by <unknown>
It was the same on Heavenly Phantom. Except for some of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers on the bridge and inside the control room of the star brain, which were still under the control of Professor Mo Xuan, the majority of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers fell into the star brain's hands again and charged at the bridge.
Both parties were Grand Illusionary Soldiers, and the battle was quite evenly-matched. However, there were fare more Grand Illusionary Soldiers under the star brain's control than those under Mo Xuan's. It would only be a matter of time before they broke into the bridge.
"What has happened? The enemy's computational ability soared all of a sudden and annihilated the virus we planted!"
"I sensed that the enemy's thinking pattern underwent drastic changes. It seems that the star brain… possess self-awareness now!"
"Huh? Would that make it just like us?"
The five star spirits looked at each other in bewilderment.
"Li Yao and the other Cultivators must be in an unimaginable crisis. The star brain is much more terrifying than we expected. We are definitely no match for it in the competition of computational ability!"
There was unwavering determination in Professor Mo Xuan's voice, as he said, "There is only one way to counterattack now. We march inside ourselves!"
"Professor?"
The other four star spirits were confused.
"The enemy's computational ability is higher than ours. It has most of the Spiritual Nexus under its control, too. Fighting against it online is a dead end. But don't forget—"
Professor Mo Xuan smiled and then continued. "Don't forget that the body of the star brain is just regular metal and crystals. But our bodies are made of the mustard-seed liquid metals from the Star Ocean Imperium that can swallow other metals and crystals to reproduce!
"We are definitely no match for the star brain in terms of computational ability, but physically… we can totally devour it!"
"Devour it?"
The four star spirits were dazed. They then waved their hands merrily. "Right! Right! We will swallow the crystal chips and the computational arrays that constitute the body of the star brain. Let's see what it can compute when all its materials are gone!
"Its life form is similar to ours. Chances are that our ability will be increased a lot after we swallow it!"
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Liquid metal that looked like mercury leaked out of the five artificial bodies and quickly flowed to the control room of the star brain along the tubes and gaps of the starship!
The five star spirits were very clear that, as easy as the process sounded, it would definitely be the most perilous battle since they had become star spirits.
Nobody was sure whether they would swallow the star brain or be manipulated by the star brain with its immense computational ability!
But this was their only choice right now.
"If we digest the star brain and improve our computation ability to the maximum, we will certainly be able to activate the super crystal processor system in the Star Prier's House. Then, we will locate the Heaven's Origin Sector and find our way home!
"Let's go, Cultivators from the Heaven's Origin Sector!"
…
In the illusion built by the star brain, a grandiose new world was slowly rising in the endless flames of war.
"Ten thousand years ago, the final battle between the Supreme Emperor and the Mad Armageddon almost destroyed the Empyreal Terminus Sector. However, this place was the heart of the civilization of mankind. We had the most powerful magical equipment, the most advanced training facilities, and the most sophisticated techniques.
"Soon after the final battle, countless experts of mankind crowded into the Empyrean Terminus Sector from various places and struggled to survive the disaster.
"However, it was not just the human beings who were aware of the value of the Empyreal Terminus Sector. The demon race, the extraterrestrial devils, and all kinds of bizarre alien species in the universe discovered it, too.
"The collisions between the Supreme Emperor and the Mad Armageddon was too powerful. They ignited a torch in a dark forest. As a result, countless hunters lurking in the shadows discovered traces of new prey!
"Therefore, for the ten thousand years, fighting has never ceased in the Empyrean Terminus Sector!
"The Empyreal Terminus Sector became a world of bloody battles. Wars, massacres, and destruction have filled every second of the past ten thousand years!
"The Imperium of True Human Beings was established exactly in such a world of bloody battles!"
The illusion behind the star child suddenly changed into magnificent metropolises, sky-blocking warship, and countless experts that were soaring up and roaring in the sea of stars!
Crushed by the experts, the hideous demons and the alien species were all blown to smithereens and ended up as meat patties and oceans of blood after miserable screams!
"We are the brand-new human beings that have evolved in the bloody battles of ten thousand years. The Imperium of True Human Beings is a new summit of the civilization of mankind as well as the only future for humanity in the dark forest!"
Chapter 808: Secrets of Star Children |
The universe started shaking violently along with the star child's roar. The stars were all shooting close and congregated into overwhelming torrents of information that penetrated through everybody's body!
"Ahhh!"
His face twisted, Li Yao felt his every cell brimming with overlapping scenes.
He seemed to see great cities in metallic colors rising up from the ground, crystal warships being produced from the keel to the shell, and countless brawny, gloomy experts receiving the harshest training!
Conquers and slaughters. If the endless blood was gathered together, it would be enough to extinguish a burning star!
In such a way, the star child poured the history of the creation and expansion of the Imperium of True Human Beings into Li Yao's and the other six Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators' souls.
The Empyreal Terminus Sector was the center of the civilization of mankind. It was a world with the most Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, the most abundant resources, and the most abundant spiritual energy.
Although it had been broken apart by the Supreme Emperor and the Mad Armageddon ten thousand years ago, the great battles between the super fleets under their command led to an ancient battlefield that was a hundred times more precious than that of the Flying Star Sector!
In the ten thousand years that followed, mankind, the demon race, the extraterrestrial devils, and the alien species in the universe fought an unceasing bloody battle for the resources, the secret treasures left by the Supreme Emperor and the Mad Armageddon long time ago, and even the mausoleum of the Supreme Emperor.
The Imperium of True Human Beings born in the ten-thousand-year bloody battles was brewed in the boundless killing intent. It was crueler, more resolute, and more merciless than any civilization of mankind in the past.
The Imperium of True Human Beings expanded very fast. In several thousand years, it had already absorbed almost all the prosperous districts of the Star Ocean Imperium. Then, through the 'stargazers', it extended its tentacles in various directions to search for the more remote Sectors.
Countless Sectors bent their knees to the brilliance of the imperium and provided infinite resources, magical equipment, and warriors for the imperium. Nurtured by those Sectors, the Imperium of True Human Beings grew larger and larger like a rolling snowball, and its capability soared exponentially!
The so-called 'stargazers' were a very special profession of the Immortal Cultivators. They were a sort of combination of astronomers and historians.
They examined and searched for unvisited space zones with the most advanced observational magical equipment. But at the same time, they were familiar with all the ancient classics and could find traces of a certain Sector from ancient records, thereby determining the rough location of the Sector.
With the continuous endeavors of the stargazers, the lost Sectors were rediscovered one after another, and their precise coordinates were soon ascertained, too. Then, the expedition army of the Imperium of True Human Beings would immediately set off to jump to those Sectors and demonstrate the glory and the power of the imperium!
However, such a practice was only applicable to the prosperous areas of the Star Ocean Imperium.
As for the Sectors that were billions of lightyears away far from their reach, the stargazers could barely do nothing about them with their own capability and the probe magical equipment.
The universe was too boundless. Only one in a billion space zones might be suitable for the survival of living creatures.
The spiritual energy to transport an expedition army of a reasonable scale billions of lightyears with a space jump would be astronomical.
Strong as the Imperium of True Human Beings might have been, it could not allow an expedition army wander around in the vast universe aimlessly like headless flies when the precise coordinates of the destination had not been retrieved yet.
It was difficult to transport a fleet, but it was not easy to transport a piece of magical equipment, either. In fact, during space jumps, one gram of additional weight meant the consumption of tons of crystals.
In order to explore the remote area far from the Imperium of True Human Beings, the Immortal Cultivators had come up with many unconventional approaches.
In a certain plan, they even dissected the brain of a human being from the body and installed it into a piece of special probe magical equipment that was teleported through a space jump.
Since it was only the brain that was teleported, the load of the weight was minimized.
However, even a brain still weighed one to two kilograms, and hundreds of space jumps were often required before a Sector habituated by human beings was discovered.
Such low-efficiency searches consumed too many resources. When the territory of the imperium expanded and all the Sectors that were relatively obvious had been discovered, it became trickier and trickier to find the remaining Sectors.
After hundreds of years of research, the experts of the Imperium of True Human Beings finally invented the cheapest and most convenient method to explore the universe.
The entire brain was too redundant. Only the soul needed to be teleported!
The star children were thus born.
Every star child used to be a stargazer with an extremely high Cultivation who had dedicated their entire life to the exploration of the sea of stars. When they were old and their body feeble, their soul was at the most powerful point of their life!
Then, their soul was extracted from their body through secrets arts, with the complicated memories and unnecessary emotions removed, before the soul was refined together with the purest souls of hundreds of children. There were chances that a special spectral Cultivator, namely the star child, would be produced!
The toughness of the star child was a hundred times higher than normal spectral Cultivators, which allowed them to ignore the side effects when they were teleported through space jumps. Moreover, they could absorb the spiritual energy in the universe and sustain their consciousness for a long time.
The star child was essentially just a weightless ghost. Therefore, at the cost of the least spiritual energy, they could be teleported to dozens of space zones away within a breath in search for the traces of the civilization of mankind.
When a new civilization of mankind was locked onto, they would observe quietly for a while and record the features of the Sector before they returned to the Imperium of True Human Beings with the information.
Then, the expedition army of the imperium would march off and arrive at the heart of the Sector!
That was how the imperium expanded.
Li Yao's body was shivering when he heard the story.
There was no telling whether it was out of fear or fury.
He had heard of the brutality of the demon race and the extraterrestrial devils in the stories of the seniors many times.
However, he had never thought that a nation of human beings could be so inhuman that they could kill hundreds of children to produce a star child simply for the exploration of more space zones and the expansion of the imperium!
No. This was only the mature process of production. Before the plan succeeded, countless more innocent children must have been sacrificed to run the horrendous experiments!
Bright red flames appeared on Li Yao's body and burnt the black liquid, which had gradually crawled to his torso, into ash!
"Don't judge the methodology of the Imperium of True Human Beings with your boring criteria of 'moral' or 'mercy'. In the ten-thousand-year battles, we had no other options! If we were as soft and hesitant as before, the entire species would have been wiped out a long time ago," the star child said coldly. "For the continuity of the civilization, every human being must be prepared to sacrifice themself. It is exactly because of the sacrifices of so many people that the imperium has been growing so fast!
"It is a pity that I was unfortunate enough to encounter an unprecedented cosmic storm after a super long-distance space jump even though I did find the prosperous world of human beings that is the Flying Star Sector.
"That was a hundred and twenty years ago."
A hundred and twenty years ago, an unprecedented cosmic storm?
Li Yao quickly thought of the storm in which Xiao Xuance and Bai Xinghe were involved in.
The star child said, "At that time, I had just crossed a distance of billions of lightyears. My soul was feebler than ever before, and there was no way that I could resist such a violent storm. In the raging radiation and electromagnetic waves, my soul was battered, and I lost 99% of my soul power and computation ability. My connection to the Imperium of True Human Beings was cut off, too. I was on the brink of destruction.
"When I was about to perish, I accidentally discovered two crystal warships that were attacking each other. It was not until later that I discovered that the captain of one of the starships was named Xiao Xuance and that he was a promising young man in the Flying Star Sector."
The rest was history.
The star child lost 99% of his soul power and could not return to the Imperium of True Human Beings.
The prosperity of the Flying Star Sector far exceeded his expectation, too. The apocalypse that occurred five thousand years ago seemed to have brought fresh air to the world even though it was almost destroyed. After the catastrophe, the Flying Star Sector had a completely different attitude to other Sectors.
The star child snuck into Xiao Xuance's crystal warship. He was a high-level Cultivator with amazingly computational ability in the first place. For the sake of investigation, he had also practiced many secret arts to influence other people. Since Xiao Xuance had just experienced a 'dark forest' situation, his mind was disturbed, and his brain was unstable.
The star child easily planted a seed named 'Imperium of True Human Beings' in Xiao Xuance's head.
In the decades that followed, the star child lurked in the darkness, recovering and building up his soul power.
With his help, Xiao Xuance rose to power and became the leader of the Feathered Snakes Brotherhood.
In the meantime, the 'Second Imperium' and the 'Temple of Immortals' were both being brewed.
Finally, when the star child recovered part of his capability, he carefully selected a Down syndrome patient in which to reincarnate himself.
The soul of the Down syndrome children was incomplete congenitally. The odds of a successful possession were very high. As it turned out, the star child made it in one attempt.
Then, with some tricks, he manipulated Xiao Xuance to foster the retard and started developing the 'star brain'. In fact, he was merely expanding his computational ability by combining countless crystal processors.
In the meantime, he met Xiao Xuance on the Spiritual Nexus under the identity of the Sea King and guided him to establish
the Second Imperium, the Temple of Immortals, and the Grand Illusionary Soldier Project step by step.
Affected by the 'seed' that he had planted in the beginning, Xiao Xuance felt nothing wrong. He believed from the bottom of his heart that he was the creator of the Imperium of True Human Beings.
"If Xiao Xuance's 'New Era Plan' worked out, we would have been able to transform the Flying Star Sector into the imperium within a hundred years and provide unlimited resources and soldiers for the imperium. It would not have been necessary for the expedition army of the imperium to come such a long way here.
"It's a shame that he failed.
"But it doesn't matter. Although Xiao Xuance failed, there are still the seven of you.
"Among you, there are the elders and experts that can speak for the six sects of Heavenly Saints City. We even have the real controller of the Glorious Sunlight Group and the best warrior of the six tribes of Iron Plateau here!
"Communicating with you will do, too."
Chapter 809: Men of Different Beliefs Go Separate Ways! |
Luo Xingzi was more than angry. Flames of spiritual energy surged out as he pointed his longsword at the star child and shouted, "Shut up! Men of different believes should go separate ways! You Immortal Cultivator consider ordinary people to be ants and would do anything in order to achieve your purpose. Even new-born babies can be 'sacrificed' under your regime. The Cultivators will never be your accomplices!
"Besides, the Imperium of True Human Beings raised a storm of blood in the Flying Star Sector before you officially show up. In the Skyhill Domain, Heavenly Saints City, Iron Plateau, and dozens of other space zones, tens of thousands of innocent victims have been murdered by you!
"There's nothing worth communicating between us. Let the sword in my hand decide whose path is the righteous one!"
The star child's voice was as calm as before. "Luo Xingzi, there is no need to burst into such fury. It only indicates the weakness and fright in your heart.