by <unknown>
"However, in case anything goes wrong, I'm going to stay here and continue pretending to be Professor Luo De. If a student or a fellow refiner drops by but fails to find him, our clever trick will be ruined!
"All in all, the real infiltration and rescue operation will depend on you fellow Cultivators."
"Rest assured." Ba Xiaoyu smiled. "We have nine Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and two Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators here. Won't it be hilarious if we cannot break into a prison and rescue a few people after learning the structure of the starship's core and the distribution of soldiers?"
Li Yao realized that it did make sense. Different from the past, he was not by himself this time and had the support of the most deluxe assault team in perhaps the hundreds of lightyears nearby. Did he really need to attack in person with such a lineup?
Therefore, he might as well work as the 'magical equipment director' comfortably without thinking about anything else!
"Then, I'll be waiting for the good news from you, fellow Cultivators." Li Yao smiled. "I'll provide remote support with magical equipment for you, and the latest map of the core area will be updated when anything changes and sent to your tactical crystal processors immediately.
"With your capabilities, fellow Cultivators, it should be more than simple to rescue Captain Tang. However, I hope that we all keep our purpose in mind. We must not make a huge fuss or deal irreversible damage to Firefly. We are here to save, not to kill. We are here to gain the government-in-exile's trust, not hostility! If we really turn Firefly upside down, we might catch the attention of the Star Glory Federation, which will go against the original purpose of the mission!"
"Of course," Meng Chixin said solemnly. "The operation will be simple, but the critical requirement of the mission is to rescue the prisoners quietly without alarming anyone and without exposing the real capabilities of the twelve of us. Other than Captain Tang and the few of his fellows, it would be best if nobody else learned of our existence. No blood should be shed if possible. Try to keep a low profile as much as possible!"
"Yes. Keep a low file as much as possible!"
Li Yao talked with everybody for a while longer before he cut off the communication.
"Hu…"
He warmed up his body and stretched his arms comfortably. Snapping his fingers, he made himself a hot cup of tea through remote manipulation techniques.
It felt great that the only thing he needed to do was planning, and a bunch of Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators would be leading the charge and accomplishing the mission for him. It seemed that he had to change his mindset and his habits as soon as possible. He was now a magical equipment director and an off-duty clerk who worked in an office. The tiresome work such as fighting and killing should simply be given to other Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators!
Li Yao sipped the tea in great comfort. Then, whistling the old songs from more than a hundred years, he continued browsing Professor Luo De's refining logs lightheartedly.
A lot of the refining arts from the center of the cosmos were worth studying, too!
Right then, his eardrum was vibrating softly again.
It was Long Yangjun.
Li Yao frowned and softly said, "What's going on?"
"Nothing's going on," Long Yangjun said with a smile. "There's no need for you to be so secretive, either. Right now, everybody is doing investigation separately. I'm using the private communication channel, so they won't hear anything.
"I'm only calling you to say 'you're welcome'. I did not do any planning at all. Weren't you the one who came up with the whole scheme in only one hour? Tsk, tsk, tsk. The great heroes are truly worthy of their name. Before, you appeared to be silly every day, and I found it hard to understand how exactly you became the 'dominator of the three Sectors'. Only now, as you've revealed part of your capabilities, could I begin to imagine the charisma of Vulture Li Yao that you had a hundred years ago!"
"Wait!" Li Yao spat out the tea leaves. "What do you mean by 'silly every day'?"
"Not important," Long Yangjun said. "There's one thing that I would like to figure out. Why were you so sure that no surveillance cameras were installed inside Professor Luo De's refining workshop? If anybody was monitoring him in real time, wouldn't your whole plan have fallen apart?"
"There can't be any surveillance cameras," Li Yao declared confidently. "No master of refining could ever tolerate their procedures of refining being monitored the whole time. It concerns not only confidentiality but also… their pride."
"Pride?" Long Yangjun was slightly dazed. "I don't understand."
"Of course you don't. This is something that only the refiners share." Li Yao thought for a moment and said, "Let me put it this way. For refiners, especially the seasoned refiners who have gained enough expertise, every piece of magical equipment that they craft is like their own baby. So, the question becomes this. Would you install a surveillance camera above your bed to allow somebody else to monitor the whole process of you making a baby?"
"That explains a lot." Long Yangjun was deep in thought. "That is why you chose Professor Luo De as the breaching point."
"Exactly," Li Yao said calmly. "I'm not a man who likes boasting, but when it comes to crawling through ventilation tubes, in the thousand square lightyears nearby, who could claim to be the best if I said that I'm only the second best? I know after only a quick glance what ventilation tube can be crawled through and what ones cannot be!
"All the tubes in the areas around Speaker Cui Lingfeng, Captain Tang Dingyuan, and the other important people are heavily defended. Not just a normal human being, even a mutated cockroach wouldn't be able to crawl in!
"Professor Luo De is the only one who is a relatively crucial person but has a working workshop that is outside of the core area. Where should I have begun from if not this place? It's simple logic!"
"It seems that it was the right decision to cooperate with you." Long Yangjun smiled. "You are quite professional at what you are doing."
"Then, let's hope that you can be professional, too," Li Yao said. "You must get the situation under control. They are all used to killing and slaughtering in the Ancient Sages Sector. It will be very easy for them to turn the starship into an ocean of blood. This time, you must keep them cool and contained! Do not go on a rampage while they are on a killing spree or simply blow up Firefly after summoning their Colossi, in which case we will be screwed!"
"Rest assured," Long Yangjun said. "Nothing can possibly go wrong on our end. You just sit in the refining workshop comfortably and enjoy a nice cup of tea, or do some training if you are in the mood. Just send the map and the distribution of soldiers in the core area to us and wait for the good news!"
Li Yao smiled. He was about to reply when somebody knocked on the door.
Li Yao was slightly dazed. Then, he noticed something abnormal on the surveillance light beam nearby. The red spot that was supposed to be moving toward the core area had returned!
What the heck?
Li Yao swallowed. Glancing around, he did not notice any loophole. He thought for a moment and hid most of the Cosmos Rings on his body below Professor Luo De's desk, before he finally opened the door.
It was the old police just now, followed by four strong, ferociously-looking men in black combat suits, who stared at him without blinking their eyes.
"Anything wrong?"
There was obvious anger on his face, as if he were in quite a bad mood after his work was interrupted.
"Professor Luo," the old police officer said respectfully, "your analysis report has been sent to the superiors. Speaker Cui believes that the issue is very important and would like to hear you explain the mysteries of the scarlet ball in person. May you accompany us to Speaker Cui?"
"…" Li Yao.
"Professor Luo, is there something the matter?"
"No, there isn't. Let me go to the toilet first."
"By
all means. Please, Professor Luo."
"Why are the two bears cramming into my toilet, too? What are they doing? Why are they staring at my penis?"
"You must not misunderstand them, Professor Luo," the old officer said. "This is just a tradition. I trust that you won't mind it since this concerns our national security."
Chapter 1610: Speaker Cui! |
Surrounded by four muscular men in black in the middle, Li Yao walked to a vacuum tube shuttle that was used for internal transportation on the starship through a narrow pathway under the lead of the old officer.
His face seemed to be tranquil and even slightly impatient, but behind his disguise was a tiny bit of anxiety.
Li Yao was not worried that the enemy had already seen through his disguise, but he was not confident that they would never see through it. He had not made enough preparations before he pretended to be Professor Luo De. It was impossible for him to be perfect. If he had stayed in the refining workshop, he might have been able to fool those who had come to pay a visit, but if he was to face the Speaker of the government-in-exile, God only knew when he would give himself away!
Li Yao touched the lines on his fingertip. His fingerprint and iris had been changed into Professor Luo De's, but there was no way that he could pass blood and gene tests.
He could not hope that the enemy's security measures were not so rigorous.
Naturally, Li Yao was not concerned about his own safety. He was still hiding the Cosmos Rings that stored the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit and the Colossus inside his body through secret techniques, and he could summon them for a huge fight anytime. However, the last thing he wanted to happen right now was a huge fight. He was hoping to bind Firefly and the Ancient Sages Sector to the tank that was the Star Glory Federation so that everybody could deal with the Imperium side by side. He did not want the three parties to be mired in delirious mayhem before the army of the Imperium arrived!
Calm down. It might not be so serious. I'm only going to interpret the mysteries of the tracking magical equipment for Cui Lingfeng, the Speaker of the government-in-exile. It is also a chance for me to observe Cui Lingfeng. Maybe the trip is not going to be as bad as I imagined!
Two indifferent-looking female officers were standing next to the vacuum shuttle. Each of them was holding a fingerprint scanner. They asked Li Yao to put his ten fingers on the machine for scanning. One of them also searched Li Yao's body up and down with a glowing stick. Two Cosmos Rings were found by the officer, both of which had been taken off Professor Luo De's fingers by Li Yao earlier, thankfully!
"Professor Luo, please allow us to take care of your Cosmos Rings for now. They will be given back to you when you return."
The old officer opened the door and slightly bowed, extending his hand toward Li Yao.
Li Yao sniffed. With slight dissatisfaction, he bashed the two Cosmos Rings into the officer's palm before he bent his back and got onto the shuttle.
The four bear-like officers of the secret police crammed in from the two sides. Altogether, they weighed more than five hundred kilograms. The entire shuttle was filled up. Li Yao's slim, hunched body, being squeezed to the center by them, was like a toothpick in the middle of four eggs.
The shuttle had been specially modified. It was pitch black outside of the window. Even telepathic thoughts could not be sent out. The vehicle was running very steadily, too, making it impossible to tell whether it was rushing at a high speed or absolutely still the whole time.
Li Yao counted in his heart silently. One minute and twenty-nine seconds after he entered the sealed shuttle, the blockage between the passengers' side and the cockpit was suddenly lifted. A passenger seated in the front slowly turned around.
The man's face was particularly broad. It was also square and healthily red, making him look handsome and dominating. He was wearing a mustard-seed, dark-silver protective suit made of such rare materials that even Li Yao had never seen before. He was sitting there like a king.
It was exactly Cui Lingfeng, the Speaker of the government-in-exile of the Star Ocean Republic and the nominal supreme leader of Firefly, whose appearance Tang Xiaoxing had described for Li Yao before!
The most powerful man on Firefly was right next to him. Li Yao's heart was beating one percent faster than before. Fourteen plans in which he could control Speaker Cui in three seconds popped up in his head.
However, after considering carefully for a moment, he still decided to wait and watch. The situation was still unclear. There was no need to act recklessly.
"Speaker Cui."
Li Yao pretended to be slightly dazed and nodded unhumbly.
Professor Luo De was a master of refining who could be counted as an expert. He was an arrogant and taciturn guy, too. Therefore, there was no need for Li Yao to respond too earnestly when he saw the leader of the parliament.
As he expected, Speaker Cui did not care about Li Yao's indifferent attitude at all. His short, thick hands were playing with the 'stick' that Li Yao had carefully crafted. Then, he handed it back and smiled. "We're in the middle of an emergency. So, we'll just have the meeting in the shuttle. I'm told that you are a top specialist in terms of super-minute carving. You were the one who analyzed the tracking magical equipment. Is the item's precision and performance as high as you wrote in the analysis report?"
"Of course!" Li Yao snatched the 'stick' and caressed it in his hands affectionately. Infinite passionate beamed out of his eyes as he said, "It is much more than a piece of tracking magical equipment; it is a super tiny gadget with tracking, localization, and scanning functions. The materials it is made of, the almost five hundred kind of rune arrays it adopts, the seven-layered-tower architecture, and the distribution and organization of all the rune arrays… almost all the details are impeccable!"
Speaker Cui did not stop Li Yao from giving his speech. Therefore, Li Yao could only go on explaining it feverishly, his saliva darting out. He even dissected the few layers of the metal shell at the periphery in person and then assembled them again. Thankfully, it was a piece of magical equipment that he had crafted himself, and he had carefully studied Professor Luo De's style of refining just now, which allowed him to conduct the whole analysis through similar approaches.
Naturally, after that, the enemy would be even less suspicious about his identity. After all, such professional dissection and assembly of super-minute magical equipment could never have been completed so fluently and flawlessly if he was not a great expert in the field.
"So to speak, it is true that the super-tiny magical equipment is extremely sophisticated?"
Tapping the rail, Speaker Cui said thoughtfully, "Then, according to your judgement, Professor Luo De, who else is capable of producing such a piece of magical equipment other than yourself?"
"None, myself included," Li Yao explained. "It is not about the proficiency of techniques and technologies but about the difference of materials and style.
"If asked to produce a piece of tracking, localization, and scanning magical equipment of similar size and functionality, perhaps another few refiners and I would manage to accomplish the task in a couple of days. However, the materials we adopt, the rune arrays we carve, the distribution of the rune arrays, and so on would be highly different from what is on this particular piece of magical equipment.
"Many materials adopted by the magical equipment might not be found on Firefly and even in the Star Glory Federation. The designing principle and the spiritual energy circuits of many rune arrays are also the opposite of our style and even theory in the past.
"I dare say that the magical equipment was not crafted on Firefly by any Cultivator on board."
Professor Luo De frequently said 'I dare say', which Li Yao had copied.
Speaker Cui nodded and continued his questioning. "Then, who do you think is the most likely producer of the magical equipment? The Imperium, the federation, or the Covenant Alliance?"
"I don't know." Li Yao shook his head and pretended to reply du
tifully. "Based on the technological communication with the Star Glory Federation in the past couple of years, I'm sure that the magical equipment does not fit in the style of the Star Glory Federation. However, we've been away from the center of the cosmos for too long to know the latest achievements of refining in the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance. Without further study, it will be hard to tell which of them crafted the magical equipment."
"Understood." Speaker Cui crossed his hands. The sharpest brilliance suddenly beamed out of his eyes. He put on a warm smile and said, "Thank you for your interpretation, Professor Luo De. We're here."
The door of the vacuum shuttle opened without a sound. Outside of the shuttle turned out to be a fully-enclosed pathway made of soft metal. Passing through the pathway, Li Yao found himself in a secret chamber that was full of light beams and surveillance magical equipment. Many officers and specialists of the secret police were busy working. At the center of the room, the guy who was sitting majestically in deep thought was… Speaker Cui!
Li Yao was slightly dazed. Looking at 'Speaker Cui' next to him again, he discovered that the guy's facial muscles were twisting weirdly into a new appearance that was similar to Speaker Cui except that it was much younger and sharper!
Cracking noises were echoing inside the body of 'Speaker Cui'. His whole body instantly expanded, and explosive muscles protruded from the bottom of the protective suit one piece after another.
The 'Speaker Cui' bowed to Li Yao and smiled. "Do excuse me, Professor Luo De."
Rapidly blinking, Li Yao immediately understood what was going on. What had happened just now was another test. It did make sense. Although the guy was merely the head of a government-in-exile, he was managing a population of more than a hundred million after all and could definitely be considered a big shot by any standard. How could such a person get so close to him so easily?