by <unknown>
"Even if we do find a way to shut them off, it won't be a difficult task to blow up the gates by force. After all, we never considered the possibility of a 'street fight' within 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky' when the space fortress was designed at the beginning!
"Besides, we are now seriously short of hands, and we have to attack very cautiously. It is impossible for us to defend every pathway leading to the central area!
"Given five times—no, only three times more soldiers, I'll be confident to annihilate all the prisoners. But the losses caused to 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky' will be beyond our concerns."
Wuying Lan's lips trembled for a long time before the desperation in his eyes turned into infinite wrath.
"Somebody must be behind all this."
Wuying Lan gnashed his teeth. "The prisoners couldn't have run loose for no good reason. Our network couldn't have been hacked so easily either!"
"Then—"
Thinking for a moment, the captain of the guards said, "Should we cut off the stream?"
The coldness beaming out of Wuying Lan's eyes made the captain of guards tremble harder than ever before in his entire life. He berated, "Have you lost your mind? Do you have any idea what 'Dying Light' means for the Heavenly Eye Group as an epic quest? Everything! It means everything! Nothing can possibly stop the stream from going on!
"Now, I want you to block the goddamn prisoners with your guards in person, stop their passionate momentum, and find out whoever is behind them by the way. Then, I will take action in person. Whoever they are, I will dig out their hearts and livers and devour them right in front of their faces!"
"Yes, sir!"
The captain of the guards stood at attention and ran off in a hurry under Wuying Lan's pressure.
Wuying Lan continued staring at the picture on the light beam that was half ocean and half fire, with the muscles and the veins on his face cramping at the same time. Eventually, he signed and reached out to "Tornado", Li Lingfeng's flagship.
Li Lingfeng was making progress very smoothly.
From the enormous light beam of the mainframe crystal processor of Tornado behind him, it could be clearly seen that a large starship of the coalition fleet of Starlight was exploding slowly and consumed by countless fireballs that looked like tumors. Li Lingfeng's face was full of confidence under the illumination of the colorful flames. He appeared as certain of his victory as Wuying Lan was ten minutes ago.
But only three minutes later, his face was completely frozen first like Wuying Lan right now, before thousands of cracks showed up, and it completely collapsed.
Li Lingfeng craned his face to the crystal camera, filling the entire light beam so that Wuying Lan could see with his enormous face. "What did you mean? Mysterious intruders have set free all the prisoners of the beehive prison, who are now posing a threat to the central area of 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky'? What kind of 'mysterious intruders' could've possibly achieved something so incredible?"
"I'm on it."
Slightly frowning, Wuying Lan replied briefly, "But I need time and reinforcements. It is impossible for us to hold for long with the available forces of 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky' right now."
Li Lingfeng glared at Wuying Lan in fury.
Wuying Lan glared back at Li Lingfeng too, without saying anything.
Li Lingfeng and he were partners and not in a pure chain of command. Although the man had always been the greatest patron at his back, he had also provided incessant support for Li Lingfeng in the past decades and learned a lot of his secrets.
They had been on the same boat for a long time. Now that the boat was on fire, it was not a good time to decide who was more guilty of the accident.
As he expected, Li Lingfeng took a deep breath and calmed himself down. "How is the sabotage going right now?"
…
Like a furiously burning devil from hell, Li Yao roamed at the pathways of the central area of "Manjusaka, the City in the Sky".
After opening a dozen gates leading to the central area through the most violent approaches, he asked the prisoners to freely attack and left the main troop for now.
There was only one reason for that.
His attacks were too brutal, too violent, and too wide. It was unsuitable for him to fight together with the common prisoners.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The cabins behind Li Yao were exploding all the time, bursting out overwhelming blasts and flames of spiritual energy.
Countless Immortal Cultivators were screaming in the flames as they were burned into ashes, but Li Yao did not even bother to look back for even once.
In his eyes, "Manjusaka, the City in the Sky" seemed to have become an undefended, transparent city. He could clearly sense the flow inside every tube that transmitted spiritual energy and the mobilization of the panicked and helpless guards, which made it easier for him to select his targets and march at them without meaningless slaughters.
His targets were the many warehouses of crystals and assets in the enormous space fortress.
After every warehouse of crystals he found, he would absorb abundant crystals into his Cosmos Rings as fast as possible. Under the support of the entire federation, Li Yao had carried almost thirty Cosmos Rings of huge storages with him. It was a dazzling extravagance even for the standard of the Imperium of True Human Beings.
Li Yao was not a tight-fisted man. Therefore, after absorbing enough crystals into his Cosmos Rings, he would assemble the crystals and the components into crystal bombs while he pushed forward.
Such crystal bombs that were jumbled with bare hands but not through furnaces certainly wouldn't be too powerful. But thankfully, the narrow and sealed space of "Manjusaka, the City in the Sky" was the best place for the crystal bombs to demonstrate their power.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Li Yao blew his way forward. In many cases, he was too lazy to go through the pathways that were as zigzagging as mazes, so he simply stuck the crystal bombs to the wall of the pathway before he activated the Cell Obliteration Cannon, blowing up both the wall and the Immortal Cultivators hiding behind it. He simply pushed forward in a straight line just like that!
Finally—
Sensing the super enormous space ahead of him that was releasing light and heat like a shining sun, Li Yao put on a mysterious smile.
The place was exactly his destination.
It was the energy core of "Manjusaka, the City in the Sky"!
…
"It's very serious."
Wuying Lan struggled to say, "The enemy is about to invade our energy core."
"What?!"
Li Lingfeng was so greatly surprised that he was unable to say anything for a long time. He almost had the urge to turn his eyes into iron hands and throttle Wuying Lan. "You know what today means for us. Such a thing is never to happen!"
"Nobody could've foreseen such an accident!"
His eyes bloodshot, Wuying Lan shouted angrily, "I'm now even beginning to suspect if our queen has vaguely learned some secrets and is insane enough to meddle in this directly!"
The word "queen" made Li Lingfeng's pupils constrict violently. After a moment, he said solemnly, "I'll return to reinforce you immediately. Until then, you must defend the energy core whatever it takes, and the stream must not be cut off in any case."
"I understand."
Wuying Lan said coldly, "'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky' is my lifelong work. I will not allow anyone to sabotage it. However, we have to prepare for the worst. We have to make preparations for a forced landing. It can't be helped. Should the 'energy core' really be damaged, the space fortress will be grabbed by gravity and fall down immediately!"
Before Li Lingfeng replied, he cut off the communication quickly.
Expressionlessly, Li Lingfeng stared at the dark light beam for a long time, gritting his teeth at such a large noise that everybody on the bridge could hear it.
He rose abruptly and left the br
idge.
A moment later, the most dazzling bluish brilliance burst out all of a sudden in the middle of the simmering battlefield. From the blue fire arose an iron giant almost forty meters tall. It seemed to have been condensed by raging wind, and the streamlined body was filled with the feelings of speed and dexterity. What was most eye-catching of all was the eight pairs of stabilizer fins that were distributed helically on its back like eighteen enormous wings!
BOOM!
The exhaust flames spurting out from the center of the eight pairs of stabilizer fins extended to dozens of kilometers away and were even more astonishing than the exhaust flames of the warships that were running at the highest speed. It immediately caught all the attention in the battlefield and became the unquestionable hero of the show.
It was the Tempest God, Li Lingfeng's Colossus!
Chapter 2104: Wuying Lan's Metamorphosis! |
Wuying Lan rushed into the central area of "Manjusaka, the City in the Sky" like an enraged crystal train.
Many people had learned that the beehive prison had gone out of control and a large batch of prisoners and mutated beasts had escaped. The central area was now in turmoil. The Immortal Cultivators had lost their condescending demeanor when they had everything under their control. They were now more like the ants on a hot pan.
It couldn't be helped. Those people were the honorable guests that Wuying Lan had invited over. They were the leadership of the major families and even the military of the Imperium. It was impossible for him to block the news from them.
Besides, with their keen senses, they could more or less hear the explosions and the screams from far away.
Some of the prisoners and mutated beasts had even just fled to the area and were engaged in fierce battles with the Immortal Cultivators.
Both the guards of "Manjusaka, the City in the Sky" and the honorable guests from afar were obliged to join the battle and defeat the prisoners.
Wuying Lan closed his eyes in pain while forcing himself to not think about his dim future as he marched to the energy core at the highest of his speed.
If "Manjusaka, the City in the Sky" was a bloody flower blossoming on the Other Shore, the energy core was exactly located on the "pistil".
The defense system of the space fortress, the spiritual shield, the heavy turrets all over the body and the anti-gravity system were all founded on the basis of the energy core.
If the energy core was damaged, the entire space fortress would be turned into a cold city of death. It could even barely withhold its own weight, and it would only fall to the surface of the planet after dismembering into giant remnants.
He would never allow such a thing to happen!
Wuying Lan encountered an overwhelming tide of prisoners on his way.
When thousands of prisoners lunged at him through the narrow pathway, roaring and shouting, they did seem rather unstoppable, and it was like the end of the world.
As it happened, they boasted not only the tusks, the sharp claws, and the tough fists, but also the most advanced magical equipment that they looted from the arsenals and the dead Immortal Cultivators. Having marched all the way here, the prisoners now had almost as good weapons as the Heavenly Eye Legion did.
Wuying Lan went through quite some trouble to get himself away from the furiously burning tide of people.
But his personal guards who were acting with them were almost entirely trapped and swallowed by the prisoners.
The prisoners almost filled up every pathway in every direction. Now that their lust for killing had gotten the better of them, they couldn't care less whether they were faced with a noble, an important official, an expert in the Core Formation Stage, or even one in the Nascent Soul Stage.
Even if they must die, they would still spray their blood on the faces of the Immortal Cultivators. If they could bite a part of the Immortal Cultivators, they would never let it go until they were completely burned into ashes.
Wuying Lan had never seen such a dreadful army before. It also never occurred to him that such an army of exasperation would be built by him in person.
After ripping apart almost a hundred prisoners in a row, his breath turned more and more hastily.
After he finally reached the energy core in a path of blood, the entire cabin of the energy core was already enshrouded in furious flames and dark smoke that was as thick as thin.
The ever-rising explosions suggested that the heart of the entire "Manjusaka, the City in the Sky" was suffering the most violent attacks.
Under his feet, corpses of the Immortal Cultivators were lying in a mess everywhere. The bodies were so deformed that they could barely be recognized. The faces that had been extremely twisted were written with fear although they could not be identified anymore.
The eyes whose pupils had relaxed and had only whites left deeply intimidated Wuying Lan.
He had always been aware of the importance of the cabin of the energy core.
Stationed here were all the elites of the elites of the Heavenly Eye Legion.
However, it was not hard to tell from the miserable deaths of the "elites" how fragile and defenseless they had been under the enemy's attack.
Who is it exactly…
Wuying Lan's pupils constricted violently. An intense explosion took place behind him, completely blowing up the channel through which he entered the energy core cabin. His retreat was blocked, and it would take a significantly longer time for the reinforcements to enter.
In the black fog up ahead, dozens of crimson countdowns vaguely showed up. Some of the countdowns had only several seconds left, and some still had a couple of minutes.
BOOM!
After every countdown reached zero, a certain critical unit near the energy core would have an earsplitting explosion. Colorful flames of light spurted out and turned into gorgeous springs in the black fog.
Time bombs?
Wuying Lan found it hard to imagine what kind of insane enemy would be playing such a dangerous game with him at such a place.
The blasts raised by the explosions slightly blew apart the smoke, allowing Wuying Lan to notice a gargantuan crystal bomb more than three meters in diameter, or so he believed, that was closely attached to the shell of the enormous crystal reactor at the center of the energy core cabin right before his eyes.
There was also a terrifying countdown on the device, implying that only five minutes was left!
Ass*ole!
Wuying Lan could not imagine what would happen if the seemingly complicated and precise device was truly a crystal bomb that would explode five minutes later.
The shell of the super enormous crystal reactor was certainly indestructible.
But so was the shell of the energy relay station in the beehive prison, which the mysterious enemy had somehow successfully destroyed.
With cold sweat leaking out of his forehead, Wuying Lan searched the black fog around him gloomily.
"Desperate?"
A hollow, unpredictable voice suddenly came over from the black smoke. "Such desperation is what all the people on the Land of Sins have been tasting every day. Now, you should savor it well while you still can!"
"Who are you exactly?"
The cold sweat on Wuying Lan's forehead was frozen into ice. In a hoarse voice, he asked, "Who sent you here? Do you have any idea who you are going against?"
A light chuckle came over from the black fog.
"Of course I do. I am going against the entire Imperium of True Human Beings. But so what?"
The voice in the black fog said casually, "I am just a random Cultivator. Isn't it only natural that I go against the Imperium of True Human Beings?"
"A Cultivator?"
Never had Wuying Lan expected such an answer.
Wuying Lan wouldn't have been as surprised if the enemy was sent by the queen, by the other three Kurfürst families, by the competitors who did not wish the Heavenly Eye Group to skyrocket and swallow their interests, or even the Covenant Alliance.
"A Cultivator!"
Wuying Lan bellowed in fury, "Nonsense. How is it possible? The Cultivators are already obsolete things that are not worth mentioning at all. How could they have raised such an expert as you?"
"Exactly."
The voice in the black fog said, "It is a long, long story. If you are interested, why don't we sit down and have a nice talk? But I need to remind you that you do not have much time left."
BOOM!
The countdown of another crystal bomb reached zero, and it exploded brutally right before Wuying Lan's eyes. His heart was chilled immediately.
"Do… Do you know the ramifications if you destroy the energy core?"
Wuying Lan bellowed, "The entire 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky' will lose the energy support. It will crash to the Land of Sins all the way from beyond the atmosphere like a broken shooting star. Everybody will be killed by then!"
"It is exactly my purpose!"
The voice in the black fog was utterly unaffected. "I never planned to escape alive under the heavy siege of the fleets of the Imperium. I am exactly here to die together with 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky'. Look at the countdown. You have already wasted one minute and thirty-two seconds, and you have three minutes and twenty-eight seconds left—Twenty-seven, twenty-six!"
"Gotcha!"
Wuying Lan grinned hideously and charged into the black fog in a streak of brilliance like a hurricane.
After every step he made, his body went through drastic changes. Sharp bone spurts protruded out of his face that was as handsome as a marble statue. His muscles were more like "bouncing" than expanding. His skin, which was as warm as jade, turned into a gray shell. Even his starry eyes turned into two clusters of green, demonic flames!
His overwhelming auras were more violent than ever too, which almost focused into a second raging image around his body that was as gigantic as a mountain. Within a breath, the halo already enshrouded more than half of the energy core cabin, pushing out Li Yao who was hiding in the black fog.
BAM!