Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Ding Lingdang was slightly dazed. “I have never seen ‘Black Swirl’ with my own eyes, but I’ve boarded Burning Prairie, the flagship of the Burning Prairie Fleet, and even performed a drill of ‘invasion and denial’ with it before.

“For every starship that is qualified to serve as the flagship of a Deep Sky Fleet, the plate armor, defense ability, and damage control system must be most perfect. Take Burning Prairie for example. Even I might not necessarily be able to break into it with a Colossus. Black Swirl, as the flagship of the expedition army of the Imperium, will only be sturdier than Burning Prairie. What kind of bomb can possibly blow it up entirely?”

“It may be inappropriate to call it a ‘bomb’,” Jin Xinyue replied. “It is in fact a space jump unit that we discovered in the debris of a Nuwa warship in Kunlun. The Nuwa warship must’ve used it to break the void and perform space jumps, but when it was unearthed, it was already riddled with holes and fragile because of millenniums of corrosion in the air.

“We thought about dismantling the device for studies to build up our own space jump technology, but its core was too sophisticated, and it was highly unsteady due to the corrosion, to the point that it might completely fall apart with one careless move. Except for scanning, there wasn’t really anything we could do about it.

“In the end, the space jump unit was transferred to the Secret Sword Bureau and studied by Director Guo and me. We did not analyze it with the traditional technology employed in the maintenance of magical equipment but adopted synthesized biochemical neurons of the Blood Demon Sector. We connected the internal components of the device with soft, synthesized nerves and cleaned the rusted rune arrays with a special bacterium that feeds on rust.

“Even so, it was too seriously damaged to be dismantled or duplicated. The only function it had left was to be activated once. Therefore, we modified it into a special bomb!”

Ding Lingdang widened her eyes. “I don’t see the connection between a space jump unit and a super bomb.”

“It’s very simple,” Jin Xinyue quickly explained. “The device was supposed to drive a Nuwa warship to perform a super long-distance jump. The activation speed, distance of the jump, and effective range of the device are far larger than the counterparts on our starships. It is safe to say that once it is activated, the device will instantly create an enormous bubble almost a hundred kilometers in diameter centered around itself and teleport all the materials inside the ‘bubble’ somewhere else. No material can escape the teleportation.”

Ding Lingdang frowned. “Where would they be teleported to?”

“That is the key.” Jin Xinyue waved her fists and declared in delight, “We don’t know! The navigation and stabilization system of the device have been completely wrecked. The only function left is ‘teleportation’. According to the specialists of the Secret Sword Bureau and the Dim Moon Fund, once activated, it will perform a random teleportation and deliver the materials inside the ‘bubble’ to random coordinates in the vast sea of stars. There is a 99.99% likelihood that they will reach a certain area far away from the radiation of the civilization of mankind, which is barren, desolate, and devoid of spiritual energy.

“Or even better, because the stabilization rune arrays are seriously damaged, too, it is possible that accidents will occur during the teleportation. The materials to be teleported will be disintegrated into the most fundamental atoms and scattered across the entire universe evenly!

“Think about it, Masteress. If such a ‘super teleportation’ happens to Black Swirl, even the most powerful disruptive force field, spiritual shield, and multiple layers of plate armor will not be able to resist the violent space-time ripples. The flagship of the Imperium’s expedition army will be torn to shreds!

“Even if the carrier cannot come into contact with Black Swirl, it will do as long as the distance is less than twenty kilometers. In fact, the effect may be even better in such a case. The ‘bubble’ will be like an invisible mouth that bites Black Swirl. As long as more than thirty percent of the body is ‘bitten off’, even the most remarkable damage control system will be rendered useless.”

Ding Lingdang understood it.

A space jump was the most dangerous thing in universal cruise.

The established idea was that the more accurate the destination and the steadier the process, the better.

Therefore, although they had retrieved a lot of space jump units from the Nuwa warships on Kunlun and performed a lot of studies, they had yet to build up their own relevant technology with the new knowledge because such technology was too critical and dangerous!

Jin Xinyue, on the other hand, had chosen the opposite approach. Since the space jump unit of the Nuwa Clan was irrecoverable, and accuracy and steadiness could not be ensured, she simply tried to improve the dangerousness of the device and turn it into a super bomb that would smash the enemy.

Once it succeeded, it would create a new wormhole near Black Swirl. It was a super wormhole bomb!

Ding Lingdang laughed. “So, this is the trump card that made you bold enough to carry out the ‘Dim Moon Plan’!”

Jin Xinyue, however, found it difficult to laugh. “Yes. The super bomb was supposed to be my trump card. I even screened out several hundred elite warriors from the Blood Demon Sector to form a daring team that would march into the core of the Black Wind Fleet no matter the cost and detonate the bomb. They would make the greatest contribution to the federation on behalf of the demon race.

“I didn’t know that Heiye Ming had seen through my scheme a long time ago. After the Black Wind Fleet arrived at the Heaven’s Origin Sector, they did not give the rebel demon troops any chance to approach. The few carriers that moved toward them at the beginning were turned into sieves. Naturally, the carrier that carried the bomb did not dare draw close.

“Although the ‘radius of absolute destruction’ of the bomb is quite large after it is activated, the carrier itself does not boast any combat ability. The defense ability of the vehicle is weak, too. Given the circumstances now, it has no chance to approach the core of the Black Wind Fleet without being completely blown up at all!”

“So…” Ding Lingdang began.

Jin Xinyue gritted her teeth and said, “We haven’t figured out a way to detonate it at a close distance yet. There isn’t much I can do on the ground now. I’ve decided to go to the battlefield near the No. 1 space gate to command the demon team and ‘Moth’, which is carrying the super bomb. I hope that your troop of Colossi and the elites of the Burning Prairie Fleet that arrive later can rip open a gap and cover ‘Moth’ to fly to ‘Black Swirl’!

“The specific battle plan is still being drafted by the advisors and analysts in the highest command center. It will be sent over after it is done, but I wanted to tell you about it first personally. I…”

She paused for a moment and took a deep breath. Then, she looked Ding Lingdang in the eye. The redness in her eyes was gone, replaced by the resolution and sharpness of the queen of demons. She said, one word after another, “I may have done a lot of wrong things in the past hundred years, but I really never betrayed the federation or did anything that dishonored my master.

“That’s all I want to say now. I’ll see you in space, Masteress!”

Jin Xinyue stared at Ding Lingdang. She was about to shut down the communication when Ding Lingdang stopped her and said, “Wait a moment.”

Jin Xinyue looked at the woman standing in the blowing wind on the Grand Desolate Plateau, somewhat surprised. “Masteress?”

“Since you still consider me as your masteress and you never really betrayed the federation or your master, I believe that there is something you ought to know.” Ding Lingdang thought for a moment and said, “A message arrived this morning. There’s no telling if it is true. Later, everything was in chaos after the Spiritual Nexus crashed. I never had the chance to speak to you.”

Jin Xinyue blinked quickly and grew solemn. “What is it that’s so important?”

“Yesterday, Wu Yaxuan’s workshop received a crystal suit shipped in from the Dragon Snake Space Zone. It was an Azure Thunder, the very first model he devised independently,” Ding Lingdang said. “It is common practice for a broken crystal suit to be sent back to the original manufacturer for maintenance, but after Wu Yaxuan opened the Azure Thunder, he discovered something quite uncanny.

“There were not many serious issues on the surface, but he couldn’t repair the crystal suit no matter how he tried, as if somebody had cast a weird spell on the equipment.

“Knowing that he had encountered an expert, Wu Yaxuan wasted no time inviting his master Jiang Shaoyang and his mother Xie Anan to study it together. After the two of them examined the crystal suit carefully, they indeed found the traces of adjustment left by an expert. But… but…”

Even a woman as straightforward as Ding Lingdang hesitated for a moment. Then, with expectation beaming out of her eyes, she softly said, “Jiang Shaoyang and Xie Anan both said that the adjustment was similar to your master’s style.”

“What!” Jiang Shaoyang shrieked inside the highest command center.

“I don’t know much about crystal suit maintenance, but I do know a thing or two about adjustments,” Ding Lingdang said. “My feeling is that… they are indeed quite similar.

“But ‘similar’ is just ‘similar’. There are too many refiners in the world. It is not strange for two people to have similar styles. Besides, if your master had indeed returned, why did he go to the chaotic Dragon Snake Space Zone instead of coming back to the Heaven’s Origin Sector directly? It is too important an issue to be publicized before everything is figured out. Wouldn’t it be the greatest joke if it wasn’t him?”

“Then, ask somebody to investigate immediately,” Jin Xinyue said in a hurry. “Send someone to the Dragon Snake Space Zone now. Both the Secret Sword Bureau and the Dim Moon Fund have a lot of forces in the Dragon Snake Space Zone. There’s no time to worry about them being exposed now. We must get to the bottom of it!”

“As I said, the message only arrived this morning. The whole Heaven’s Origin Sector entered the highest battle-preparation state soon after. Later, the Spiritual Nexus crashed, and we were entirely isolated from the outside world. How do you expect us to investigate it?

“I’m telling this because I want you to keep your hope even at the last moment. Maybe your master is fighting side by side with us in his own way somewhere we can’t see and will jump out like a thief at the most critical moment!”

Tears were welling up inside Jin Xinyue’s eyes again. She nodded heavily. “I—I will not disappoint my master. I won’t!”

“He’d better not disappoint me, either, and jump out soon.” Rubbing her fists and warming up her body, Ding Lingdang stared at the depths of the Grand Desolate Plateau and mumbled, “Otherwise, I will blow up each and every scumbag in the Black Wind Fleet without leaving any for him!”