by <unknown>
"He could've totally manipulated the control tower in the spaceport to process the coordinates of the star beacons sent from the Heaven's Origin Sector in order to navigate us to somewhere unknown!
"He could even have hacked the crystal processors of our starship in advance. This is not a main-force warship of a high level, just a carrier!
"Most importantly of all, he can also 'hack' our souls when our body and soul are unfolded in four-dimensional space during the teleportation, when we are most vulnerable and least defended!"
Invading the soul was never easy, especially when the targets were experts in the Nascent Soul Stage. The only way to drag them into the Spiriters' Realm was to make them lie in a virtual cabin and connect themselves to the grand-unified Spiritual Nexus willingly.
But now that Li Yao and the rest of them were all suspicious, to immerse them into the nerval interaction liquids was certainly as difficult as pressing down the heads of twelve tyrannosaurs and forcing them to drink water.
But things were different during teleportation!
It was the best time to invade the soul!
Li Yao knew that because he had already been attacked once by the 'Blood Stripe Virus', a weird life form of pure energy, when his soul was about to be ripped into shreds during the teleportation from the Flying Star Sector to the Heaven's Origin Sector.
It was the most perilous soul battle in Li Yao's life.
He had even been ready to die together with the Blood Stripe Virus.
Of course, he had prepared a series of traps on the starship in advance because he had noticed the existence of the Blood Stripe Virus long before the space jump.
Eventually, the Blood Stripe Virus had failed to entirely consume his soul but only partly corrupted it, which caused his schizophrenia. A 'mental devil' had been born inside his brain.
Professor Mo Xuan knew everything about it. Well, actually, it was Li Yao who had told him everything through the video in the jade chip.
Who knew whether or not he would do exactly the same thing?
But this time, there were no traps on the starship. The other ten experts except Li Yao and Long Yangjun were not prepared, either.
In fact, despite the high Cultivation of the experts from the Ancient Sages Sector, they were from an ancient world after all and had never experienced many space jumps. Therefore, they were all quite unused to teleportation.
Li Yao and Long Yangjun looked at each other, both greatly stunned.
"The space jump must be stopped!"
"Wake up everyone immediately!"
But there was no time!
After Li Yao inferred the whole event based on his puzzle, the last second had already passed.
Hum! Hum, hum, hum, hum, hum!
The degree of the starship's vibration grew lower and lower, but its frequency was higher and higher. Everything before Li Yao and Long Yangjun's eyes turned fuzzy!
The space jump had begun. The ivory brilliance that enshrouded the starship leaked into the starship one drop after another. The starship seemed to be melting into the light and would transcend to the universe beyond three-dimensional space!
In the meantime, both Li Yao and Long Yangjun trembled. They felt an immense mental force pouring down from the galaxy and rushing into their brains that were being shaken and torn crazily!
Thankfully, he had already raised his alert to the maximum during his communication with Long Yangjun earlier. So, he managed to keep his head clear.
Also, because his soul was much more solid than a normal person's, it was definitely not so easy to invade it when he was wary.
Boom!
Flames of spiritual energy burst out of Li Yao's body, shattering the protective gel and the cocoon cabins into pieces.
He rolled on the ground. Having no time to bother about his headache, he was about to blow up Long Yangjun's cabin.
But before he took action, Long Yangjun jumped out by herself.
Li Yao was slightly dazed. Then he put on an awful smile.
Yes. However magnificent and precise his professor's designs were, it was impossible for him to have foreseen that the so-called Team Red Lotus actually consisted of twelve terrifying experts who were at least in the high level of the Nascent Soul Stage. Also, there were even two 'monsters' that were himself and Long Yangjun among them!
There was no need to mention Li Yao. Long Yangjun, as a warrior of the Nuwa Clan from the age of the primeval war, must have received special training on her brain, so it was not so easy to invade her mind!
"Save them!"
Li Yao jumped to Yan Liren's cabin, which was the second closest to him.
Through the translucent cover on the cabin, Li Yao discovered, however, that Yan Liren was gritting his teeth in the buffer gel with a painful expression, his eyes closed, as if he were caught in a terrible nightmare!
Besides, Yan Liren, the protective cabin, and Li Yao himself were all turning transparent!
"Their soul has been mixed with the mental force of the intruder. We cannot wake them now!" Long Yangjun said in a hurry. "We are about to be unfolded into four-dimensional space. Even if you can wake them up by force, their soul will certainly be ripped into shreds by the storms in four-dimensional space, turning them into retards or putting them in a coma. The ghosts such as Meng Chixin, Wu Suiyun, or Wan Mingzhu will likely be wiped out instantly!"
Li Yao cursed loudly and made the decision soon. "We cannot be killed here. The souls of Yan Liren and the rest of them are powerful enough to keep them uncorrupted for a short while. Let's go back to the Tinder Base and find Professor Mo Xuan directly. Then, we'll figure out how to save them!"
Time was running out. Both of them felt that their bodies were slowly expanding, unfolding, and extending. The whole world turned weird, like butterflies of light that were dancing joyfully and about to split apart.
If they did not leave, they would never be able to leave. Once they completely fell into four-dimensional space, their body and their brain would be completely unfolded. Nobody knew if they could resist the weird mental assault or where they would be teleported to!
Li Yao and Long Yangjun took action at the same time. They turned into two streaks of brilliance and darted to the escape capsule at the rear of the starship.
They could not just blow a hole in the wall of the starship recklessly, which would cause the carrier as well as everybody on board to be ripped apart in four-dimensional space!
After they finally reached the escape area as fast as they could, the carrier and themselves were almost entirely transparent.
There seemed to be an enormous swirl behind them, which was trying to absorb their souls and every telepathic thought with the terrifying attraction force.
The two of them did not even have time to enter the escape capsules. They simply put on their crystal suits, opened the airtight gate, and rushed out, before they activated every power rune array on their crystal suits to the maximum!
Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi!
They were still at the interference area of the space distortion, like the periphery of a swirl. Both Li Yao and Long Yangjun felt that their bodies were growing and shrinking, expanding and compressing. The few seconds were as long as hundreds of years!
They could only grit their teeth and unleash their spiritual energy as much as they could to sprint toward space and get away from the carrier that was in the middle of a space jump, in case the space ripples generated by the teleportation affected them. That would probably cause the upper half of their bodies to be teleported to the unknown place far away together with the carrier while keeping their lower half still in the Hundred Flowers Space Zone!
After they did not know how long, the 'surging tides' behind the two of them finally died down.
They examined their bodies, not entirely recovered from their shock, and discovered that their limbs and internal organs were still there. No parts had been teleported together with the carrier. Then, they were somewhat relieved.
Li Yao and Long Yangjun both floated in space, like two dead fish that had been blown to the shore by tides.
The headache was still haunting them. They did not want to move at all.
Long Yangjun turned on the point-to-point communication channel that did not need to be connected to the Spiritual Nexus. Then, she said in a low and magnetic voice, "As I recall, someone said we would never lose if the twelve Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators slapped them in their face?"
Chapter 1722: My Most Familiar Pace Is Back! |
Drifting in the deep, dark universe quietly, Li Yao turned off most of the power rune arrays on the crystal suit and most of the life-sustaining system. He looked like a cold, hard meteoroid.
Looking at the hundreds of silver, ball-shaped space stations that constituted Hundred Flowers City not far away, and the colorful ripples on the sailing routes further away left after space jumps, he sensed that his cells, bones, muscles, and soul had condensed and stabilized. All the traces were gathered together and outlined the general picture of the whole scheme.
Li Yao licked the blood on his lips that leaked out when he was escaping from the space ripples by force. He then chuckled in a low voice.
"Monster Li, are you trying to disguise your embarrassment with laughter?" Long Yangjun asked.
"No. It's just that the weird feeling that had been burdening my heart has gone after figuring out what my professor is up to."
Staring at Hundred Flowers City not far away, Li Yao's eyes were glittering more and more brilliantly. He savored the heat and sweetness of his blood, and the mist that had haunted his mind was gradually replaced by burning fire. "I feel that… everything has come back to the pace that I'm most familiar with!"
Long Yangjun snorted. "Trading the life and death of ten experts at the peak of the Nascent Soul Stage and even in the Nascent Soul Stage for your familiar pace, you are quite an extravagant man, aren't you?"
"There's no need to worry about Yan Liren and the rest of them too much for now." Li Yao thought quickly and boosted his computational ability to the maximum. His brain cells were exploding like popcorn. "With the immensity of their soul and computational ability, even if they are mired in a certain Grand Illusionary Land set up by Professor Mo Xuan, they won't lose so quickly, will they? The worst outcome is that they will be teleported to somewhere unknown and cannot return for the time being.
"Besides, no matter how immaculate my professor's trap was, he certainly underestimated the capabilities of Team Red Lotus. If he wants to corrupt or kill Yan Liren and the rest of them, he will definitely have to pay a high price, which will very likely be his fatal wound and cause his ultimate failure in the game!
"For the professor, Team Red Lotus is just a minor interference and an unexpected factor beyond his calculations. The more critical question is—what is my professor trying to achieve? What is his real target?
"I figured out the answers when I was nearly ripped apart by the space turbulence!"
Long Yangjun found it odd. "Isn't his purpose to completely eliminate wars and save mankind, like I said just now?"
"What you mention was just a strategic goal, which is too far away to be of any significance for the situation right now," Li Yao replied quickly. "Both eliminating wars and 'virtualizing' mankind are too ideal and distant. How can they work out without hundreds of years of hard work? There's no need for us to be affected by unsubstantial, long-term goals. All we need to do is to figure out what my professor wants to do right now as his next step!
"Assuming that Professor Mo Xuan truly wants to achieve the magnificent goal of virtualizing mankind, then, here and now, in the Star Glory Federation, the first thing that he needs to do is control the entire grand-unified Spiritual Nexus and then control the federal government, right?"
Long Yangjun pondered for a moment and nodded. "Yes. No matter how spectacular his follow-up plans and blueprints are, he needs to control the federal government first in order to carry out what he believes in and realize his great ambitions. Then, with Professor Mo Xuan's identity and the resources at his disposal, controlling the grand-unified Spiritual Nexus first is the most feasible solution!
"The federation and the Imperium today are both highly dependent on crystal processors and the Spiritual Nexus. Whoever controls cyberspace controls everything!"
"That's right!" Li Yao licked his lips in excitement. "The Hundred Flowers Space Zone is the transportation hub of the seven Sectors of the federation. Hundred Flowers City is also the data exchange and control center of the grand-unified Spiritual Nexus. It is the center of the game Civilization, where billions of players are online at the same time!
"One of the three 'Gai'-level super crystal processors, the most powerful model in the federation, and more than half of the 'Jing'-level super crystal processors are all installed there. As long as someone controls the Hundred Flowers Space Zone, hacks the 'Jing'-level super crystal processor, and then controls half of the 'Jing'-level super crystal processors of the federation, will it be possible for him to control the entire grand-unified Spiritual Nexus?
"Ever since my professor was transformed into the star spirit, an amazing life form of half human and half liquid metal, he has been endowed with the abilities to hack crystal processors and absorb their computational ability freely. During the insurgency of the Immortal Cultivators in the Flying Star Sector, it was because he hacked the star brain and absorbed tremendous computational abilities from the star child that we managed to counterattack and secure the final victory!
"After a hundred years of training, his techniques for hacking crystal processors and absorbing computational ability must be even more powerful, inconspicuous, and swift!
"I've checked a lot of files on the crystal processors in the federation today. People say that there are 'three and a half' super crystal processors in the federation. By 'a half', they are referring to my professor!
"He can control all the super crystal processors in the Hundred Flowers Space Zone and absorb their computational ability for his own use. Then, with the enormous computational ability, he can barrage the second 'Gai'-level super crystal processor in the Heaven's Origin Sector. Then, the third one on Spider Den… After all the super crystal processors are remotely controlled by him, it seems that people can only accede to whatever demands he raises!
"After all, the professor was right about one thing. People of the modern age cannot live in a world without the Spiritual Nexus anymore!"
Long Yangjun blinked quickly. "Wait, wait, wait. Are the super crystal processors of the Star Glory Federation weak enough for him to hack any time he wants? Are the other specialists of crystal processors all dead or suddenly retarded? Have they not established tremendous barriers, firewalls, and virtual arrays on the super crystal processors that are of paramount importance? Impressive as your professor's computational ability may be, it can't be higher than all the super crystal processors in the federation combined, can it?"
"Yes. That's the biggest problem. Under normal circumstances, there is no way that my professor could hack so many super crystal processors by force. I'm afraid that he will be discovered the moment he attacks the one in the Hundred Flowers Space Zone. Then, the agents of the Secret Sword Bureau and the soldiers of the federal army will soon come for him!"
Li Yao narrowed his eyes. The silver space fortress that was reflected in his eyes looked like brilliant silver fire. "However, if a special case causes all the super crystal processors to overload, to the point that their computational ability is greatly wasted and the barriers and firewalls are battered to the verge of destruction…"
"Is there such a possibility?" Long Yangjun asked.
"Listen. It suddenly occurred to me…" Li Yao waved his hands and feet in the vacuum and spoke fast. "Years ago, when we dealt with the star child in the Flying Star Sector, my
professor was no match for him at first. Instead of corrupting the enemy, my professor was almost swallowed by him!
"However, because I had a fierce fight with the star child in the virtual space he created and drained his tremendous computational ability, my professor was able to seize the enemy's weakness and launched an attack. In the end, we attacked from the inside and outside together and wiped out the enemy!
"If my professor can create a certain situation right now where all the super crystal processors of the federation are overloading and suffering large-scale saturated attacks that shatter the firewalls…"
Long Yangjun frowned. "All the super crystal processors are loading and suffering a large-scale saturated attack? In what situation can that possibly happen?"
Then, Long Yangjun suddenly paused and shouted at the same time as Li Yao, "The invasion of the expedition army from the Imperium!"
"Yes," Li Yao said. "As long as the main forces of the Black Wind Fleet jumps on a certain core Sector of the federation, and a great battle of the main fleets of the two parties begins, all the super crystal processors in the federation will be summoned, including the one in the capital city for government affairs, the one here to navigate sailing routes and guide reinforcement, and the one on Spider Den that is scouting the enemy's whereabouts!"
"In a modern war, the competition of the Spiritual Nexus and information always comes first," Long Yangjun said. "The first task after the Black Wind Fleet arrives will certainly be to launch a destructive strike on the grand-unified Spiritual Nexus of the federation. The Imperium and the federation both have their advantages in the technology of the Spiritual Nexus. But I fear that the Imperium's technology must be more destructive. During the competition, not only will all the super crystal processors in the federation overload and nearly crash, their barriers and firewalls will also be riddled with holes if not rippled apart by the Imperium!"