Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“Don’t believe him!”

Han Baling’s hammer that looked like a bear paw triggered ferocious ripples. His voice echoed in every corner of the temple of the Colossi with the ripples as the vehicle.

“Fellow Cultivator Qi, Fellow Cultivator Yan, Fellow Cultivator Ba, Master Bitter Cicada, and everybody from the six major sects! Things have changed now. I don’t know what your little emperor is up to in secret, but his people are apparently trying to infiltrate the Cloud Qin Gold Statues! If he gains control over the Cloud Qin Gold Statues, we will be meat on a chopping block, completely at his mercy!

“At this moment, we must cast aside our differences and fight against Emperor Phoenix Zhu Zongyou together!”

Emperor Phoenix sneered. Glaring at Qi Zhongdao and members of the six major sects in front of him, he shouted intimidatingly in a voice that resembled the rumbling thunder in the sky. “If you are loyal subjects of the Great Qian Dynasty, I will certainly not be petty when it comes to the rewards. I stand by what I said. Whoever executes Han Baling, Wan Mingzhu, and Qi Changsheng will be rewarded with a Cloud Qin Gold Statue! You may not know how to use the Cloud Qin Gold Statue, but it doesn’t matter. I can teach you!

“Otherwise, hehehehe, the sword in my hands will not hesitate or show mercy to those who are corrupted and turned into traitors of the Great Qian Dynasty! The treacherous thieves will be punished by everybody! Not only will they die without a burial themselves, their family and their sects will be implicated. A lot of people will be ground to dust, and a lot of people will be beheaded with their dead bodies thrown out onto the street!

“Your families and sects have supported and cemented the Great Qian Dynasty for a thousand years. You have made great contributions!

“The court has never wronged you, either. You are allowed to live as local magnates in the world of Cultivators!

“Right now, the torrents of changes are upon us again. Your family and your sect may thrive because of your decision, and they may be destroyed because of the same thing! Do not hurt yourselves and those related to you with your own imprudence!”

“Don’t listen to his cr*p. Attack together now!” Han Baling was sweating hard in anxiety. “Qi Zhongdao, Cultivators from the six major sects, what are you waiting for? Do you think that your emperor will talk so nicely to you after the Cloud Qin Gold Statues are activated? Just think about the four princes who have ‘died of acute diseases’ in the past year! They all mocked your emperor in the past! You should know Zhu Zongyou’s pettiness more than anybody else! It will all be too late after he gains control over the Cloud Qin Gold Statue. Too late!”

“Your Majesty!” Taking a long breath, Qi Zhongdao finally made the decision. He glanced at Yan Liren, Ba Xiaoyu, and the members of the six major sects who were next to him before gnashing his teeth. “Right now, the situation is unclear, and everybody is anxious. Please ask your imperial guards to retreat from the Cloud Qin Gold Statues for now, and we will talk more slowly!”

“Master Righteous One!” Emperor Phoenix was slightly dazed. Every tiny blood spot on his face grew more vivid than before, as if somebody had thrown red beans all over his face. He was laughing in anger and demanded, “Are you going to betray me, betray the court, betray the Great Qian Dynasty, and mess around with the barbarians and rebellions as an immoral, unethical, and disloyal thief?”

“I… dare not!” Holding back the pressure, Qi Zhongdao stared at the imperial guard who was still working on the shoulder of the Colossus far away. He replied, “I only have a question that I would like you to answer. Why are your people wearing such peculiar armor, and why do they know how to use the Cloud Qin Gold Statues?”

In the Great Qian Dynasty, the emperor was on relatively equal terms with the high-level Cultivators. During times of peace, when they were showing respect to the emperor, the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators would also degrade themselves by saying ‘Your Majesty’.

However, at that moment, Qi Zhongdao had dropped the ‘Your Majesty’, so the hostility was quite apparent.

Also, the question that he threw out was quite tricky, like a critical blow from a viper. All the high-level Cultivators from the six major sects grew alert.

That did make sense. Judging from Emperor Phoenix’s behavior, he was obviously confident that his subordinates could activate the Cloud Qin Gold Statues!

But how was that possible?

The Cloud Qin Gold Statues had not been seen for ten thousand years. Where exactly did he find the method to pilot the Cloud Qin Gold Statues?

In the legends, the Cloud Qin Gold Statues boasted the power to destroy the sky and the earth. Even if it was an overstatement, dealing with a hundred or so Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators would still be a piece of cake for them.

If Emperor Phoenix truly gained control over the Cloud Qin Gold Statues, all the Cultivators would be caught in a passive situation!

The three saints, the three rapscallions, the Cultivators from the six major sects, and Master Bitter Cicada were vaguely shifting away from Emperor Phoenix Zhu Zongyou’s side.

Emperor Phoenix, however, was not in the least scared. There was even a hint of derision on his face. He glanced at the imperial guard on the shoulder of the black-skeleton-like Colossus.

The imperial guard was on one knee. His crystal suit was different from other people’s in the first place in that its head was particularly huge and packed with all kinds of interconnected tubes and wires. The guy was connecting all the wires to the back of the Colossus’ head. All the wires were straightened. There was no telling what he was doing.

“He is cracking the Colossus!”

On the bridge, Li Yao was the only one who could tell that the mysterious person who seemed to be a special agent of the Imperium was cracking the control permissions of the Colossus from outside with a crystal suit that was dedicated to infiltration and decryption. The guy was also examining the status of the Colossus and making the final preparations to activate it!

Li Yao’s mouth was suddenly dry because of anxiety, and his sweat was dripping from his back. He looked at Long Yangjun and nervously said, “We cannot stay here and watch anymore. If Emperor Phoenix truly gains control of the Colossus, there will be dire consequences. He must be stopped!

“There must be teleportation arrays in the bridge. Is there any way that you can activate them and teleport us into the temple of the Colossi directly?”

“What do you think I’ve been doing so far?” Long Yangjun said coldly. There was bright golden bead of sweat on her forehead, too. “I have been searching for a way to turn on the teleportation arrays, but they are much more difficult to activate than the surveillance picture. I need time!”

Pausing for a moment, she bit her lip and narrowed her eyes before she mumbled, one word after another, “This warship is mine. Nobody messes around on my warship!”

“There’s no time. He’s activated the Colossus!” Li Yao’s voice was full of desperation.

As was clearly visible in the Grand Illusionary Land, cracked by the special agent of the Imperium unstoppably, the head of the black-skeleton-like Colossus slowly leaned backward. The ‘bones’ and ‘black feathers’ at the throat split apart like petals, revealing the deep, dark entrance for the user. The special agent of the Imperium was agile enough to leap down into the Colossus!

“He’s already in. Don’t you see? The guy has truly activated the Cloud Qin Gold Statue!” Han Baling’s voice was filled with intense regret and frustration. “Qi Zhongdao, six major sects, if you don’t work together to pluck the guy right now, let’s just die together. Die together!”

Hardly had he concluded his sentence when a sharp sword aura, raising a storm of coldness, dashed right toward Emperor Phoenix!

It was Yan Liren again!

Qi Zhongdao was still considering the big picture. The Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators of the six major sects were all hesitant and calculating what they might gain and lose.

Some people were intimidated by Emperor Phoenix’s warning about the consequences of their decision. Some people were gradually grasped by greed and really thinking about whether or not they could have the Cloud Qin Gold Statues and the arts to use the weapons if they pledged loyalty to the court.

All in all, they had their reasons for their reluctance.

Yan Liren, on the other hand, was the only complete lunatic who would not hesitate to dissect the deities in the sky when he was determined to kill someone. He would not bother whether they were the chief of the prairies or the emperor of the Great Qian Dynasty!

Neither Emperor Phoenix’s speech nor Han Baling’s affected his belief in the slightest. The only thing that decided whether or not he was to attack was the loophole on the target.

At that moment, Emperor Phoenix finally showed the most fatal loophole in Yan Liren’s eyes.

Therefore, the world-shaking fourth sword was unsheathed, blinked, and blossomed!

“Ah!”

Emperor Phoenix did not expect that Yan Liren would be so crazy that he dared to attack actively when he clearly did not win the head-on clash a moment earlier.

This time, he was truly caught unprepared. He could even sense the coldness leaking into his crystal suit that was about to freeze his bones!

Yan Liren’s sword auras were so extraordinary than they could even pierce through the crystal suit and the light membrane!

Thankfully, a few Fiery Phoenix imperial guards reacted in time. They raised quite a few enormous light shields in front of Emperor Phoenix for protection!

After a few explosions, two light shields were shattered into smithereens by Yan Liren’s sword auras. They ended up as brilliant fireworks and vanished into nothingness after flickering for a moment.

The might of his sword was that intimidating!

The attack broke the tension and the impasse between the two parties immediately.

“Do it!”

Qi Zhongdao glanced at Ba Xiaoyu and Master Bitter Cicada. He knew that the hesitant guys from the six major sects were not dependable and that he could only count on the two super Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators there.

The Heaven Flipping Seal rotated in midair, releasing dark-golden brightness instead of silver. The air immediately began cracking amid spluttering noises.

The imperial guards’ movements were slowed down, as if they had been mired in invisible swamps. They had obviously been weighed down by dozens of times the standard gravity!

“Do it!”

Han Baling grinned hideously and roared to Qi Changsheng and Wan Mingzhu, too. They were lawless, brutal people in the first place and had absolutely no concerns. Their most sordid and lethal magical equipment was launched and aimed at Emperor Phoenix and the imperial guards, darting toward the targets in mysterious streaks of brightness!

Wan Mingzhu also dashed toward the black-skeleton-like Colossus under the cover of a few zombies!

“Cr*p!”

Li Yao sighed gloomily on the bridge.

The locals of the Ancient Sages Sector did not know the first thing about strength. They had no idea about the formidability of the crystal suits.

Even though Emperor Phoenix’s guards were only in the beginning level of the Nascent Soul Stage or even the Core Formation Stage, they could also unleash astounding damage under the enhancement of the crystal suits!

As he expected, all the crystal suits were releasing weird light ripples, allowing them to break free of the super-high gravity!

Then, while glittering soundlessly, the attack units on the shoulders of the crystal suits and the two sides of the thighs were all activated. Almost every crystal suit was holding two powerful storm bolters in their hands!