point communication. “What’s the situation on your side? Is there any hope of escape? Launch the escape capsule now. I’ll meet you in the periphery of the stone belt!”

“It’s useless.”

The other side of the communication channel was silent for a long time. There was nothing but rattling noises, as if a super sandstorm had just broken out. The Fist King’s voice was intermittent. “The interior of the starship… is seriously damaged… Many people are injured and unable to reach their escape capsules… The escape zone has been pierced through by the meteor shower, too. Most of the escape capsules have been destroyed. It is not enough for all the crew members to escape… Even if they board the escape capsules, the power and plate armor of the escape capsules are not enough to get rid of the gravity of the ancient planet and the storm inside the rings… There is no way that they can escape.”

“…What about you?” Li Yao felt that his nose and his heart were aching at the same time. He gritted his teeth and shouted, “You can get out, can’t you? What are you waiting for? Release yourself now. It will be too late if you are late!”

Different from ordinary human beings, the boxing champion was essentially a super-large database. It did not have a real body. Although it required a super crystal processor to maintain the efficiency of the database, such crystal processors were not only available on Iron Fist but also on other starships.

In other words, the Fist King had multiple clones that were stored on different starships. Even if Iron Fist failed, he could still be ‘reborn’ as long as he sent out a lot of data in time. At best, his computational ability and logical thinking ability would be slightly reduced, and he would lose part of the memory data. However, the information life-forms were both strong and weak. The launch of the data depended on the rhythm of the spiritual waves. However, the closer they were to the atmosphere of the ancient giants, the more intense the spiritual interference would be, and the more likely they would encounter the terrifying ionizing magnetic storm. If the core database of the boxing champion was swallowed by the ionizing magnetic storm when it was launched, they would be doomed forever.

One second of delay equaled to one second of risk. Li Yao had no idea what the Fist King was waiting for. Time was of the essence. It was impossible for him to repair Iron Fist. He would only be wasting his precious computational ability and hope of survival! “I… can’t leave yet.”

Amid the intense interference, the Fist King’s deep voice came over. “I’m trying to stabilize Iron Fist and resist the gravity of the ancient star before the fuel runs out so that it can stay above the atmosphere of the ancient star longer.” “Why?”

Confused, Li Yao was more than anxious. “Judging from the damage data of Iron Fist, it is impossible for you to repair it. What’s the point of a stalemate above the methane atmosphere of an ancient star when you escaped with its own impetus?”

“Yes.”

The Fist King said calmly, “Our situation is very bad. Many experts and scholars on board are dead. Those who are still alive understand that they don’t have long to live, but they don’t want to die meaninglessly. These people, especially the astronomers, beg me to try to maintain the stability of Iron Fist so that they can have more time to scan and study the internal data of the ancient giants.

“You know that human beings rarely had the opportunity to approach such a super-large, unstable planet, much less observe and study its data.

“The astronomers on Iron Fist want to take the opportunity to collect more data and send it to your ‘Falcon’. The data will fill the gap of mankind’s research on the giant planets and give you more hope for your future exploration. At the very least, the more you know about the ancient giants, the more likely you will be able to deal with the accident and escape, won’t you? “I think what the scholars said makes a lot of sense. So, how should we put it in the language of human beings? ‘Play with Your Highness at the risk of your life’? Yes, that’s it.

“Li Yao, don’t worry about me. I will seize the last opportunity to send out my core database. Right now, you just need to make sure that the reception unit of ‘Hunting Falcon’ is functioning normally and that all the data sent from ‘Iron Fist’ is collected. All the experts and scholars here are gritting their teeth and making sure that their beliefs are firm and their souls are clear. Before they are torn apart by the planet, collect as much data as possible and send it over!”

Li Yao was greatly moved.

He did not expect such an answer.

Very soon, the data about the ancient giantsthe constituents of the atmosphere, the frequency and intensity of the ionizing thunderstorms, the different densities and gravity of the planets-flooded into ‘Hunting Falcon’ through the stone belts.

Li Yao’s eyes were somewhat red.

He seemed to be able to see the scenes on Iron Fist. The experts and scholars, the astronomers, the spiritual energy scientists, the meteorologists, and the authorities of the basic subjects who were too weak to fight back, all knew that they would not be able to run away from the disaster. They knew that they were about to meet the most brutal doom, but they did not waste even a second to lament or grieve. They widened their eyes, bit their lips, and made up their mind to show their determination and pride as the only weapons they had left in front of their most formidable enemy, the ancient giants.

Human beings could be annihilated, but they could never be defeated. Even at the last second of their lives, they had to figure out the mysteries of the universe.

It was the belief of the scholars.

Whether it was the federation or the imperium, whether it was the Cultivators or the Immortal Cultivators, the scholars, especially the top scholars in basic subjects, were often the most special and the purest people.

The reason was simple. Even if an Immortal Cultivator in the Nascent Soul Stage was interested in astronomy, they wouldn’t scheme against each other, fight for power, and kill each other like the combat-type Immortal Cultivators did.

It was too childish, too stupid, and too boring to ask the astronomers to look back and indulge in the petty benefits of hairless monkeys when they were used to the changes of the universe billions of years ago.

At the last moment of their lives, both the scholars of the federation and the imperium released the most glamorous fire of life and turned into the eyes of all mankind, trying to see more of the magnificence and mystery of the universe. This was the significance of their existence. With dazzling brilliance, Iron Fist finally stopped falling

However, the attraction force of the ancient star and the impetus of the starship made the metal fatigue of the main structure of the starship soar. Everybody could tell that the boxing champion would not last long.

The tears in Li Yao’s eyes almost melted into magma.

The parameters of the ancient star collided with those of Iron Fist. They found the only possibility from the countless impossibilities.

“Punching King!”

Li Yao roared, “Hold on! I’m coming to save you! I’m coming to save you!”

“…Don’t come close.”

The Fist King’s calm voice finally broke the ice. He was somewhat surprised. “The meteorites and the ionizing magnetic storms here are too intense. One moment of carelessness, and you will fall into the gravity swirl of the ancient giants. You cannot joke around with the lives of everybody on ‘Hunting Falcon’. We have a backup plan. In such a situation, we can only abandon the starships that are in desperate straits!

“I know.”

Li Yao grinned, revealing his white teeth. “Therefore, it was not Falcon but me who came to your rescue!