by <unknown>
It seemed that they were Wuying Qi's most trusted bodyguards.
When he observed them more carefully, he discovered that everybody was both zealous and tranced. They watched Wuying Qi with such fascination as if he were a magnificent statue that rose to the sky.
Below their feet were complicated rune arrays that bit them hard like lotus flowers with tusks. The strokes of the rune arrays were spreading out and entangling other people's rune arrays. In the end, all the rune arrays were gathered at the very center of the black space.
At the center, a throne made of black crystals was standing like an exuberant tree. The black crystals were piled high and reached all the way to the dome, spreading out an abundance of what appeared to be roots or tentacles.
Li Yao remembered the angle and distance when he walked in. He was certain that the gigantic black space was right below the control room earlier.
In other words, the facility above the throne of black crystals was likely to be the mainframe crystal processor that led to the Gold Crystal Pyramid.
While he was pondering, Wuying Qi had already directed Li Yao and Long Yangjun to the rune arrays closest to the throne, asking them to sit cross-legged like other people and enter the meditative state.
Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua!
The bald experts glanced between Li Yao and Long Yangjun both warily and enviously, as if they were jealous that they were given such an excellent spot that was so close to His Majesty.
Wuying Qi, on the other hand, chuckled. He took out a piece of magical equipment that looked like a black cocoon from his Cosmos Ring and put the unconscious Li Jialing inside. Then, he closed it and placed it next to the throne of black crystals.
Thousands of tentacles immediately slithered and tied up the black cocoon. Then, through the holes on the black cocoon that represented the acupoints of humans, they crawled in.
It appeared to be a piece of ancillary magical equipment that he crafted for the body replacement.
Li Yao was rather anxious as he watched, but there was little he could do.
Wuying Qi turned around and looked at Li Yao and Long Yangjun thoughtfully before he strode to the throne.
The seat of the throne looked like a hole in the gigantic tree. As Wuying Qi was ensconced on it, the black crystals around surged at him as if they were alive, until he was entirely immersed in them.
Inside the throne, there were countless tubes as if it were a real tree. Wuying Qi's black hair proliferated and reached the dome along the tubes before he controlled the "roots" and "tentacles" on the dome to wriggle at every expert in weird noises.
"The sacred moment is about to come. The Imperium will be reborn under our will. What are you waiting for, my dear subjects?"
Wuying Qi, who had been embedded inside the black crystals, did not say anything, but his voice came from Li Yao's back—no, from inside Li Yao's head.
A tentacle made of black crystals dangled behind Li Yao slowly, and its front end split like a flower, presenting a few things that looked like pistils—those were exactly Wuying Qi's hair.
The same tentacles dangled behind every bald expert. Everybody connected themselves to the tentacles in wild joy as if it were the most exhilarating thing.
Li Yao thought of something and finally realized what was going on.
This place must be Wuying Qi's massive "brainwashing room", and the start of the whole "Next Sun Plan".
Wuying Qi's most intense brainwaves would fill the black space and reverberate with the brains of the many experts here before they were shot out by the Gold Crystal Pyramid and enhanced by the sun.
In such a way, he could use the soul power of so many experts to enhance his brainwaves. It was the same as the Meditation Healers who had been drained into living corpses.
Of course, the experts here were mostly very useful for Wuying Qi's reign later, so they wouldn't be as miserably exploited as the Meditation Healers were.
On the other hand, in doing so, he could perform the brainwashing of a deeper level on those experts. They were the most intimate and trustworthy partners for Wuying Qi and would be entrusted with great responsibilities later. It went without saying that the more brainwashing he could do, the better.
As for Li Yao and Long Yangjun, Wuying Qi did not care whether or not they lied or kept any secret at the beginning, because he was absolutely confident about his brainwashing technology. He believed that, when the two of them were in the massive brainwashing, their other thoughts deep inside their hearts would be entirely washed off.
Wuying Qi's conclusion was not exactly wrong.
With everything coming to this point, even Li Yao had no idea whether or not his "absolute mental defense" could've resisted such dangerous brainwashing. He also did not know if the mental devil, which was still lurking inside the mainframe crystal processor of the Gold Crystal Pyramid, had found a solution. He couldn't tell if the people that he looked forward to could arrive in time!
However, it was impossible not to step on the rune arrays.
Not only was Wuying Qi observing them dangerously, but hundreds of experts were also staring at them!
Li Yao glanced at Long Yangjun with the corner of his eye and stepped on the rune array without any expression, sitting cross-legged.
The tentacle of black crystals on his back bit his neck softly and pierced a few hairs or maybe nerves into his spine.
Long Yangjun did the same and simply allowed a tentacle to tie up her neck like a viper.
"Great! Great! Great!"
Wuying Qi's voice that contained a mixture of insanity and euphoria came from all directions, high and low. "You are the pillars of the Imperium tomorrow! You are the ancestors of the new generation of mankind! You are the hope for our civilization to break out of this narrow universe! Come on! Summon your courage, boost your souls, and transform your willpower into the purest spiritual force! Roar at the sun as a new human being, and let the unstoppable storm rage in the whole universe!"
BOOM!
Every word he said bombarded the heart and brain of every expert like the most deafening thunder.
Including Li Yao, everybody felt that the real world around them was shattered and that they fell from a cliff into an endless black hole, reaching a brand-new space.
This space was entirely empty save the gargantuan black sun that seemed to be swallowing the whole universe. It filled their horizons, their minds, and their souls.
When the black sun slowly turned around, they saw Wuying Qi's face.
Wuying Qi was light and heat, Wuying Qi was the sun, Wuying Qi was their only master, and Wuying Qi was the supreme commander of mankind—no, he was the one true god that was a hundred times wiser and loftier than a commander!
Wuying Qi was the sun, and they were mere dust in a dim, dying, noiseless universe.
Only when they were illuminated by the sun would the cosmic dust like them release the brief splendor for a while. Without Wuying Qi, they would be absolutely nothing.
The magnificence and the insignificance were a major contrast. They stood no chance to, nor should they, resist Wuying Qi. They were destined to be attracted by Wuying Qi's force field and become part of him—like the glittering radiance on the sun.
The brilliance that contained astronomical information flooded into their souls.
They were the exact same "reasoning" Li Yao received from Wuying Qi a moment ago.
However, Wuying Qi was better prepared this time, and he had the support of a gigantic array and the resonation of countless experts. His reasoning was clearer and more detailed, making Li Yao could not think or refuse it. They crawled into the deepest part of Li Yao's brain more than easily.
The decision of the Pangu Clan's commander, the limits of a universal country's expansion, and the conflicts between finite resources and infinite ambitions.
Choiceless. Choiceless. They were absolutely choiceless. This was the only solution.
A short pain was better than a long pain. The best way to untie
a knot was to cut it apart.
Somebody had to pay sacrifices. It was the throes of reform and the price for evolution.
March out, march out. No matter what it might take, and no matter what they changed into, they had to march out and not repeat the same mistakes of so many civilizations in history!
Only His Majesty could lead the civilization of mankind to march out. Blackstar the Great was the only commander, the only monarch, and the one true god of the civilization of mankind!
BOOM!
Such ideas were boosted among Li Yao, Long Yangjun, the hundreds of experts, and Wuying Qi, triggering a resonation of their souls. Their powers congregated into the most scorching torrent that soared along the tube above the throne of black crystals before heading toward the sky!
Chapter 2631: Dark Delirium! |
When Wuying Qi soared with the will of hundreds of experts and ten times more Imperial Guards, the energy supply center next to the Gold Crystal Pyramid was functioning at the highest efficiency too.
Tons of crystals were instantly transformed into the purest spiritual energy and transmitted into the Gold Crystal Pyramid incessantly through the tubes as thick as boas.
For a moment, the whole Gold Crystal Pyramid seemed to be transparent, unleashing the dazzling brilliance like a supernova outbreak.
The primeval runes embedded on the surface of the Gold Crystal Pyramid seemed to be revived from hundreds of thousands of years of dormancy, fully stretching out their strokes. They were then entwined into the appearance of vivid faces.
At first, the faces seemed to belong to the hundreds of experts inside the Gold Crystal Pyramid, including Li Yao and Long Yangjun.
However, as their brains echoed under Wuying Qi's guidance, all the faces gradually wiggled into Wuying Qi's face!
Zi! Zi! Zi! Zi! Zi! Zi!
The waves surging out of the top of the Gold Crystal Pyramid, enhanced by the torrent of spiritual energy, evolved into a visible black pillar of light that pierced at the "silo" up above.
The silo was not an absolutely vertical tube but more like a hollow tree that sprawled all over the place. The branches of the tree had been dyed silver and were as smooth as the mirror.
After the black pillar of light entered it, it was even more concrete and hideous after repetitive boosts, collisions, and reflections. Like a dragon that could swallow the planet, it lunged out of the surface and soared to the sky!
On the ground, the people within ten thousand kilometers all saw a black dragon rising from the ground and tearing a swirl-like gap in the thick clouds, darting into space.
The black dragon had no end at all. It simply loomed between the sky and the earth, declaring its magnificence to the world blatantly.
Immediately, the world was dark, and the clouds were gathering, foreshadowing a storm. Blackstar the Great's intimidating oppression filled up the whole capital planet.
All the people were so astounded by the splendid view that they could not utter a word.
Some people even kneeled down and prayed that such a "miracle" could help them resist the upcoming enemy.
The soldiers of the reformists on the ground, in the meantime, had formed neat battle formations faced with the black dragon under the command of their superiors. They had activated their public communication channel, ready to listen to the speech of their top commander.
Wuying Qi's primary target was not the people on the capital planet. This was merely the collateral influence caused by his dispersing brainwaves.
The people on the capital planet did not know yet how terrifying the black dragon was exactly, but they would very soon.
The black dragon lunged at the sun.
…
On the shortest route between the No. 5 planet and the No. 4 planet, which was the capital planet, a most glorious coalition fleet was brutally and gracefully marching at its enemy—no, its prey—no, a "toy" that was about to be crushed by it.
As far as one's eyes could reach, the exhaust flames of starships were everywhere. The overwhelming rivers of light had even eclipsed the stars in the universe.
The starships were so dense that their spiritual shields were rubbing and colliding all the time, raising colorful ripples that seemed to be donning the unprecedented army with colorful ribbons and armors. After every step forward, it would leave traces that were as intense as fire behind. The hundreds of thousands of exhaust flames looked like burning arrows that had been shot at the capital!
At this moment, from the commanders on the bridge to the sailors inside the soggy cabins, nobody had any doubt about the upcoming victory.
The whole Empyreal Terminus Sector had been razed by the four families. Almost every space fortress and planetary base had fallen into their hands.
Also, they had been dispersed into the most aggressive battle formation, which allowed them to unleash their maximal firepower instantly.
The reformists' troops, however, were still hiding on the orbit of the capital planet or even within the atmosphere. They were like the ostriches that buried their heads into the sand, thinking that the enemy would be gone if they did not see the enemy.
How hilarious!
Many Immortal Cultivators that belonged to the four families already started making plans about how to enjoy themselves after they conquered the capital.
Right then, the black ray shot from the capital planet passed the vast space and shot at the sun.
At first, nobody and no equipment detected the ray.
After all, its target was not the four families' ace fleets. Besides, it was even less eye-catching than a narrow line in the boundless space.
However…
The distance between the capital planet and the sun was about six hundred light seconds.
Ten minutes after the black ray was shot at the sun, the sun reacted.
At this moment, countless soldiers of the four families' ace fleets were staring at the brilliant sun.
For the soldiers who were stuck in the narrow cabins and unable to participate in slaughters yet, the sun was almost their only reference. The capital planet was too small and too dim. They couldn't see it from the space yet.
There was no telling who discovered it first, but a tiny black spot appeared on the sun. It looked like a noise in the signal, or a grain of dust on the crystal camera, or even just their imagination.
However, after a long wait, the black spot did not disappear. Instead, there were more and more of them, and they grew larger and larger. It was almost like…
It was almost like the sun had opened a hundred pairs of black eyes and was staring at the most powerful and most arrogant fleet of mankind.
The most absurd and horrifying scene should've raised the exclamations of the soldiers.
However, both the bottom-level soldiers and the commanders on the bridge were so deeply awed by the nightmarish picture that they forgot to react. Even their heartbeats and breaths had been stolen.
The black eyes on the sun were still expanding. Several black eyes were melted into a wriggling, twisted black spot, which then turned into hideous, thoughtful, furious, and peaceful faces. Eventually, all the faces congregated into one enormous face that looked like a huge abyss.
It was exactly Blackstar the Great.
The Gold Crystal Pyramid was naturally far from enough to cause such unbelievable changes to a star. However, as the magnifier of mental attacks, it had cast everybody who basked in the sunlight into the most horrible nightmare. By affecting their retina and their optical nerves, they could no longer distinguish reality from illusion, and they were completely lost in Wuying Qi's will.
In everybody's delirium, the sun continued expanding. It had been completely contaminated and had turned black, and it was extending hundreds of black clusters of fire to all directions. Every cluster of fire was millions of kilometers long. They could tie up the asteroids around more than easily, not to mention the starships that were as insignificant as dust. Before the fire arrived, the solar
storm had already turned into destructive waves and highly-penetrative particles that swept their starships and their bases in the rear, filling every cabin, every pathway, every space shuttle, and every crystal suit on every starship and even occupying the ears, eyes, brains, and minds of those who saw them.
Nobody, regardless of whether or not they stared at the sun, could resist its power.
Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!
All the starships were shrieking earsplittingly, and panicked ripples were surging on every light beam. The crazily bouncing figures on the control panel reminded the starships that the energy and radiation output of the nearest star had been improved exponentially after only five minutes, and a paralyzing strike was about to be launched on the spiritual shields as well as the magical equipment units on every starship. Even the soldiers, who had not taken level-nine anti-radiation measures, might be exposed to the fatal exposure dose and suffer irreversible injuries.
However, no soldiers or commanders bothered with the minor injuries anymore, because everybody was dwelling in the illumination of the black sun, as well as the profound, magnificent movement of the universe that seemed to be flowing from the history into the future.
Every one of them was a water drop in the river of civilization and a minor note in the marvelous movement. They couldn't change anything or control anything. All they could do was to melt themselves into the river and the movement, singing, surging, sticking, and submitting.
As the river surged and the movement echoed, their brains seemed to be gathered into an unprecedentedly huge web with the radiance of the sun, and they gained indescribable epiphany.
The gushes of information that Wuying Qi filled into Li Yao's head inside the Gold Crystal Pyramid below the ground of the capital planet were filled into the heads of those people too.
However, compared to Wuying Qi's "lecture" that was reasonable and persuasive, his session this time was much simpler and more straightforward, with the air of dominance and irrefutability.
In the first batch of soldiers who were indoctrinated, many people's brains couldn't take the violent waves that were enhanced by the sun. In a trance, their noses were bleeding, their eyes were popping out, and their eardrums were torn apart until their cerebral vessels exploded in the end. They collapsed on the ground, dying miserably on the spot.