by <unknown>
"The federation cannot afford waiting. We cannot bear the consequences of a war that can possibly last decades. Therefore, everything I have done is just a minor 'fix' for Jin Xinyue's plan.
"I detest wars. But no matter what, I must help the federation win this war first. Also, I will turn it into the last war of the Star Glory Federation, or at least, the last traditional war!
"From that day on, absolute peace will embrace everybody in the federation. Even if we may still declare war on the Imperium of True Human Beings and the Alliance of the Holy Covenant in the future in order to disseminate the ideology of 'absolute peace' to them, the wars will be completely different from what we have today. They will be easy, clean, painless, and like games!"
The voices echoing from the holes of the liquid metal puppets suddenly turned loud and high pitched, as if a metal hurricane was sweeping across the park!
"You—" Luo Qisheng lost his cool. "Is what they said true? You have been really working on certain surreptitious research in Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital. You—you are trying to lock everybody in the virtual world. You want to transform all human beings into Spiriters!"
"A real Cultivator is never scared to express his ideas," Professor Mo Xuan said casually. "I have repeated my ideas for decades. I have published more than a hundred papers and books and held countless seminars. Is that really a 'shocking secret'?"
"But—but we all thought that you were describing a distant future millions of years away!" Luo Qisheng roared. "We did not know that you were as insane as this. We did not expect that the honorable Professor Mo Xuan was actually doing so many clandestine things in secret!"
"There's no need for a Cultivator to hide his ideas. However, there are too many ways to carry out the ideas. Deception is certainly one of them," Professor Mo Xuan unhurriedly said. "Because I strode too fast and I was way ahead of my era, I was bound to be counterattacked by the era.
"In the hundred thousand years of history of development of mankind, how many people have been minced into pieces or burned at the stake because they were well ahead of their eras? Those who are one step ahead of their era are heroes. Two steps, geniuses. Three steps, lunatics. What about those who are a hundred steps ahead of their eras? Out-and-out fiends!
"I am a man who was given another life in the first place. What's terrible about death? I do not fear being mince apart or burned at the stake, much less being derided as lunatics and fiends.
"However, if I know my ideas are right, until I am destroyed at a guillotine or in the middle of fire as a 'lunatic' and a 'fiend', I will certainly carry on my ideas of 'absolute peace' to the end. Nobody can stop me!"
Silver ripples were spreading out on the hundreds of liquid metal puppets, like Professor Mo Xuan's belief that was burning furiously.
"Professor Mo Xuan!" Li Yao could not help speaking up. "When you showed me the Spiriters' Realm, didn't you mention yourself that evolution could not be accomplished overnight but would have to take millions of years to slowly develop? You said that, no matter how wonderful the highly-developed future appeared, it would still be a disaster to make a civilization cover the journey of evolution that should've taken millions of years in the blink of an eye, and therefore, we should never do such things, right?"
"Yes. That is exactly what I said." Professor Mo Xuan sighed softly. The holes on every liquid metal puppet's face was twisted, as if they were in agony. "After decades of research and exploration, I know all the logic. I know it much better than you do. So, there is no need for you to remind me of that.
"But… but… but…
"I am a human being after all, not a cold crystal processor. My compatriots are still living in pain because of the plague of wars. Their blood will be shed for nothing for millions of years. Countless people will be enslaved, oppressed, tortured, and slaughtered. Countless brilliant civilizations will end up as cosmic dust in the bleak universe. How can I just hide in my library and do my theoretical studies calmly and rationally while waiting for the arrival of the bright future in millions of years' time?
"Even if the odds of success are just one percent, I would like to give it a shot to make the bright future arrive right now. Even if I have to pay everything, even if I am denigrated and obliterated, I will still have fulfilled my responsibility as a Cultivator and a human being for our own civilization, won't I?"
Li Yao cursed loudly in his heart, not knowing what he should say.
"Enough of the cr*p. He must be buying himself more time!" Luo Qisheng roared. "Lock onto the enemy and prepare to shoot!"
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
All the crystal cannons and storm bolters were switched to the mode of maximal damage. Colorful, fatal light balls were expanding out of the barrels.
Professor Mo Xuan's hundreds of liquid metal clones stared at the crystal cannons and storm bolters that were aimed at them and said, "There's no need for me to buy myself more time because… the time has already come.
"Also, if you insist on shooting, you'd better make sure that you aim well. This place is the Grand-Unified Spiritual Nexus Information Interaction and Processing Center. I have already hacked all the super crystal processors in this place. They are all extremely precise and vulnerable devices.
"If you free fire in this place, and if the two Colossi go on a rampage sweeping aside everything in their way like they did outside, it will be quite easy for you to destroy the hub of the Spiritual Nexus.
"Once the Spiritual Nexus processing center of Hundred Flowers City at the center of the seven Sectors is seriously damaged, although the Grand-Unified Spiritual Nexus wouldn't be entirely paralyzed, the net speed on the Spiritual Nexus will be lowered by at least thirty percent. It will be much easier for the Spiritual Nexus to be affected and infiltrated, too, which may lead to dire consequences for information transmission and space jumps.
"You wouldn't wish to see that when the Black Wind Fleet is stabbing at the heart of the federation and the Heaven's Origin Sector is in great need of the reinforcement from the other six Sectors, or in particular, the Burning Prairie Fleet, would you?"
Chapter 1760: Silver Slaughterhouse! |
As it turned out, the Black Wind Fleet's target was not the Uranian Ring Sector or the Flying Star Sector, where the greatest starship factories were based, but the Heaven's Origin Sector, capital of the federal!
Also, judging from Professor Mo Xuan's meaning between the lines, the Black Wind Fleet had already performed a space jump and stabbed into the heart of the federation like a dagger!
The astounding news overwhelmed everyone.
The hundreds of liquid metal puppets squatted at this moment and jumped close from various directions.
They seemed to be made of the softest rubber, which allowed their limbs and torsos to be folded or extended at will. When they were jumping over, their limbs stretched to almost three meters long, and their torsos shrank into tiny balls, making them look more like some sort of weird four-legged spiders instead of humans.
In such a form, they improved their all-direction agility to the maximum. A soft jump was enough to make them leap dozens of meters!
"Fire!" Luo Qisheng commanded. Thousands of fiery snakes surged out of the members of the daring team. Metal bullets, super high-frequency vibration waves, high-radiation mystic rays… The colorful attacks congregated into destructive torrents and smashed at the enemy.
Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi!
The liquid metal puppets were immediately blown into hives that were riddled with holes before they were cut in half from the waist and torn into smaller metal clusters. In the end, they were even unable to maintain their basic form anymore and just degraded into silver mud. Collapsing on the ground, they shrieked in ear-splitting sounds, trembling, writhing, and struggling.
The liquid metal puppets, not even having a spiritual shield, seemed vulnerable and worthless.
However, after wriggling for a moment, they were condensed into silver 'rubber balls' ag
ain. The same piton-shaped limbs that looked like arms and legs grew out, and they stood on their feet once more. Their torsos were slowly focused into a bigger oval supporting a smaller oval. Ripples were spreading out on the surface of the smaller oval, producing what appeared to be a smile.
"Faced with absolute peace, even the fiercest weapon is useless," the liquid metal puppets said with a smile.
The smile chilled everyone who saw it.
Their eyes surpassing the liquid metal puppets, they noticed that more and more puppets were surfacing from the silver ground, the wall, and the ceiling deep inside the space station, which were staring at them without moving like a bunch of monuments.
There were thousands of new puppets and counting.
"How is it possible?" Long Yangjun moaned in disbelief through the Colossi's special communication channel. "How are so many weird liquid metal puppets controlled exactly? I didn't see anything like a 'control chip' inside them even when they were shredded into pieces just now!"
"They must be remotely controlled by the magnetic field!" Scanning the environment, Li Yao gnashed his teeth. "We're one step late. The space station has been completely consumed by Professor Mo Xuan. He's covered the entire area in a certain special magnetic field. Those liquid metal puppets are not single individuals but parts of an enormous magnetic field that is under the control of a mainframe crystal processor.
"Liquid metal actually has a very simple structure, and the attrition when its form is altered is little to none. In other words, it is not afraid of regular violence at all! Even if we cannot locate the mainframe crystal processor and destroy the entire magnetic field, the liquid metal puppets will only be 'retooled' time and time again however many we tear apart!"
Thinking quickly, Long Yangjun hurriedly replied, "If so, it's rather terrible now. If such a mainframe crystal processor does exist, it must be the 'Gai'-level super crystal processor at the core of the Grand-Unified Spiritual Nexus Information Processing Center! Or in other words, Professor Mo Xuan has hacked one of the only three 'Gai'-level super crystal processors of the federation, and when the two of them are combined, the most terrifying mainframe crystal processor is produced!
"Even if we can locate the mainframe crystal processor, there's no way we can destroy it. Professor Mo Xuan was quite right. If the Black Wind Fleet has indeed arrived at the Heaven's Origin Sector, this is exactly the time when the other six Sectors must reinforce the Heaven's Origin Sector in full scale. Endless information, data, assets, troops, and warships need to be managed. If the transmission efficiency on the Spiritual Nexus is lowered by thirty percent, however briefly, the federation will certainly lose this war!
"In other words, at this critical moment, Professor Mo Xuan has already taken the Grand-Unified Spiritual Nexus as his hostage. Our hands are tied!"
Long Yangjun was not wrong at all.
Professor Mo Xuan indeed controlled, or rather, created perfect timing. He was indeed a terrifying being whose computational ability equaled that of a super crystal processor!
"There must be openings." Cold sweating popping out, Li Yao could only comfort himself in such a way. "Because even if Professor Mo Xuan took everything into account, he couldn't have foreseen the arrival of the twelve experts from the Ancient Sages Sector. Us breaking into this space station cannot be of little interference to his plan. Does building so many liquid metal puppets and commanding them to battle not cost his spiritual energy and computational ability?
"Besides, as for Yan Liren, Qi Zhongdao, and the rest of them, even if they are trapped by Professor Mo Xuan with mysterious arts, those Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators are certainly not meat on a chopping block!
"Professor Mo Xuan's plan was a risky one in the first place. He couldn't have prepared such redundancies to cope with unexpected factors. We must not be deceived by his gesture of confidence. Firm your belief. The extraterrestrial devils are best at mental attacks, and metal attacks have the best effect when the target has doubts!"
Hardly had Li Yao concluded his sentence when a large batch of metal liquid puppets jumped over for a second time.
This time, they were even faster and larger in number. They had also remembered the shooting trajectories of the daring team, which made it easier for them to dodge. Although they were all shot down merciless once again, they were now only a hundred meters away from the daring team.
Soon, the silver 'mud' was wriggling again. They were condensed, charging, and shot down again. Hisses and moans of the metal puppets were echoing nonstop.
They seemed to boast infinite vitality, but the pills and spiritual energy of the daring team were quite finite. Although they carried special incendiary bullets that could generate a temperature of more than a thousand degrees to completely change the nature of the liquid metal materials, they did not have the courage to use them because they were concerned about the special environment in the Grand-Unified Spiritual Nexus Information Processing Center.
Besides, the entire space station seemed to have been consumed by liquid metal. Hundreds of special incendiary bullets would be of little help!
Finally—
"My ammo is out!"
"Attack rune arrays are overloaded. Damn it. It needs a half-minute cooldown!"
"Freezing bullets! Who has freezing bullets?"
The firing points became intermittent one after another. Some of the firing points even entirely died down. Except for the few liquid metal puppets that were temporarily frozen, all the remaining liquid metal puppets were unaffected and simply lunging at them with smiles.
Even those liquid metal puppets that were frozen by the bullets actually only lost the thin metal shell at the outmost layer, because the liquid metal inside had already flowed out from their 'feet' before the coldness invaded their bodies.
Such an escape tactic reduced the effect of the freezing bullets to the minimum.
The first liquid metal puppet turned into a streak of silver that darted into the members of the daring team, launching a fierce melee attack!
They might be targets that were hit passively during the remote confrontation just now, but they were certainly dominators in the close-distance battle.
Neither the chainswords nor the vibration sabers could cause fatal damage to them. When their bodies were broken apart, the wounds would heal immediately. When their limbs were chopped off, the limbs could turn into sharp 'vipers' and launch attacks on their own. It was even less of a deal if their heads were blown up because they could condense dozens of heads that were only decorative!
Only the orange edge of the high-heat axes could deal actual damage to them by disintegrating the internal structure of the liquid metal.
However, what the edge of the axes could destroy was only the tiny bit of liquid metal that came into contact with the edge. Professor Mo Xuan had long calculated and optimized the weakness of the puppets. When they sensed that the temperature was too high, the rest of the liquid metal would automatically disperse and flee from the high temperature before it was focused again.
With the incessant liquid metal materials as supplies, even the most seriously wounds were healable for them.
But things were different for the members of the daring team.
"Ahhh!"
It appeared that the liquid metal puppets could not form weapons that had complicated internal structures because of their limited computational ability. They were merely attacking their enemy with their sharp limbs as cold weapons.
During the close-distance battle, they would take the attacks of the members of the daring team casually first before they absorbed the enemy's weapons into their bodies and held the weapons with the magnetic field. Then, they would stab at the shoulder or the soft abdomen of the members of the daring team with their limbs. Once they pierced into the bodies of the members through the gaps of the crystal suits, they would turn into tiny metal threads and spread out. Even the toughest men were crying in pain
!
However, it seemed that their aim was not to kill. The cutting points that they chose were generally not fatal parts. After they connected themselves to the members of the daring team with liquid metal threads, they would wriggle again and extend countless tentacles like enormous jellyfish or octopi, enshrouding both the members of the daring team and their crystal suits!
Hiss! Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!
Chiliu! Chiliu! Chiliu! Chiliu!
The members of the daring team who were tied by them were struggling hard at first, but the liquid metal simply covered them time and time again tirelessly and finally consumed all of them, transforming them into weird silver statues that stood on the battlefield without moving!
The weird scene made all the remaining members of the daring team feel cold and creepy.
They did not know whether or not they should cut the 'silver shell' with their chainswords to free their comrades, fearing that they might accidentally kill their comrades if their operation was careless.
"*sshole. What kind of monster are you?"
Luo Qisheng was waving a high-heat axe in both hands, and a silver river was flowing next to him. But more and more liquid metal puppets surrounded him. They even turned into sharp thorns below his feet and pierced into his ankles. He could not help but bellow in pain!
"Rest assured. Their lives are not in danger." Professor Mo Xuan's voice echoed again from all directions. "Even if there is only a one percent likelihood, I cannot bear to kill any human compatriots. I am simply inviting everyone to be a guest in our new world. That's all!"
The liquid metal puppets soared up and opened their bodies in midair, turning into enormous 'jellyfish' that flew toward the old colonel of the federal army until he was entirely consumed!
Chapter 1761: Lost in the Spiriters' Realm! |
"Colonel Luo!"