Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

He smashed his fists so hard that they seemed strong enough to shatter a planet. Li Yao breathed heavily and stared at the experts from the Ancient Sages Sector in the hot air.

The fury of the eleven experts of the Ancient Sages Sector gradually dispersed, and they fell into a long silence.

A few feelings were brewing and growing in the silence.

Looking at the excited people of the federation around, they were more or less in a trance and seemed to have envisioned… the future of the Ancient Sages Sector.

Eventually, it was Long Yangjun who broke the silence. “What Fellow Cultivator Li said is not entirely unreasonable.”

Li Yao was overjoyed. “So?”

Long Yangjun went on. “But the key point is that it is all jumbled up from the lines in games and movies, right? For example, ‘don’t stand in our way while we are busy saving the world’. It does sound rather awe-inspiring, but it is a classic line from ‘Chronicles of Vulture: Li Yao’s Return’.

“The words you said before that seem to be quoted from the movies where Li Yao was the main character. You simply piled them up, didn’t you?”

Li Yao’s eyeballs puffed like balloons as he glared at Long Yangjun angrily.

“Don’t look at me like that.” Long Yangjun opened her hands. “To study the legendary ‘Monster Li’, the fellow Cultivators and I have found and analyzed all the novels and movies about you. With everybody’s eidetic memory, even if I didn’t bring it up, they would realize it very soon!”

“Even if that’s true,” Li Yao said affirmatively and assertively, “at the very least, my hot blood and passion are real. Did you not sense sincerity that is as scorching as fire from my touching speech?”

“Did we?” Long Yangjun blinked and asked the other experts from the Ancient Sages Sector. “Fellow Cultivators, what do you think? However phony Monster Li’s speech was just now, he was right about at least one thing. Now that the extraterrestrial devils have learned of our real identity and the existence of the Ancient Sages Sector, and the war between the Star Glory Federation and the Black Wind Fleet has entered the most heated phase, we don’t really have many choices.

“Naturally, we cannot take the extraterrestrial devils’ side. None of us are willing to live in a completely virtual world, right?

“But the Black Wind Fleet is in a terrible situation, too. The extraterrestrial devils have obviously leaked certain dark forces into the expedition army of the Imperium. The Immortal Cultivators are certainly not as lucky as we are. It is impossible that somebody else will take advantage of all their efforts. They might not know what happened at all before their death.

“With that in mind, the Star Glory Federation seems to be the only option now.

“Hehe. ‘Live up to the capabilities of the Nascent Soul Stage and the Divinity Transformation Stage, and accomplish something great that nobody in the entire universe has ever done before’. It does sound rather attractive, but are you capable of that, Monster Li, or is this another bluff?”

Long Yangjun squinted at Li Yao.

“Of course,” Li Yao replied immediately, “I cannot achieve that on my own. But with the help of the people of the federation including the natives of the Ancient Sages Sector and the unparalleled experts like you, we may even be able to march to the center of the cosmos one day and crush everything on our way. Who says that we cannot do that?”

“Cut the cr*p.” Long Yangjun, on the other hand, put on a gloomy expression and sneered. “Enough of the meaningless nonsense. You want us to join the federation… That’s not entirely unacceptable, but you’d better offer a price that is more concrete first, don’t you think?”

“Of course!” Li Yao bashed his chest hard. “We are in the middle of an emergency. Let’s settle the specific details later, but now that you have all known that I am Li Yao, what’s there to be worried about? There are so many eyewitnesses today to prove what I have promised. You have seen what kind of country the federation is with your own eyes, too. Heroes and friends won’t lose anything here!”

From all directions, countless eyes that were full of expectation were focused on the experts of the Ancient Sages Sector.

Long Yangjun coughed and said, “Fellow Cultivators, I feel that I’ve been more or less convinced. What do you think?”

Meng Chixin and Wu Suiyun looked at each other and sighed. “With everything coming to this point, there is indeed not a second option.”

Han Baling and Emperor Phoenix remarked at the same time, “Whether or not the federation is reliable, it seems that the Black Wind Fleet is much more unreliable at this point!”

Wan Mingzhu and Qi Changsheng shrieked, “We have made a mortal enemy out of the extraterrestrial devils today. If we do not completely remove those devils, they will definitely trace back to the Ancient Sages Sector one day. There will be infinite disasters!”

Ba Xiaoyu and Master Bitter Cicada looked at the crowd around and smiled, nodding at the same time.

“Enough talking,” ‘Sword Maniac’ Yan Liren said briefly. “I only want to know one thing. Are there even stronger opponents that I can compete with?”

The eleven experts of the Ancient Sages Sector had their own reasons, but they had been through the life-and-death battle in the Spiriters’ Realm just now together and were in the middle of thousands of excited, passionate people of the federation. Some of the impatient folks were even throwing flowers at them. Although most of the flowers were aimed at Li Yao, the petals had fallen all over their bodies, too, enshrouding them with fragrance.

In such an environment, except for those who had completely gone mad, none would be able to remain nonchalant.

Besides, the Star Glory Federation and the Ancient Sages Sector were interdependent. If the Star Glory Federation was controlled by the extraterrestrial devils, the Ancient Sages Sector would definitely become the next target to be swallowed. The outcome of the battle was directly related to their own interests.

Under Long Yangjun’s intentional and unintentional guidance, the eleven experts from the Ancient Sages Sector finally all nodded in consent.

“Right. What do we do with this woman?”

Wu Suiyun brought Heiye Lan to the front of everyone.

Compared to the experts from the Ancient Sages Sector, Heiye Lan was ten times more shocked and scared after learning Li Yao’s real identity.

Her soul had not been entirely recovered from the collapse of the Spiriters’ Realm, and her head was completely blank. She did not know what she should do.

“Heiye Lan, hear me out!” Li Yao bellowed at her like rumbling thunder. “No matter how different our beliefs are, this is an inner fight of the civilization of mankind. You admit that, too, don’t you?

“But right now, in the Black Wind Fleet and probably right next to your father, another extraterrestrial devil, which is even stronger and more dreadful than the one you met in the Spiriters’ Realm just now, is lurking!”

Heiye Lan bulged her eyes immediately and shuddered hard, looking at Li Yao in disbelief.

“This is true. With everything coming to this point, there is no point in lying to you now,” Li Yao said quickly. “The Black Wind Fleet and the elites of the federal fleet are engaged in a fierce battle in the Heaven’s Origin Sector. They are unaware of the horror of the extraterrestrial devils yet, but even if they were, neither parties would cease fire.

“I’m not going to lie to you. We will destroy the Black Wind Fleet, but destruction does not mean annihilation. If you do not want the Black Wind Fleet to be obliterated and everybody to end up as the puppets or ‘food’ of the extraterrestrial devils, think quickly about what you can do right now!”

Heiye Lan’s eyes were frozen again. She was deep in thought.

At this moment, Colonel Luo of the 414 troop of the federal army sent a message. The leadership of Hundred Flowers City that were trapped in the Tinder Base previously had been rescued. The Spiritual Nexus and the space jump control center were being repaired actively, too.

However, because of the severe corruption that the extraterrestrial devils had caused in Hundred Flowers City, large-scale faults and chaos had emerged in all the space stations. The progress of maintenance was quite slow.

They had a dozen high-level Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and even Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators after all. A lot of preparation work needed to be done first for them to be teleported to the Heaven’s Origin Sector precisely without the navigation of the space gate.

Li Yao, Long Yangjun, and the other ten experts of the Ancient Sages Sector had overly exhausted their souls in the battle in the Spiriters’ Realm, too. They had to be refilled and treated first. Otherwise, even if they were hastily teleported, they would only be crushed by the enemy’s Colossi.

Time, time, and precious time!

Every second was more valuable than an undeveloped resource planet.

Ding Lingdang, hang in there. You must hang in there! Li Yao shouted desperately deep inside his brain. Trust me. We will be there in no time. Trust me. Please hold on until the moment we return!

…

On the home planet of the Heaven’s Origin Sector, inside the launch base of the super teleportation array Heaven’s Artillery in the depths of the Grand Desolate Plateau, nine Colossi were standing in the middle of the roaring wind on the desert like nine magnificent iron giants.

Countless refiners and maintainers were still busy doing their work on those iron giants, running examinations tirelessly again and again to make sure that there were no flaws that could possibly affect the battle.

It could not be helped. The Colossi were too important. The clash of Colossi was the collision of edge and edge!

In front of the iron giants, the elite crystal suit troops that had been divvied to the Colossi had finished regrouping and arming, too. The sabers and swords that were shining coldly raised a silver tide on the Grand Desolate Plateau.

The most critical moment had arrived.

Half an hour ago, the Black Wind Fleet had projected their Colossi first to slow down the Big Bai Fleet.

It was a rather fatal strategy.

The Big Bai Fleet was passing through and cutting the Black Wind Fleet’s slightly enormous and clumsy ‘body’ like a butcher’s cleaver based on the amazing agility and the extraordinary command.

However, as the ‘legacy’ that the Nuwa civilization had left for mankind, the Colossi were apparently much more agile than common starships.

As long as they captured the trajectory of the Big Bai Fleet, there was almost no stopping them from breaking into the starships of the Big Bai Fleet.

Once the Colossi, which were twenty to thirty meters tall, entered the several-kilometer-long starships, the internal defense of those starships would be as vulnerable as the softest internal organs. Their only outcome was exploding from inside.

After just half an hour, seventeen starships of the Big Bai Fleet had been destroyed in such a manner.

Although the loss was not too grave, the possible routes of the Big Bai Fleet were greatly reduced. Their aggressive attacks were disrupted, too, and the assaults that were as fast as lightning previously became sluggish. They were almost attracted by the large-scale barrage of the Black Wind Fleet and ripped to shreds several times!