Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

In the underground fortress on Spider Den, the deep, dim palace looked like a palace immersed in darkness. The starry brilliance on the dome was the bloodshot eyes of the silent, ferocious beasts that had been opened. They stared at the two people who were burning furiously and confronting each other in the darkness without blinking.

Li Yao was wearing a Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit. The crystal cannons on his shoulders and every piece of aggressive magical equipment had been triggered to the maximum. Countless lightning balls were circling around him.

What he was faced with was Bai Xinghe in the Dragon King Battlesuit, the dominator of Spider Den and the overwhelming, unchallenged Pirate Potentate!

“Stop insisting on your folly, Bai Xinghe. You have been greatly fooled by the Immortal Cultivators. They’ve been deceiving you since the very beginning. Just open your eyes already!” Li Yao declared solemnly and righteously!

“Hehehehe. This is Spider Den. This is… Boss Bai’s world! Nobody can dominate Spider Den except for me! Not the Immortal Cultivators, and certainly not a Mr. Nobody like you!”

Bai Xinghe cackled loudly. The scales on every rising dragon head on the back of the Dragon King Battlesuit were standing up, triggering the most dazzling sound and visual effects.

“Die now, boy!”

“You leave me no choice!” Li Yao gritted his teeth. The balls of lightning on the surface of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit were continuously expanding and spreading out, enshrouding almost half of the dark palace in thunderstorm. He shouted, “I’ll show you the invincibility of the superlative height of the Core Formation Stage!”

The two of them turned into two streaks of brightness almost at the same time. After an ear-splitting collision that was even more violent and exciting than a supernova outbreak, more than half of the dark palace collapsed. Bai Xinghe screamed in excruciating pain. Dragging his bloody, broken body that was riddled with holes, he struggled painfully in the middle of the debris, uttering the last moan before his death.

“Superlative height of the Core Formation Stage? What level is that? Why is it so tough?

“Who are you? Who is this Mr. Nobody? Why has everything come to this? Why?

“You won! You killed me. You killed Boss Bai, the Pirate Potentate of Spider Den! Hehe. Hehehe. But it is useless. Absolutely useless! You don’t know that the real master of Spider Den is not me but the legendary ‘Supreme Pirate’ Yan Xinjian! Even I have been controlled by him. He is the one manipulating everything behind the curtain…”

As Bai Xinghe’s voice grew more and more feeble, another aura that was even more powerful flowed out of the fractures of the dark palace and gradually condensed into a black fog that looked like an abyss. Then, it crawled into Bai Xinghe’s broken body bit by bit, causing him to have unbelievable mutations in the middle of screams!

An extremely gloomy, creepy, and weird voice echoed from Bai Xinghe’s incessantly expanding body, but it was no longer Bai Xinghe’s tone and accent. “Who is it that is bold enough to disrupt my training in seclusion while I’m trying to break into the Divinity Transformation Stage?”

In front of the behemothic creature, with no knowing whether it was Yan Xinjian or Bai Xinghe, shrouded in the hazy fog, Li Yao took a deep breath and gritted his teeth on the verge of collapse. He slightly squatted and made preparations for the last battle!

The crystal dome was still cracking and falling nonstop, adding to the mess and anxiety of the atmosphere for the final battle about to come!

Suddenly, the picture froze.

Li Yao in the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, the terrifying existence who could be Bai Xinghe or Yan Xinjian, and the broken pieces of crystals that were collapsing from the ceiling of the Star Prier’s House all came to a stop.

Tiny, glittering words jumped out from the two of them who were all prepared to attack each other. “Yan Xinjian, the most dreadful ‘Supreme Pirate’ five hundred years ago has finally shown up. Before the federation entered its training boom, he had been the well-deserved strongest expert of the three Sectors who far exceeded everybody else in his generation. He also found out the ways to break into the Divinity Transformation Stage after studying on his own!

“Is Li Yao capable of defeating such a formidable enemy? Let’s give Li Yao a hand! During the promotion, all of the items and equipment below will enjoy a thirty percent discount, with double complimentary points. For fifty thousand points, you will be able to redeem the most magnificent ‘ship-cutting saber’!

“Grand Recovery Pill, originally five hundred star coins, 350 star coins during promotion. Help Li Yao return to full health!

“Ultimate version of the Blood Moon Dragon Chasing Saber, originally one thousand star coins, seven hundred star coins during the promotion. The most extraordinary artifact that boasts infinite blood-sucking ability!

“Space fight form of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, originally 10,000 star coins, 5,600 star coins during the promotion. This is the best Mystic Skeleton in the universe!”

Pa!

Before the myriad of other pills and magical equipment were introduced, the light beam was shut off cruelly. The black virtual mirror reflected an ugly face that apparently could not tolerate it any longer.

“Damn! What kind of trash game is this?” Grimacing, Bai Xingjian mumbled to himself. “The cinematics are an utter mess. Didn’t Li Yao only break into the superlative height of the Core Formation Stage after a few years of hard training when he absorbed the essence of Yan Xinjian’s legacy inside Yan Xinjian’s ultimate residence? How on earth was he in the superlative height of the Core Formation Stage when he was confronting Boss Bai? Also, why is the old fart Yan Xinjian popping up here? The battle with the Immortal Cultivators on Spider Den didn’t have a damn thing to do with Yan Xinjian!”

When he was feeling ridiculous, the light beam suddenly blinked and displayed the picture on the bridge. “Commander, Firefly has replied!”

Bai Xingjian’s eyes immediately spurted out light and heat like a volcanic eruption, making him a totally different person from before. The highest commander of the Big Bai Fleet picked up his wrinkled hat and stepped out of the captain’s office, striding toward the bridge of his flagship ‘Infinite Fire’, modified from ‘Flawless Light’, a main-force warship of the Uranian Ring Sector previously.

While he was on his way, a few high-level officers of the fleet joined him in a hurry.

“Firefly has agreed to our request to dock for maintenance. We will be docked between the No. 12 port and the No. 14 port.”

“The defense and the vulnerable parts of Firefly have been scanned. To this moment, they still do not have the vaguest clue about what we have come for!”

“Firefly has been keeping radio silence internally. None of Cui Lingfeng, Tang Dingyuan, and Ding Zhengyang have shown up. There’s no telling what is going on inside.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Bai Xingjian smiled. “Have our brothers prepare for a big fight. This time, we are going to save the day!”

On the bridge, the enormous circular light beams overlapped each other, constituting a glinting palace and making the bridge of ‘Infinite Fire’ seem directly exposed to the boundless universe.

It could clearly be seen that dozens of starships that had been painted pure white were slowly compressing from the battle formation to the anchoring formation. With the help of the navigators and the barges that Firefly sent out, they slowly approached the rings of circular orbit.

It was very regular porting and anchoring work. The command system of the two parties had kept effective communication. No accidents seemed to have occurred at all. Everything was going on smoothly.

Holding his arms, Bai Xingjian stared at the ordered, undisrupted scene. At first, he was wearing a confident smile, but as time went by, especially when the barges and carriers that belonged to Firefly were gathering after the white starships drew close to the orbit ports, his smile gradually vanished, replaced by thoughtfulness.

“Hiss, hiss.” His nostrils flapped quickly, like a viper that was collecting the smell of danger in the air after extending out its bifurcated tongue. “Neither Tang Dingyuan nor Ding Zhengyang have shown up so far?”

“Not yet. It is said that some minor riots took place on Firefly,” an advisor of the fleet replied. “But they’ll be taken care of soon.”

“Minor riots…” He gazed at the brilliant exhaust flames in the dark space that were dragged by the barges, carriers, and his own warships that had been completely mixed. The brilliance interweaved into an overwhelming web deep inside his eyes. His face suddenly turned extremely awful. Gritting his teeth, he commanded, “Ask all the starships that haven’t entered the ports to stop and maintain the battle formation. Make sure that the assault teams are all in position and ready for boarding battles anytime!”

“What?” The advisor of the fleet was dazed. “Boarding battle? Against whom?”

“Go now!” Bai Xingjian glared at him.

His judgement proved to be very correct.

Only ten minutes later, before Infinite Fire entered the port and anchored, the barges and carriers near the orbit had already become mired in chaos, blocking the entire sailing route and the warships of the federation that had entered the ports. The fixed batteries that Firefly had installed near the circular ports were all activated, too. Hundreds of cannons of all types were shining with awe-inspiring brightness, like the glittering eyes of a bunch of ravenous animals!

With the hardness of the spiritual shield of the Big Bai Fleet, the defense system deployed on the orbit dock naturally could not pose a fatal threat to them.

However, if they had continued moving forward, all the warships would have been trapped in the narrow ports and the complicated rails. They would have been blocked by countless barges and carriers. In which case, they would definitely have been in an extremely awkward situation.

It was not necessarily a hostile gesture but definitely undisguised wariness. The Big Bai Fleet was like a burglar who had snuck into a house prudently only to be caught by the dozens of spotlights of the houseowner before they had the chance to steal anything.

Although Infinite Fire had stopped moving, the chaos in the ports were still going on. Quite a few warships of the federation were unable to move at all after they were trapped inside.

The news that came from Firefly, on the other hand, made Bai Xingjian put on an even weirder expression.

“According to the latest news from Firefly, they have just quelled a rebellion of the Immortal Cultivators. A lot of Immortal Cultivators, including the former Chief Mate Ding Zhengyang, have been captured. Everything is under control right now!

“However, many more Immortal Cultivators are still on the run, some of whom are believed to belong to the CFIA. Those Immortal Cultivators happened to be escaping toward ports No. 12 to No. 14. That is why a minor riot took place just now!

“Currently, the majority of the Immortal Cultivators have been captured, but they are still suspicious that a tiny number of Immortal Cultivators might’ve escaped to our starship. Colonel Lin Jiu, the commander of the guards of the Speaker of the rightful government of the Star Ocean Republic, demands… to board on our starship for investigation!”