Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Li Yao hovered around the part of the Nuwa warship exposed to the air.

At this moment, the enormous ice canyon was an utter mess.

In the collapse of the ice shells, countless Cultivators had fallen to the bottom of the valley and been smashed into meat and blood by the thousands of tons of ice. The few ’lucky dogs’ were struggling and screaming miserably among the crevices.

Most of the Cultivators had been focused on the engine tubes. Everybody was jostling for them.

Everyone’s attention had been grabbed by the Divine Palace. Few of them noticed Li Yao’s whereabouts.

Li Yao’s brutality was famous all over the Ancient Sages Sector. The Cultivators both on his side and on his enemy’s side were familiar with his appearance. Therefore, they were even less willing to piss off ’Master Spiritual Vulture’ before the Cloud Qin Gold Statues were found.

Li Yao soon found what he was looking for.

They were the dozens of cracks that looked like the gill of a shark on the two sides of the Nuwa warship.

Every crack was extremely long and narrow. They could be more than ten meters long, yet their width was only slightly greater than one’s palm. They were also covered in a glittering metal membrane. At first glance, it was integral with the shell of the warship and did not seem to be a channel of passage at all.

Li Yao, however, knew that it was the air inlets to exchange fresh air with the outside world when the Nuwa warship was flying within the atmosphere.

As the fortresses cruising in the sea of stars, the Nuwa warships certainly boasted a very advanced air recycling system.

However, absorbing fresh air from the outside world when it was flying on the habitable planets that had an atmosphere would not only relieve the burden of the air recycling magical equipment and save the energy to transform the air but also improve the dull environment inside the warship and the morale of the crew members.

There were similar designs on the warship debris of the Nuwa Clan discovered on Kunlun. Li Yao had studied the structure carefully before.

When the warship was flying in the vacuum, the inlets would be blocked from the inside and would not be opened until the warship landed on the surface of a planet. The internal architecture of the inlets was relatively feeble. At the very least, they were much feebler than the thick, heat-proof materials at the end of the engine tubes.

Also, even if they broke the wall at the end of the engine tubes, they would only appear in the engine compartment of the Nuwa warship, which was at the rear of the warship and still far away from the core area.

As a super large warship, the Nuwa warship had an extremely complicated internal structure that looked like a labyrinth. The few shabby maps were far from enough for them to investigate every corner of the warship.

If he snuck through the inlets, it was possible that he would reach the area that needed fresh air most. Such areas were often the places frequented by the crew members most, too.

It was not hard to guess that those areas could not be too far away from the bridge, the command room, the arsenal, and other key facilities.

Li Yao glanced around.

Some other Cultivators noticed him. However, they would not have the courage to tail Li Yao even if their guts were combined in one person.

Li Yao put on a cold smile. A sharp dagger as thin as paper appeared among his fingers. As his spiritual energy surged out, it was heated to almost a thousand degrees, allowing him to cut a hole more than two meters long on the metal membrane easily. He then removed the entire metal membrane.

Li Yao took a deep breath. Cracking noises were suddenly echoing inside Li Yao’s body. His chest collapsed deeply, and he became extremely thin.

Leaning his body, Li Yao tried the inlets of the Nuwa warship, only to discover that it was still barely possible to squeeze in.

Thankfully, for the activities in the cold area, every one of them had carried a lot of oil and patches with them, which were supposed to prevent them from frostbite or sunburnt. They turned out to be the perfect lubricants now.

Li Yao retrieved an oil bag that was made of the whale skin and smeared the oil refined out of the oil of whales, bears, and tigers all over his body. Then, he tried hard to squeeze into the gap. Finally, he made it!

”Hu…” Li Yao slowly breathed out the last air inside his body.

His chest had already kissed his back. It was impossible for him to breathe for a while, and he would be in the anaerobic state.

The stomach was easier to deal with. The pain on the head was more insufferable.

The joints and bones on the body could be twisted and deformed, but it was difficult to change the shape of the skull.

Li Yao felt that his facial organs had been pressed together.

Except for a starship infiltration specialist such as himself, he did not believe that a second person would be willing to choose such a torturous option.

Even so, he still could not be more careful. He stuck more than seventy grenades on the internal wall of the inlets with the thick ointment before he attached a few tiny metal threads to the triggers, constructing a simple trap. If another Cultivator was walking on the same path as he did, they would have to taste the feeling of being blown up by more than ten grenades while they were stuck there.

After finishing all the preparations, Li Yao finally controlled every muscle on his body precisely and wriggled toward the depths of the tubes, like a viper that was moving with the scales on its abdomen.

He moved about thirty meters when he ran into another metal membrane. Behind the metal membrane was a thick plank.

He had already reached the end of the inlet tube.

There was no need to be careful at this place. Li Yao extended his left hand straightforwardly. The translucent crystal appeared inside his palm, and he fired the Cell Obliteration Cannon, gouging a great hole on the metal membrane as well as the air cleaning magical equipment behind it!

A roaring sound immediately echoed as the fresh air filled the room.

Before the orange edge of the hole entirely cooled down, Li Yao had already crawled out in a hurry!

Shua!

Every hair on Li Yao’s body was pricking.

On one of his knees, he narrowed his eyes and continued locking his every pore. He did not even recover his breath, but he was prepared to summon the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit from his Cosmos Ring at any time!

He opened his hands and took out an air examination device from the Star Glory Federation. The shimmering detector rotated for a moment, and the device gave a report of the elements in the air inside the Nuwa warship very soon.

The inside of the Nuwa warship had been almost devoid of oxygen in the beginning, but as the Cultivators broke the shell from various directions into the warship. The oxygen percentage was rising quickly. Before long, it would reach the level of the outside world.

There was no oxygen, but there was no lethal poisonous gas, either. Although there were some weird impurities in the air, it was more than enough for Li Yao’s apocalyptic body that was even tougher than the demons’ bodies.

Li Yao was finally relieved and began observing the environment.

The place seemed to be some sort of maintenance room for the air cleansing magical equipment. There was a black pathway that led to who knew where.

Because the Nuwa Clan’s body size was many times larger than human beings’, the room and the pathway were both astonishingly large, making the place look like a splendid palace.

Li Yao put the air examination instrument back into his Cosmos Ring. He then retrieved a few super tiny crystal bombs that he had crafted through modern approaches in the Star Glory Federation in case of special needs. Finally, he prudently walked to the pathway.

The dark pathway seemed to be endless, trapping him in a world of darkness alone. Even Li Yao felt creeped out although he always considered himself bold.

His eyes were vaguely emitting redness in the dark, as he scrutinized every detail inside the Nuwa warship.

”Ah!”

Li Yao suddenly noticed that a guy was sitting at the turn up in the front and staring at him without blinking his eyes. Before Li Yao realized what was going on, the guy suddenly lunged at him. Li Yao shrieked and almost threw out all the super tiny crystal bombs in his shock!

When he calmed down and observed more carefully, he discovered that it was a tall, huge, hideous-looking member of the Pangu Clan or the Nuwa Clan. The body must have been well preserved in the anaerobic environment. Because Li Yao brought a lot of fresh air into the place, the air had intense reactions with the body, casting the body that should have decayed hundreds of thousands of years ago into powder instantly!

Li Yao breathed heavily, with sweat popping out of his back. He blinked and looked again. The only things left on the ground were a few bright golden bones and some lackluster armor.

He had encountered similar body explosions on Kunlun many times. Except for the initial shock when he was caught by surprise, he did not find it too strange.

However, it remained to be seen what the reactions of the locals of the Ancient Sages Sector would be like when they ran into the exploding bodies as they broke into the Nuwa warship in other ways.

Li Yao could not help but wonder whether or not Qi Zhongdao, who had been grave and solemn the whole time, would be shocked and kneel to the ground when he witnessed a legendary deity obliterating into nothingness in front of him.

Thinking about that, Li Yao could not help but chuckle. His previous anxiety was greatly eased.

As he pressed forward, he discovered a lot of dead bodies that exploded instantly because of the intense reaction with the air.

Judging from their bones, the remains of their armor, and the runes on their magical equipment, some of the bodies belonged to the Nuwa Clan, and some belonged to the Pangu Clan. Of course, there were also a lot of human soldiers on both sides.

It appeared that a troop of the Pangu Clan had once invaded the Nuwa warship and launched a brutal boarding battle, which resulted in the serious damage to the internal structure of the warship. Burnt holes and ripped gaps were everywhere. Broken limbs and frozen body liquids filled up the entire space.

Perhaps that was the reason that the Nuwa warship had crashed in the Land of Eternal Night.

However, for Li Yao, the holes that had been ripped apart by brute force made his exploration more convenient.

Let me make a bold assumption. In most boarding battles, the most important target for the attackers is doubtlessly the bridge of the defenders. As long as the bridge is controlled, half of the warship will be seized. At the very least, even if the warship is not seized, the important people on the enemy’s side—such as the captain, the navigator, and the chief technician—will be injured or killed!

Therefore, as long as I study the battlefield carefully and follow the direction of the Pangu Clan’s attack, together with Wang Xi’s map, and based on the structural designs of the Nuwa warships I’ve discovered in the past, it is very possible for me to find the bridge and the captain’s office!