Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

The external plate armor and the internal structure of a starship were two absolutely different concepts, as different as the hard skull and the soft internal organs of a human, not to mention that the ‘internal organs’ of the starship had already been churned by the wormhole bomb brutally.

The head of Infinite Fire, like the sharp edge of a blade, ripped apart a lot of critical cabins in the middle of Black Swirl easily. Boosted by the incessant impetus, it even managed to blow Black Swirl off its original course and force it to revolve slowly. Black Swirl could not get rid of the spiral state at all.

Bai Xingjian was even crazy enough to turn on all the weapons on Infinite Fire during the ‘negative-distance contact’. The unstoppable high-energy particles as well as the destructive mystic rays and bullets of spiritual energy ran, roared, and exploded in the stomach of Black Swirl, sweeping everything in its way!

The effect was similar to stabbing the barrel of a gun deep into someone’s belly button before pulling the trigger.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Deep inside the flagship of the Imperium, a thunderstorm ten times more powerful than what was happening inside the flagship of the federation broke out.

“How is this happening?”

Heiye Ming and Lu Qingchen seemed to be shouting on the bridge at the same time.

The two starships were too deeply embedded in each other for the force field to drag Infinite Fire out by brute force. To bombard Infinite Fire with the firepower of the starships nearby was an even more terrible idea. One moment of carelessness, and Black Swirl’s own wound that had been repetitively savaged might be hit. Should Infinite Fire explode because of the attack, it might even split Black Swirl in two.

The only solution was to mobilize Exos or Colossi to break into Infinite Fire.

But Infinite Fire was firing like a storm right now. How could the normal crystal suits approach the lunatics of the Big Bai Fleet?

There was no telling if the extraterrestrial devils had livers, but if they did, Heiye Ming’s liver must be exploding because of his fury!

“A fatal gap appeared in the Black Wind Fleet’s battle formation. A white starship just broke in and crashed into Black Swirl. It is Infinite Fire from the Big Bai Fleet!”

“Black Swirl’s spiritual shield has dimmed a lot after the heavy blow. The firing net of defense is not as fierce as before, either.”

“This is our chance. The extraterrestrial devil that is attached to Lu Qingchen must still be there. We cannot allow it to run away!”

“Li Yao, come on. Let’s take care of them!”

The twelve Colossi grasped the opportunity keenly and lunged at Black Swirl.

In terms of available forces, the Black Wind Fleet still boasted tremendous elite arsenal starships, crystal suit groups, and Colossi.

Despite the shock of the space gate’s destruction and Li Yao’s suspicious words just now, they were not likely to surrender easily when their flagship was still out there. Following their fighting instincts, a lot of crystal suits lunged at the twelve experts from the Ancient Sages Sector under the lead of the Colossi.

The twelve experts ran forward one after another, helping their comrades who were rushing to resist the interference from the enemy. In the end, Li Yao, Long Yangjun, and Yan Liren were the only ones left.

It was the assault team to attack ‘Black Swirl’ that they had agreed upon a long time ago. The three of them did not have the highest Cultivation among the twelve experts, but their souls were definitely the toughest.

Meng Chixin and Wu Suiyun, despite being in the Divinity Transformation Stage, had died once before, and it had taken decades for their unpredictable, lingering souls to slowly recover. Right now, they were still half a step away from the real Divinity Transformation Stage.

Their souls were full of tiny cracks. Moreover, as spectral Cultivators, they were more likely to be invaded by the extraterrestrial devils. Therefore, the burden to attack Black Swirl fell on the shoulders of Li Yao and Long Yangjun, two freaks, and Yan Liren… well, a third freak.

The core of the Black Wind Fleet’s battle formation was already an utter mess. Including Burning Prairie, which was exploding nonstop, all the main-force warships in the federal fleet marched forward.

Such a distance, such chaos, and such goriness were no longer a close-distance battle where everybody stabbed each other with their bayonets. They were essentially mauling each other and biting each other with their teeth after stabbing the bayonets into each other’s stomachs!

In terms of the number of Colossi, the most crucial factor on the battlefield, the Imperium was actually at a disadvantage. Besides, the Colossi from the Ancient Sages Sector had been retrieved from the Nuwa warship that was sealed in the ice. They were all intact and much more powerful than the Colossi of the Imperium that were full of wounds and out of ammunition.

Under the lead of Meng Chixin and Wu Suiyun, the two Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators, it was as if the assault team of the Ancient Sages Sector were opening two overwhelming wings of flames when they covered Li Yao and his companions’ charge at Black Swirl. The attacks from the crystal cannons, the high-energy mystic rays, and the bullets of spiritual energy were all absorbed by the pair of fiery wings that were hundreds of kilometers long and became part of them, making the wings even brighter and broader than before.

A distance of several thousand kilometers was nothing but a casual stroll for a Colossi. Li Yao, Long Yangjun, and Yan Liren arrived at the side of Black Swirl in the blink of an eye.

Black Swirl looked like a giant beast that had fallen into a swamp and was struggling before death. Tremendous wounds pierced its body. Black flames spurted out of the cracks, mixed with the intense stench of death.

Although they were in the vacuum and under the thorough protection of their Colossi and mustard-seed combat suits, the three of them still felt creepy as if gloomy winds were blowing and ghosts were crying.

“The extraterrestrial devils must’ve broken out and turned Black Swirl into a devil’s nest completely. Watch o—”

Before Li Yao finished ‘out’, Yan Liren rushed forward in the lead. Emitting radiance that was even more brilliant than the main guns of starships, he melded with his sword and stabbed deep into Black Swirl.

Li Yao and Long Yangjun looked at each other in bewilderment. They had no choice but to closely follow him and break into the warship, too.

After Infinite Fire’s reckless attack, the interior of Black Swirl had turned into an inferno, with explosions and collapses everywhere. Broken limbs that had melded with steel blocked every pathway. There was not even enough room for the Colossi of the three of them to stride forward while standing straight. They had to clear a way with crystal cannons and super enormous chainswords. Not considering anything else, they created a road to the bridge through the broken walls and the twisted cabins by brute force.

As for the coordinates of the extraterrestrial devils, it was not really much trouble. Intense devilish auras and raging devils were everywhere around them. Like mists that were alive, they jumped at the three intruders desperately, only to be burnt up by the flames of spiritual energy dancing around the Colossi.

All they needed to do was march to where the devilish auras were most intense.

On their way, they ran into some lone crew members of Black Swirl.

The Immortal Cultivators who claimed to be noble had all been deeply awed by Infinite Fire’s fearless collision. They were still dwelling on the explosions, and when they saw three magnificent iron giants appearing in the middle of the surging smoke and fire, they were overwhelmed by fear. Could they summon their fighting will to resist them at all?

A lot of other people had even gone completely crazy. Crouching in the twisted corners, they either laughed hysterically, shrieked while holding their heads, or stuck the limbs that had been burnt against their incomplete bodies.

It seemed that when the stimulation reached a certain level, the ‘noble Immortal Cultivators’ and the ‘weak hominoids’ were essentially the same.

Maybe, compared with the vastness of the sea of stars, the Immortal Cultivators and the hominoids were just bigger bugs and smaller bugs. There was no fundamental difference between them.

Li Yao and his companions had no time to bother with the Immortal Cultivators who had completely lost their combat ability. They simply ran forward and gradually moved away from the damage range of Infinite Fire.

The devilish auras up head grew more and more dense. Ripples that looked like black jellyfish spread in the air, with purple and red light flashing vaguely.

“Is this the legendary ‘tenebrum energy’?”

Li Yao sensed the brand-new energy form spreading at the head of Black Swirl, which was entirely different from spiritual energy.

Even the most powerful spiritual energy, like the super radiation unleashed by the solar storms, could achieve destructive effects, but it was pure and did not have life or will. Human beings were free to absorb and utilize it.

The ‘tenebrum energy’, on the other hand, consisted of thousands of impurities that felt like the emotions of humans. They were rolling and wriggling, as if they boasted their own life and will!

Yes. Li Yao vaguely felt that when ‘spiritual energy’ was alive, it would become ‘tenebrum energy’. Every stream of tenebrum energy contained the most intense feelings, the darkest jealousy, the most violent ambitions, and the heaviest regret. It was some sort of primitive energy life that was like unicellular algae. No wonder the demonic Cultivators who had swallowed tremendous ‘tenebrum energy’ would easily degrade into evil, heinous lunatics!

“Aooo!”

From the ends of pathways, behind the cabin doors, and even the ceilings, a lot of crew members that had been corrupted by the tenebrum energy lunged out.

They had all suffered heavy wounds in the explosions. Their limbs had been twisted and deformed. Even their brains were sometimes clearly visible.

But purple flames were surging deep inside their eyes, which flowed out of their eye sockets. They were no longer Immortal Cultivators but demonic Cultivators whose souls had been completely corrupted by the tenebrum energy, which made them more evil and violent!

Now that they were the accomplices of the extraterrestrial devils, Li Yao and his companions did not show any mercy. They had even blown up the devil lord who had been attached to Professor Mo Xuan. Naturally, small fries who were enlisted in a hurry were not the slightest problem for them. Within a moment, all the obstacles were obliterated together with the uncanny tenebrum energy.

However, as they got closer to the bridge, the environment went through weird changes.

Large meat balls that looked like lumps grew out of the pathways and the cabin walls. A lot of meat balls even had wet holes from which bright purple mist was being spurted intermittently.

A lot of biological tissues similar to intestines had tied up the spiritual energy tubes, too. They were shivering slightly and secreting abundant stinky mucus that dripped down nonstop.

At first, the metal color on the cabin wall was still visible, but later, such bloody tissues were everywhere to be seen. They seemed to have walked into the internal organs of a gigantic beast!