by <unknown>
Li Wuji had been through countless space jumps. Also, he had invested a huge amount of money on the modification of his personal chamber. The wall, the floor, and the ceiling had all been embedded with buffer and stabilization rune arrays. There would not be much shaking even during a space jump, and his thinking and his rest would not be disrupted.
However, soon after he just entered his dream, perhaps only several seconds, a deafening explosion, as if the whole world had been turned upside down, shocked him out of his soft bed of gels.
"This is—"
Li Wuji's pupils constricted violently as he sensed fatal cracks on both the starship and himself. It seemed that an invisible, uncanny force was tearing apart the entire starship and all the crew members in the most brutal way, trying to rip them into four-dimensional fragments!
Chapter 2449: The Silence Assassin |
Li Wuji seemed to have been caught in a weird nightmare.
The wall around and the famous paintings hanging on it were suddenly stretched to somewhere far, far away, as if they were ten thousand meters from him, before they were suddenly bounced back to his face, almost whizzing into his eyes.
He extended his hands, only to discover that his hands were like blossoming flowers. Everything, from the fat and the veins to the nerves and the bones, was clearly visible, but he could not sense the slightest pain. The fundamental law of the three-dimensional world had been completely violated.
The deafening explosion just now was more than soundwaves too, and it was flowing, roaring, and corroding his soul that was exposed outside of his brain in glamorous colors!
It took Li Wuji a long time before he finally gathered a tiny bit of thinking ability and realized his status.
His flagship "Eternal Spring" and him were in a certain state of transition, or "superimposition", when it was breaking into the four-dimensional space for a space jump.
However, the space jump did not succeed, and his starship or even his fleet had been bounced back mercilessly.
It was almost like a high-speed train running into an iron wall.
No, it was even worse than that.
It was because they were not bounced back because of the problems of the space jump units or other faults, but because the wormholes that they ripped were blown apart by bombardments, and they were thrown back to where they came!
They were assaulted by the enemy in the middle of a space jump. It was the most dreadful nightmare that no starship commander wanted to experience!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The deafening explosions congregated into a flood raging inside every pathway on the starship, collapsing and swallowing everything on its way—the crystal suits, the space shuttles, the arsenals, and the panicked Immortal Cultivators.
As a powerful person of the four Kurfürst families, Li Wuji had a fleet that was equipped with the most advanced and high-quality starships. The defense of his flagship "Eternal Spring" was only slightly lower than that of the general starship of the family. It was an out-and-out "super warship".
Under normal circumstances, one Eternal Spring was enough to deal with a dozen hostile starships without losing when it was not with a fleet. It could even resist the fierce firepower of a space fortress the hard way and fire back at the enemy.
However, it was a whole different case when a starship entered the space jump state.
No matter how sturdy the alloy armor, how strong the spiritual shield, and how thick the interferential magnetic field was in the three-dimensional world, it was absolutely meaningless for a starship that had been unfolded in the four-dimension.
When unfolded in the four-dimension, all their internal parts would be exposed. How could the armor on their bodies help at all however solid it was?
When the enemy lurking in the dark suddenly dropped the disguise and launched the fiercest firepower at the fleet that was in the middle of a jump, it was not an ambush or a war but a sheer slaughter.
Eternal Spring and its owner, Li Wuji, were finally bounced back to the three-dimensional state.
But the damage caused by the intense explosions and the severe interferences were irreversible.
"Ahh…"
Li Wuji stared at his hands in a daze. During the process when he was bounced from the four-dimensional state to the three-dimensional state, space ripples had been flying freely inside the starship like blades without thickness and, other than reaping the lives of too many Immortal Cultivators outside, cut his three fingers and half of his ear. The blood was spurting crazily, staining the delicate woolen carpet on the floor into a mess. He was both disgusted and in pain.
His case was among the better ones.
His personal chamber had the best protection. So, the rampage of space ripples did not cause much damage.
He couldn't imagine what a terrifying picture it would be outside, particularly near the engine compartment and the space jump units.
How did it happen?
His face pale and covered in a cold sweat, Li Wuji was completely lost.
Even the dumbest starship commander knew that, while space jump was the most important technology for mankind to conquer the universe, it was also the most vulnerable, defenseless moment for every starship and every passenger onboard and the most likely moment for the enemy to attack.
Therefore, a space jump should only be performed in the most steady area after ensuring that no enemy was around.
If possible, it would be better to ensure that they would be met by their own people at the destination of the jump, and they had large space gates for navigation. Only by doing so could the space jump be riskless.
Even though the commander on Li Wuji's fleet was not the most famous general in the Imperium, he was still from a noble background and was a professional with decades of training and a hundred years of commanding experience.
The jump point he had chosen was the traditional, steadiest point in space near the Blue Sky Market. Every nine out of ten starships that passed the Blue Sky Market would choose to jump from here. Nothing had ever gone wrong.
All the warships in the Blue Sky Market that belonged to the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors had been destroyed or disarmed. It was absolutely impossible for them to take off and attack Li Wuji and his fleet.
Was it done by the space pirates?
Absolutely impossible. All the pirate warships were docked in the Blue Sky Market obediently under the watch of the other half of his fleet closely. Li Wuji did not receive any report of the anomaly at all!
A third force that was neither the space pirates nor the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors had suddenly jumped out to attack them?
That was too preposterous!
The universe was too vast, and the distance was too far. Technically speaking, nobody could "suddenly jump out" at all.
Li Wuji's starship could've detected the waves of the rushing starships within hundreds of thousands of kilometers. If a fleet had been coming at them aggressively from millions of kilometers away or even further, his commander, being neither blind nor deaf, couldn't have neglected it at all or decided to perform a space jump under such circumstances in order to kill themselves, could he?
After all the impossibilities were ruled out, there was only one explanation that was most ridiculous and horrifying was left.
Li Wuji suddenly felt that his mouth was dry, and his heart had sunken into a bottomless canyon.
The only possibility was that there was indeed a hostile fleet, one that did not come at them aggressively from millions of kilometers away but had been ambushing right next to them all the time.
To be more exact, they had been ambushing in the steady space that was most suitable for space jumps near the Blue Sky Market.
Turning off the power units, retreating the spiritual shields, maintaining radio silence, and even lowering the artificial gravity and air circulation inside the starships to the minimum, they tried not to spread out the slightest spiritual wave
.
If there was indeed such a silent fleet, which had stayed in the state of rocks and garbage for the past few days or even longer, it was indeed possible that they could've avoided the scanning of Li Wuji's fleet under the cover of the stone belts outside of the Blue Sky Market.
However… However… However—
"How can there possibly be such an insane tactic!"
Li Wuji let out a scream of incomprehension!
In order to carry out such a tactic, the enemy must've arrived here a few days in advance to set up the ambush, and to not release many spiritual waves, the living environment on the starships must've been extremely harsh. Chances were that the temperature was below zero, and the air was stinky. Everybody had to wear their crystal suits and live through the few days in sufferings with the self-circulating respirators as tough as iron.
The mysterious, silent fleet was like an assassin who hid inside a swamp, holding the breath, the pores, and even the heartbeat, just in order to wait for an opportunity to cut the enemy's throat.
Li Wuji discovered painfully that he seemed to have fallen into a fatal trap.
The mysterious enemy with such willpower and such a high control over the fleet was certainly not waiting for any random business group or pirate gang. The only prey that was worth their price was him, Li Wuji!
"My lord! My lord!"
His adjutant's desperate screams echoed from outside the door.
Before Li Wuji answered, his adjutant, covered in blood and snot, had already barged in.
Li Wuji looked around and picked the flowery scarf on the table. Grabbing the adjutant's collar with the scarf as a blockage, he shrieked, "Don't panic! What exactly has happened?"
"A-A mysterious fleet that came out of nowhere launched an assault at us while we were carrying out the space jump!"
The adjutant cried, "Doomed! Our fleet is doomed! Most of the starships have been deformed by the space ripples and lost the abilities to attack, defend, or move. The remaining starships have also lost their commandership and become loose sand!"
"Idiot!"
Had it not been the blood and snot on his adjutant's face, Li Wuji would've slapped him hard. "What do you mean by saying 'they have lost their commandership'? What are the captains doing? Hurry and raise the spiritual shields and gather the starships that are still mobile! Even a skinny camel is still larger than a horse. My fleet is among the best at the peripheral worlds of the Imperium. Even though we've been attacked halfway through the space jump, who can be certain to swallow all my starships?"
"It's… It's impossible to raise the spiritual shield or send any message to other starships!"
The adjutant replied, almost crying, "Our control system and even the entire battle network have been compromised and sabotaged by the enemy!"
"What?"
Feeling that his head was dizzy, Li Wuji shouted at the loudest of his voice, "How is it possible? Eternal Spring has state-of-the-art technologies in cyberwarfare. After we set sail and the dynamic defense system is activated, the password for every interface is changed more than a hundred times every second. Who could've hacked our battle network so quickly?"
"It was not hacked just now."
His adjutant wailed, "When docked in the Blue Sky Market for maintenance and fuel refill, Eternal Spring was once connected to the database of the Blue Sky Market to collect the business secrets of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors. Billions of entries of information were copied. Somebody must've snuck in at that time and left a 'backdoor' in our system.
"By the time we had a space jump and the mainframe crystal processor of the starship was most vulnerable, the enemy kicked on the 'backdoor' and broke in like ferocious wolves!"
Chapter 2450: Arrival of the Iron Fist! |
"You… You—"
Li Wuji felt that the world was swirling before his eyes in his fury. He finally slapped the adjutant in the face brutally despite the filth. "Idiot, somebody left a 'backdoor' on the mainframe crystal processor of the flagship and even the battle network of the entire fleet, and you had no response at all? Were you all dead?
"Also, even when we were anchored, it would still take a long time for the enemy to compromise our dozens of layers of defense, right? How could the enemy have achieved that?"
"You're quite right, my lord."
The adjutant said gloomily, "At that time, the Blue Sky Market was just conquered by us. Fires and explosions were still occasionally happening in the warehouses. As a result, the network system inside the market was unstable, and intense waves were happening every few minutes. Sometimes, the chaotic pulses from the explosions would affect our starships too. They are all the regular phenomena when a port is conquered. We never thought much of it back then. But now that we think of it again, that was probably when the enemy snuck in under the cover of the interferences and the pulses.
"As for the time, well, we did not plan to stay for long in the Blue Sky Market, which might've given the enemy an opportunity, but later, my lord—my lord was invited to the celebration dinner by the Bai guy. A lot of time was delayed. On your way back to the starship, my lord was stalled by the Bai guy again, who ranted on so many things, like asking to be your foster son, reminding you to be wary of 'Fist King' Lei Zonglie. A lot of time was wasted again. Perhaps it was during that time…"
Li Wuji's eyeballs protruded out of his eye sockets slowly, like the eggs being squeezed out of the birth canal, as he stared at his adjutant.
His adjutant had been too focused on talking eloquently to help his master analyze the current situation. It was not until this moment that he finally noticed his master's murderous eyes. Flabbergasted, he hurried to stop and looked at his master pitifully.
"Get lost!"
Li Wuji bellowed and shoved his adjutant before he ran out of his personal chamber to the bridge.
"Whatever it takes, gather the soldiers that are still able to move. Let's retreat to the Blue Sky Market with the unreachable starships as our cover!
"Drastic changes must've happened in the Blue Sky Market right now. We have to return immediately and suppress the Bai guy and then resist the newly-emerging mysterious enemy based on the defense system at the edge of the Blue Sky Market. This is the only way!
"If Boss Bai seizes the other half of our fleet in the Blue Sky Market and controls the whole defense system of the Blue Sky Market, we will be doomed for good!"
Li Wuji shrieked as he rushed away, not even noticing that one of his boots was missing.
Before him, the previously straight pathway had been twisted into a broken screw. Shockingly huge cracks were everywhere on the wall. Almost all the tubes and cables had been broken, either spurting out high-pressure air currents or unleashing spluttering sparks. Now and then, he saw the most terrible picture—a lot of Immortal Cultivators and the wall were melted into an inseparable whole, and metal particles had filled their internal organs. They had died the most miserable death.
They were all the consequences of the failed space jump.
When the crew members and the wall were dismembered, ready to pass the four-dimensional space, they suffered a heavy strike, which blew them together in the four-dimensional state like a tornado. After they were bounced back to the three-dimensional space again, they were already a tragedy.
It was also the first time that Li Wuji had ever seen such horror in person.
The scene was no worse than the cruelest torture for an unsullied noble like him.
He tried his best not to throw up on his way to the bridge.
It was a pity that the bridge of Eternal Spring was also mired in flames. Everything was a mess. The crystal processors and the seats of the crew were lying on the ground, and the small explosions never stopped.
The leadership, who should be controlling the starship and commanding the fleet, had mostly put on their crystal suits and were fighting the rogue fires and the balls of lightning with the foam extinguishers.
Li Wuji calmed h
imself down and meant to discuss it with the captain.
But to his surprise, the captain was standing before the mainframe crystal processor in a daze, staring at the main operation menu on the light beam in hopelessness and desperation.
Li Wuji looked at where the captain's shivering eyes were looking, only to discover that the main operation menu of his flagship was empty. All the data and information had been shattered into glittering stars, and the stars were gradually condensed into a gigantic swirl, revolving slowly.
Very soon, at the center of the swirl, which looked like a black hole, an… iron fist slowly rose!
The iron fist was filled with the virile and barbaric blast. Rivets, screws, and rust were all over its surface, and steams that looked like white dragons were jetting from the joints. The sound of it squeaking after being filled up by fury was almost audible.
Then, from the top of the picture, a crown made of gears fell down on the fist in a bam.
The iron fist wearing the crown of gears silently watched the Immortal Cultivators who were in a mess.
"Fist King!"
The adjutant lost his cool and shouted behind Li Wuji, "It's 'Fist King' Lei Zonglie!"
Li Wuji's heart that had been falling in the valley was finally grabbed by that iron fist.
…
Five minutes earlier, in the Blue Sky Market, neither the space pirates nor the half fleet that Li Wuji left behind for supervision foresaw the slaughter among the broken stars five minutes later.
Li Wuji's departure was actually quite a relief on the rude and disobedient space pirates, like the employees whose stern boss had just left. Everybody revealed their real appearance, screaming and shouting, pushing the joy of the party to the apex.
Even the seasoned marauders who had roamed the sea of stars for a hundred years had never looted such a famous, prosperous city at the edge of the Imperium like the Blue Sky Market before.
Whenever they came here for supplies and rest, they had to follow the management of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors and needed to behave themselves even if they were visiting the brothels!