Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

When Jin Xinyue and Heiye Ming both put on a confident smile, doubtless of their victory, inside the heavily-guarded, impenetrable chamber at the rear of Black Swirl, Lu Qingchen was still tightly confined in the iron shackle that looked like a coffin. He could barely move his little finger one millimeter, much less put on any kind of ‘smile’.

He was hanging in the center of the room upside down. Vision, hearing, smell, touch… All his senses had been blocked, casting him in silence and darkness that were insufferable for normal people.

He counted in the absolute darkness and waited patiently and tranquilly.

“What a monster.” In the secret chamber, the Immortal Cultivators who were responsible for watching over Lu Qingchen were all astounded as they watched Lu Qingchen’s brainwaves on the screen that were a straight line without any error. “It’s already incredible for normal Cultivators to last three to five hours when all their senses are blocked. Even if they do not have a meltdown, their brains will certainly show abnormal reactions, right? But the guy’s brain is so calm after such a long time of suffering. He is as calm as a dead person or—or a crystal processor!”

“According to the rumors, the weirdest beings often emerge at the dark corners at the edge of the cosmos.” Another Immortal Cultivator of the Black Wind Sector examined all the barriers and shackles over Lu Qingchen’s body to make sure that there were no faults. Then, he was finally more or less relieved. “No wonder the commander demanded the highest barrier on him although he volunteered to surrender to us. Who wouldn’t be scared in front of such a monster?”

Hardly had he concluded his sentence when the door of the chamber glided open after a beep. Another team of Immortal Cultivators crowded into the room with tremendous barrier magical equipment and surveillance crystal processors.

“By order of the commander, the confinement and surveillance on the man will be doubled during the battle to come. Bring him down and install the barriers of a higher level!”

The many Immortal Cultivators released Lu Qingchen from the rope together in order to put the bigger and more powerful barrier magical equipment on him.

But when they unveiled his mask, they discovered that his eyeballs were rather rigid although his eyes were wide open. Even his pupils were entirely frozen and did not expand or shrink under the stimulation of strong light.

The surveillance camera nearby indicated that his breathing, heartbeat, and brainwaves were still as peaceful as an ancient well even at this moment. He was not affected by the new changes in the outside world at all.

An experienced doctor shot out a mystic ray from his ring at Lu Qingchen’s pupils. He frowned and observed, “He can’t be dead, right?”

The next moment, Lu Qingchen’s left eyeball remained still, but his right eyeball, which was hit by the mystic ray, suddenly turned in the doctor’s direction. He casually replied, “No.”

“Ah!” Caught unprepared, the doctor almost fell over in fright. “Lock him up immediately. Seal all his senses! Seal them completely! Then, connect his brain to the surveillance crystal processor of the highest level so that the commander will be able to know what he is doing any second!”

All the Immortal Cultivators worked busily. Very soon, they assembled an even greater ‘metal coffin’ for Lu Qingchen. In the end, he was hanging upside down again.

Lu Qingchen was highly cooperative during the whole process. Except when he said ‘no’, he did not utter any redundant syllables but simply allowed the strangers to put an enormous, gapless mask on his head again, depriving him of all his senses.

Furthermore, even when a hundred cold needles pierced into his brain to monitor what was going on inside, his fingers, lips, and pupils did not tremble in the slightest.

As the rope was gradually tightened, the hanging man began shaking softly again. In the deepest part of Black Swirl, he slept and waited.

…

At the periphery of the third spaceport in Hundred Flowers Space Zone, brilliant stars were coming close.

Although Li Yao and Long Yangjun realized from the first moment that the ‘stars’ were not actually stars but some sort of fatal magical equipment, there was still nothing they could do.

It was because they had just escaped from the carrier that was in the middle of a space jump despite all the dangers. They were still severely affected by the space ripples. Their internal organs and their souls were all shaking at a high speed and did not calm down until this moment!

By then, the stars had arrived.

Almost ten thousand shiny stars spread into a giant web that covered hundreds of kilometers.

The gap among the ‘stars’ was extremely large. Naturally, they could not hit Li Yao and Long Yangjun, who could dodge them swiftly, but they were enough to enshroud the two Cultivators in the ‘web of stars’.

Zhi!

Sound could not be transmitted in the vacuum. However, Li Yao felt that he heard the most ear-splitting shriek when the ten thousand ‘stars’ exploded around them at the same time. Millions of bright electric arcs that they released swept across everything like crazy snakes or a rampant flood!

The electric arcs vanished as quickly as they burst out. They were no more after only 0.01 seconds, turning into an invisible magnetic storm that penetrated through the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit and Li Yao himself in a moment.

The control menu of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit immediately faded out. The crystal processor and tremendous units were paralyzed and did not answer Li Yao’s command anymore. Even the spiritual energy within Li Yao’s body felt like a pot of boiling porridge, making it highly difficult to make use of the energy!

The crystal suit lost most of its combat ability. It was like an iron coffin that locked him and became a complete burden!

Li Yao called Long Yangjun in the communication channel, only to discover that the communication channel was seriously affected, too. It was now dead silent and now utterly blank noises. They could not reach out to each other at all!

“Li Yao, what’s happening?” Long Yangjun’s telepathic thoughts were transmitted to him covered in spiritual energy, but even the transmission of spiritual energy was intermittent. “The spiritual energy around here has fallen into utter chaos. It seems to be under certain serious interference and is being drained quickly!

“Our crystal suits suffered super high-intensity magnetic interference. A lot of chips have been destroyed. It will be difficult to get them back to normal. Also, the density of spiritual energy in the environment is dropping. I can sense it! Such a battlefield of thin spiritual energy is highly disadvantageous for Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators such as you and me!

“Damn it. What kind of weird magical equipment is this? What’s this weird attack?”

“It’s high-intensity magnetic pulse bombs,” Li Yao said solemnly. “They can release special pulse energy quickly, which will have a reaction with the spiritual energy wandering in space in a way similar to ‘resonation’. Then, radiative interference similar to sunspot outbreaks will be caused. They can penetrate through plate armor, city walls, or even rock stratums easily. They can greatly reduce the density of the spiritual energy in the target field or even drain all the spiritual energy in it, and they will damage all the magical equipment in the target area indiscriminately. No magical equipment units or chips can survive them!

“To put it in a more visual way, the effect of such bombs is similar to a ‘black hole area’ where the spiritual energy is thin and the magical equipment is malfunctioning. Therefore, they are also known as ‘black hole bombs’!

“A hundred years ago, they were still just a piece of magical equipment in theory. I didn’t know that they could be applied to a real battle so soon, and the final effect… is not half bad!”

“Not half bad?” Long Yangjun was furious. “Black hole bombs? Which son of a b*tch came up with such a piece of shameless and vicious magical equipment? This is like cutting the lifelines of all the Cultivators and Immortal Cultivators! Such a worthless scumbag should be skinned and minced into pieces!”

“Well, I can understand that you are not in a good mood, but isn’t that a bit too far?”

“I’m just cursing him. What’s it to you? Hey, hey, hey. It can’t be you again, right? It can’t be you again, Monster Li?”

“Don’t glare at me like that. I only brought up the idea without giving it much thought.”

“…”

“After that, I only allocated a special fund from a random corporation under my name and asked the most awesome bomb experts of the federation to study it. I didn’t know that they would be so productive. What a great relief!”

“I regret teaming up with you. The federation is a dangerous place. I want to go back to the Ancient Sages Sector!”

“Don’t be like that. As the developer who first came up with the idea of black hole bombs, I understand the fatal shortcomings of the magical equipment very well. It’s true that our spiritual energy and magical equipment are under serious interference in the ‘black hole area’, but other people are the same!

“We are all on the same level. I am sort of an expert in close-quarters combat, and you can defend yourself with your weird inherent crystal suit. What’s there to be scared of?

“Also, the way I see it, the black hole bombs of the federation are not very advanced yet. Look. The ‘black hole area’ that they created is not that large, and the duration will not be very long, either. Twenty seconds, at best. It will be easy for us to fly out. What can they do about us?”

Long Yangjun pointed at something not far away. “Is that their solution?”

When Li Yao turned around, he saw a swarm of overwhelming, dense, and fast meteoroids.

Yes, meteoroids. The simplest, most common stones that were not carved with a single rune array or carried the slightest spiritual energy. So, they were not affected by the ‘black hole bombs’ at all.

The bigger meteoroids were the size of fists or heads, and the smallest of them were even smaller than the little finger, like narrow and long needles.

All the meteoroids had been given a powerful push when they were still far away. Because there was no friction in space, the meteor shower immediately accelerated to a high speed before it lunged at Li Yao and Long Yangjun overwhelmingly!

Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi!

Li Yao’s and Long Yangjun’s spiritual shields were buffeted by the tempest. Brilliant ripples were spreading out!

Naturally, the so-called ‘black hole bombs’ could not really pump away all the spiritual energy in the entire area, nor could they completely disrupt all the spiritual energy reserved in the bodies of the two Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators.

But at the very least, they could cause serious interference for the two Cultivators, significantly slowing down the circulation of their spiritual energy and greatly increasing the consumption speed!

For Li Yao and Long Yangjun, they had only just escaped from the space ripples when they were attacked by a series of black hole bombs before a storm of meteoroids rained down upon them mercilessly, sending their heads spinning. They found it difficult to cope with the situation even if they were two Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators with usual talents.

At this moment, from the direction where the black hole bombs and the storm of meteoroids were launched, two ivory starships gradually slid into their eyes.

Tremendous space shuttles and crystal suits took off like a swarm of bees and lunged at Li Yao and Long Yangjun as the third echelon of attacks!