Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“What is going on?”

Hearing the alarms each higher than the last, Li Yao shuddered hard. “I-I did not even say that out just now. It was just a thought in my head. I am not so unlucky as to have been discovered before the infiltration formally begins, right?

“I said nothing but a ‘well’ just now. It did not exactly mean anything at all but was only an interjection!”

The mental devil pondered for a moment and mumbled, “Is it because this universe is more rejective to us as our level advances? How marvelous…”

Looking at the war puppets whose magazines and turrets were all opened, making them look like iron hedgehogs, and the guards nearby whose chainswords and vibration sabers were running at a high speed, Li Yao felt that his head was exploding. “Do you have any idea what the environment we are in is right now? You are still in the mood for jokes? Should the war puppets and guards come at us, we will have no choice but to run away!”

“Wait a moment—”

The mental devil said, “They do not seem to be looking at us. We are not their target!”

Li Yao was slightly dazed. He looked at the guards and the war puppets around and discovered that none of them were paying any attention to him although they appeared aggressive and intimidating. All the jailors were on high alert under the motivation of the alarms.

Did Li Linghai take action in advance?

Ten thousand self-contradictory thoughts popped up in Li Yao’s head. He couldn’t figure out the truth of the “incoming enemy” at all.

The quakes and explosions below his feet, however, did not stop at all, as if a dragon made of magma was crashing the underside of the Godly Might Prison from the core of the planet.

That’s unreasonable. The attack obviously comes from the bottommost floor of the Godly Might Prison, not a blanket bombardment from the sky. It is not the agreed tactic of the Deep Sea Fleet…

While Li Yao was thinking quickly, one of the patrol ships parked in a maintenance workshop of the underground port suddenly hummed.

A dazzling spiritual shield immediately appeared and flowed all over its body. Like a shark that had just dashed out of the deep sea, all the turrets and magazines were opened, revealing the daunting tusks.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The patrol ship was conducting maintenance and upgrade on anti-gravity rune arrays and power units on the maintenance platform. It could not move at all right now.

But the immobility could not prevent the hundred turrets on its body turning agilely and bathe the entire spaceport with the barrages of a stormy fire.

The jailors of the Godly Might Prison were naturally not as tough as the elites in the battlefield in the frontline. Little could they have anticipated that they would be attacked by a dormant starship parked at a corner of the spaceport.

Caught unprepared, they were blown up or running in devastation because of the storm of destruction right next to them. They couldn’t have looked more wretched.

Of the five hundred prisoners that were yet to be unfrozen, some less fortunate guys were pierced through by the wandering bullets, shot into icy, broken meat before they opened their eyes.

Are you serious? Who the heck is doing on this?

Li Yao could not hold it any longer. With his eyes wide open in the middle of the ice and frost, he watched the burning shrapnel passing him by, shooting through the hibernation cabins around him and burning the internal organs of the prisoners inside into nothingness, while he did his best to activate his mitochondria, cells, muscles, and veins to restore his peak combat ability as soon as possible!

The stormy barrage did not stop until half a minute later, when the jailors and the war puppets all began to counterattack the patrol ship after realizing what was going on.

While the jailors and the war puppets did not bring many powerful anti-material weapons, the patrol ship did not have a particularly solid armor either. Under the barrage of thousands of firing points, the ivory spiritual shield was soon blown into orange, crimson, and violet, until it exploded and obliterated into nothingness like fragile glass.

Losing the protection of the spiritual shield, the patrol starship was immediately riddled with holes, and the internal structure was too seriously damaged to support its heavy body anymore. It collapsed deeply.

But, in the next second, the warehouse of crystals and the engine compartment of the patrol ship exploded at the same time!

In such a completely enclosed underground environment, such a suicide explosion had dire consequences.

To make things worse, the mysterious intruder had placed tremendous lethally poisonous materials inside the patrol ship. Boosted by the flames, all the materials were vaporized and turned into raging, venomous gas that was as intense as ink as they spread out quickly.

Li Yao saw with his own eyes that dozens of jailors who were close to their target were swallowed by the flames caused by the explosion of the starship.

The hundred jailors behind, in the meantime, were struggling and cramping in the middle of the venomous fog. They barely had any time to escape when the venomous fog infiltrated into their armor and corroded their flesh into mucus. They collapsed to the ground, dying the most miserable death.

The venomous fog was highly corrosive. Even the war puppets would crack and degenerate into cramping garbage after their rune arrays, chips, and wires were corroded.

Hum! Hum! Hum! Hum! Hum!

Very soon, a swarm of tiny metal bugs flew out of the venomous fog and swept at the jailors like dancing wild bees.

Those “metal bees” were extremely fast and agile. However crazily the jailors shot, it was barely possible for them to hit the targets. Instead, the “metal bees” crawled into the gaps of their crystal suits and were tightly attached there with the highly-magnetic wings and tentacles.

Then, there were dull explosions. The metal bees that were only the size of fingers were able to blow out holes that were as big as bowls on the crystal suits and the bodies, destroying all the organs inside.

A patrol ship, a weird venomous fog, and a swarm of crazily dancing metal bees—the spaceport that linked the Godly Might Prison had been reduced into a chaotic battlefield!

At this moment, the Godly Might Prison finally confirmed the identity of the intruders. Desperate roars echoed from the broadcast rune arrays again. “The Covenant Alliance! A lot of people of the Covenant Alliance have snuck into the Godly Might Prison trying to rescue the prisoners here! All guards, hold your position and do not let any of them run away!”

“The Covenant Alliance has come to rescue the prisoners?”

Li Yao felt the urge of roaring. Why did the Covenant Alliance come at such a precise moment, no sooner and no later?

During the ten years of the Imperium’s counterattack, the expedition army of the Imperium had indeed captured many captives from the Covenant Alliance in a winning streak.

The ordinary people under the governance of the Covenant Alliance mattered little, but a lot of leaders of the Covenant Alliance and the mysterious “Temple Guardians” were all valuable targets.

Although the Covenant Alliance and the Imperium had been at war for a thousand years, the weird country made of puppets of flesh and blood and zealots who worshipped the Pangu Clan as their god had always been covered in an unpredictable mist. The Imperium was not well aware of the Covenant Alliance’s specific means of government or its social stratification.

By studying the captives who used to be part of the leadership of the country, it should be able to unveil the mask of the mysterious regime and allow part of the truths to be seen.

However, the interrogation and research on the people of the Covenant Alliance did not go well.

The Covenant Alliance’s expertise in terms of brain studies, or rather, in brainwashing, memory segregation, and soul defense was somewhat above the knowledge of the Imperium.

After the interrogation failed, the base of the expedition army had no choice but to escort the important captives of the Covenant Alliance to the Godly Might Prison in the rear. They planned to work on the captives slowly to figure out the secrets of the Covenant Alliance.

The Godly Might Prison was chosen, and a brand-new camp of captives was built, exactly because the defense of this place was meticulous, and it was safe enough at the rear of the Imperium.

But as it turned out, the Covenant Alliance was still crazy enough to assault the Godly Might Prison hoping to heist all the captives!

“Wait! It’s not as simple as that!”

The mental devil suddenly observed. “The Imperium’s counterattack has lasted more than ten years. This is not the first day that the captives of the Covenant Alliance have been locked here. Like what you said just now, why did they choose to break the prison at such a moment, no sooner and no later? Is it not too much a coincidence?”

Li Yao thought of something. With bubbles surfacing in his eyes, he said, “It is indeed too coincidental. Also, the Godly Might Prison is so heavily defended. How much effort did the Covenant Alliance devote on the infiltration, how much price will they pay in order to get the captives away, and how many of the captives can safely run away from the Godly Might Prison, the Mystic Ice Sector, and the heartland of the Imperium to return to the Covenant Alliance?

“Even if a couple of captives out of a hundred can make it back in the end, so many elites who are capable of infiltrating the Godly Might Prison will have been wasted here. Is it really worthwhile?

“The army of the Imperium has secured unstoppable victories in the frontline. But most of the victories were about the recovery of lost land. Few were about the annihilation of the enemy’s main force. Therefore, the captives of the Covenant Alliance can’t be very important. At such a moment when the situation in the frontline has basically been settled, a rescue operation, whose success rate is very low and which requires a high price no matter if it succeeds or not, has been planned for the captives who are not of high levels? The commanders of the Covenant Alliance are definitely not as stupid as that!

“Therefore—”

Alarmed, Li Yao and the mental devil exclaimed at the same time, “General Lei!”

Li Yao said, “The Covenant Alliance is here for General Lei!”

The mental devil said, “They are here to rescue the captives on the surface, but it is just a smoke grenade to cover their real purpose, which is to assassinate General Lei Chenghu!”

Li Yao said, “Lei Chenghu has been active in the frontmost line of the resistance against the Covenant Alliance since a hundred years ago. He is one of the few generals of the Imperium who remains invincible for the Covenant Alliance, which makes him a thorn in the flesh for the Covenant Alliance. Any price is worthwhile in order to get rid of him!”

The mental devil said, “What is even more incredible is that General Lei Chenghu is held in custody by the Council of Elders here. If he is killed uncannily right now, the Council of Elders and the four Kurfürst wouldn’t be able to explain themselves at all. The conflicts between the four Kurfürst families and the troops in the frontline will escalate all of a sudden. It won’t be strange even if a massive civil war breaks out!”

“Exactly!”

Li Yao’s eyes were brighter and brighter. “An almighty general of the Imperium, and the highest commander of the Third Battle Area, went missing on the way to the capital, locked in the Godly Might Prison uncannily, and got killed in an inexplicable prison break. It will be enough to chill all the warlords and local leaders of the entire Imperium. They will be more scared and wary of the four Kurfürst families than ever. The Astounding Thunder Fleet may even do unpredictable things that will lead to the collapse in the frontline!”