Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

The path of lightning in front of the Tartarean Skeleton turned into a flashing spear and went on a rampage deep inside the Black Wind Fleet, meeting utterly no hindrance wherever it reached.

The crystal suits and space shuttles of the Imperium that were directly hit by the flashing spear all exploded. Even the starships of the Imperium that were more than one kilometer long and boasted the protection of a spiritual shield and multiple layers of composite plate armor were fleeing in a flurry to avoid its sharpness!

The starships further away that had not been affected by the collapse of the wormhole had no time to bother about the enemies that they were dealing with anymore. They all shifted their aim, and almost ten thousand pillars of lights and bullets of spiritual energy lunged at Li Yao.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!

Sound could not be transmitted in the vacuum, but when tens of thousands of enormous light balls expanded to their limits and congregated into an ocean of brightness. The eardrums and hearts of all on the battlefield still caught a deafening explosion from the crazily surging waves of spiritual energy.

All the soldiers and Cultivators of the federal army felt as if somebody had twisted their heart. They wondered if Li Yao could survive such a world-blighting strike.

But the next second, the surging tides of spiritual energy raised by the Black Wind Fleet were suppressed by twelve raging fires that were even fiercer. Compared with the twelve fires that were burning through the universe, the explosion of the thousands of bullets a moment ago lost all color!

The fireballs perished, and the brightness was dancing. The Tartarean Skeleton walked out step by step after ripping the overlapping flames with the stars beneath its feet. Not only was it completely undamaged, it looked even more invincible and dominating than before because of the countless revolving swirls of spiritual energy around!

Behind it, another eleven spiritual waves that were of a similar intensity gradually condensed into eleven enormous fiends. Their daunting auras immediately covered the entire space battlefield.

“There—there are another eleven guys who are as strong as him!”

Everybody on the battlefield was dumbfounded.

Before they realized what was going on, the twelve Colossi turned into twelve streaks of lightning and stabbed into the battle formation of the Black Wind Fleet from various angles. They were so fast that it was impossible to capture their shadows, much less see clearly how they attacked. The only things left behind was a road of explosions made of a series of fireballs after the twelve streaks of lightning marched forward unstoppably!

The reinforcements that were due to arrive had been slapped back. Even the space gate was destroying, cutting off the hope for the arrival of new reinforcements. In the meantime, twelve magnificent Colossi had popped up on the enemy’s side. The cruel scene ravaged the nerves of all the soldiers of the Imperium. The desire to slaughter and destroy that had just been boosted by the extraterrestrial devils all turned into cold sweat.

The battle formation of the Black Wind Fleet fell into disarray. Like a high tower made of matches, it collapsed uncontrollably.

The Colossi of the Imperium that were sabotaging Burning Prairie from inside were all caught in an awkward dilemma, wondering if they should retreat and defend Black Swirl so that the flagship could at least be saved. Although, judging from the intensity of spiritual energy unleashed by the twelve Colossi that had joined the battlefield, they would barely have a chance of survival even if they did charge forward.

The federal fleet, on the other hand, had higher morale than ever. Both the leadership of Burning Prairie, Silver Moon, Infinite Fire, and the Exo attack groups led by Ding Lingdang, as well as the millions of common soldiers, all felt that their blood was boiling under the encouragement of the killing spree of Li Yao and the rest.

When the colorful light balls deep inside the Black Wind Fleet due to the explosions glowed on their retina, their limbs and brains seemed to be going through explosions, too, giving them brand-new strength.

Everybody devoted the last drop of their spiritual energy and triggered the power rune arrays to the maximum. Almost a million exhaust flames were all aimed at the Black Wind Fleet like long spears. Forward, forward, accelerate and move forward!

“Soldiers of the Imperium of True Human Beings!” Li Yao set the communication magical equipment of the Tartarean Skeleton to be public in all bands, making it essentially a broadcaster in space, and roared at the entire battlefield indiscriminately. “The space gate, your last hope, has been destroyed. Part of your reinforcements have been exterminated in the space storms, and the remaining reinforcements are dozens of light years away. They cannot arrive in time to save you. Your plan is over, and you are doomed, with nowhere to run. Death is your only ending!

“Look at the magnificence of the Star Glory Federation. If you truly believe in your ideology that the strong must be worshipped, it is time you drop your weapons and surrender to the truly strong ones!

“Considering the heavy losses that you have caused the federation, we absolutely don’t mind, nor are we incapable of, annihilating each and every one of you. But right now, there is still a more vicious, evil enemy that is on the same level as the Alliance of the Holy Covenant, or even above the Covenant Alliance and as strong as the Pangu Clan. Our mutual enemy is hiding somewhere out there on this battlefield.

“The enemy is an extraterrestrial devil!

“Think about what happened just now. Did you feel that your desires to slaughter and destroy were improved a lot uncannily? Did you feel that your blood was boiling and that your brain was burning, making it impossible for you to think? That’s because the extraterrestrial devil invaded your souls and tried to control your minds!

“The extraterrestrial devils are manipulating the space battle behind the curtain. We are all their chess pieces. They want to watch the two tigers maul each other and then swallow both of us before the last drop of blood in our body is shed!

“Right now, your flagship, Black Swirl, has degraded into a nest of the extraterrestrial devils. Your commander, Heiye Ming, has also become the extraterrestrial devils’ puppet, or even one of them!

“Wake up, soldiers of the Imperium. Do not persist in this futile resistance anymore. Drop your weapons, raise your arms, and surrender!

“Doesn’t the Imperium of True Human Beings consider itself to be the rightful successor of the Star Ocean Imperium? The Star Ocean Imperium was destroyed by the extraterrestrial devils ten thousand years ago. If you have the slightest dignity and pride as the successor of the Star Ocean Imperium, just open your eyes and see who your enemy really is!”

Li Yao’s voices spread out through the space battlefield, like tides made of rumbling thunder.

“Extraterrestrial devils…”

Not all the soldiers of the Imperium could hear his ‘broadcast’, but all the Immortal Cultivators who did bulged their eyes and fell silent.

No matter how cruelly and evilly the Immortal Cultivators treated ordinary people, they were indeed deeply proud of their identity as ‘human beings’ and had absolutely no doubt that they were the supreme defenders of the civilization of mankind.

To some extent, the Immortal Cultivators were even more zealous ‘human supremacists’ than the Cultivators were, which could easily be seen from the name of their country.

As noble warriors of the Imperium of True Human Beings, they worshipped the purity of human beings. Even the ordinary people whose spiritual roots were unawakened had been regarded as ‘hominoids’ and banished from the community of ‘true human beings’. The extraterrestrial devils, as an energy life form, were nothing more than filthy evil that could never coexist with the ideology of the Immortal Cultivators. They were the targets that should be slain ruthlessly.

“All of this is the scheme of the extraterrestrial devils, and we’ve fallen into a trap?”

The Immortal Cultivators were no dummies. Lu Qingchen’s manipulation was not entirely without a trace. After hearing Li Yao’s words, a lot of Immortal Cultivators were greatly alarmed and deep in thought.

On Black Swirl, Li Yao’s roars raised an even more shocking tide.

“Commander!”

The air on the bridge was almost frozen. All the Immortal Cultivators stared at Heiye Ming in disbelief and fright without blinking.

“What—What are you…”

Heiye Ming was silent for such a long time that he almost melted with his own shadow. Gazing at the Tartarean Skeleton on the light beam for a long time, he gnashed his teeth. “Li Yao!”

His eyes that were as dark as ink moved to all the Immortal Cultivators around. Wherever his eyes reached, the air seemed to become thick mud that crawled into the pores of every Immortal Cultivator.

Heiye Ming smiled gloomily. “Such a petty trick and such juvenile instigation. Yet, you have all been frightened to such an extent? I’m really disappointed in you…”

Hardly had he finished his sentence when the bridge began to shake violently. Almost everybody could not stand steadily anymore and fell over. Desperate alarms were ringing from the mainframe crystal processor. Dozens of surveillance light beams displayed the same starship that had focused all the spiritual shield at the head and was on fire like a shooting star that had entered the atmosphere.

Yes. ‘Fire’ was exactly its name. While most of the forces of the Black Wind Fleet were distracted by the twelve Colossi and Black Swirl was caught in a brief moment of stiffness, Infinite Fire, the flagship of the Big Bai Fleet, cut through the core defense layer like an invisible blade and crashed into Black Swirl’s wound that had just been swallowed by the wormhole bomb brutally!

Zi! Zi! Zi! Zi! Zi! Zi!

The spiritual shields and disruptive force fields of the two parties collided heavily, raising thousands of sparks and electric arcs. Even the lights on the bridge were flickering. More than ten light beams died out at the same time, and quite a few spiritual energy tubes exploded, too. The antifire frost spurted out, covering the entire bridge in white smoke. Everybody could not have looked more awful.

In terms of level, Black Swirl was well above Infinite Fire.

But it had suffered a heavy wound from the wormhole bomb, which resulted in a loss of almost thirty percent of its mass and a devastatingly enormous wound on the side of the starship. Therefore, the protective web that covered the whole body of the starship thoroughly before had a fatal hole. The efficiency of the turning and dodging of the starship had plummeted, too.

Despite the gigantic size of Infinite Fire, it was as swift as a super lightweight space shuttle. Drawing an unbelievably elegant curve, it drilled into the enemy’s flagship from the most unexpected angle.

The spiritual shields and disruptive force fields of the two parties only lasted several seconds before the defense layer of Black Swirl above the wound collapsed. In the meantime, the exhaust flames of Infinite Fire spurted out crazily to almost a hundred kilometers away.

With such powerful impetus, it stabbed into the side of Black Swirl and buried a third of its body into the enemy’s flagship, almost cutting the black behemoth right from the middle!

“Li Yao, don’t act like I am not here!”

On the violently shaking bridge of Infinite Fire, Bai Xingjian burst into laughter in the pilot’s seat.