by <unknown>
For a moment, Ning Feng's heart was as cold as a hard rock. Veins were bulging from his temples to his entire face.
There was no time for him to inform the soldiers on board. With an expansion of his soul, his telepathic thoughts reached every corner of the warship and took over all the weapon and alarm systems temporarily. Then he cut into the communication network and bellowed, "405, this is 001. Stop where you are and stand by. Wait to be towed back!
"Everyone on board, change your IFFS from automatic mode to manual mode and lock onto 405!
"I repeat, lock onto 405!
"All Vicious Bee Armed Shuttles, surround 405 right now and prepare to attack!
"Close the sixth deck immediately. Activate the barriers and lock it up!"
The series of commands brought the anxious atmosphere on Tide Berserker to a new height. After half a second of dead silence, all soldiers started carrying out the orders crazily.
However, Shuttle 405, after a tiny bump, burst out even more exhaust flame. It accelerated instead of slowing down and drew closer to the crystal warship.
"405 failed to halt. No. 2 power units have exploded. Impossible to slow down. Requesting to be picked up by barricade net and towed back."
A voice that was familiar to everyone came from the communicate channel.
Ning Feng smiled and said, "405, please maintain your current trajectory. Barricade net is to be released in 2.7 seconds."
Before he finished his sentence, his telepathic thought had cut in the control chip of two Taiyi Lightning Railguns and fired. Two electromagnetic lightning balls were thrusted at Shuttle 405.
"Everyone on board, aim at 405 and fire!"
For a moment, Tide Berserker seemed to turn into a hedgehog with lights and flames as its thorns.
Countless lights, flames, and lasers twisted into blossoming flowers which transformed the dark night sky before dawn as bright as midday!
The sudden change raised a round of exclamations in the commanding center.
Shangguan Ce and Ren Xingbei, as two seasoned warriors, seemed to have realized something. Their faces were more solemn than ever, if not somewhat angry.
Other officers were still deep in thought, pondering the reason.
The Cultivators were even more baffled by the situation. Why would Ning Feng attack a friendly armed shuttle which was already on the verge of destruction so furiously?
But the next second, their bafflement was replaced by bewilderment.
All the light beams displayed the same incredible scene.
Exhaust flames that were ten times brighter than common Vicious Bee Armed Shuttles burst out from Shuttle 405 which had been more dead than alive a moment ago at the same time with Ning Feng's command.
The speed and agility of the vehicle were ten times higher than before, too.
Taiyi Lightning Railguns, crystal cannons, flying swords… All together constituted an impenetrable dragnet.
But the Vicious Bee Armed Shuttled seemed to have turned into a water droplet which was zigzagging skillfully in the gaps of the net and dashing forward!
The unimaginable sharp turns and weird routes made everyone have the same illusion: it was not a fat, clumsy Vicious Bee Armed Shuttle flying in front of their eyes, but a super shuttle which had been born for the purpose of breaking the speed limit.
"Who's flying the shuttle?"
Everybody in the commanding center was looking at each other in astonishment, realizing that an abrupt change had taken place.
Starting from this moment, the sham battle veered off the preset track to a new direction that none of them had anticipated.
"Hoooo—"
On Shuttle 405, despite the double protection from the crystal suit and the mustard suit, Li Yao's face was still utterly twisted.
The movements beyond the limits of the shuttle and human body had imposed more than 50 times gravity on him. His eyes were bloodshot, and he was suffering from hallucinations.
He wanted to scream in joy, but what came out of his mouth was only a heavy breath.
Every drop of his blood was boiling. Every cell was shouting. All his hair turned into soft feathers. He seemed to have turned into a burning phoenix!
"Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!"
Dozens of flying swords brushed past the shuttle. The aura of the swords ripped more holes on the shuttle which was already riddled with holes.
"BOOM! CRACK!"
One electromagnetic lightning ball after another exploded nearby. Although they did not hit him directly, the purple electric arcs still squeezed into the cockpit and pierced into his body through the gaps on the crystal suit, making him grimace in pain.
But his soul was like a fire that had oil added on. He was more excited than ever!
"We can!
"We can do this!
"We can definitely reach our destination!"
Li Yao roared. His hands turned into a gray blur, as he smashed the operation panels of the armed shuttle and performed dazzling, high-speed dodging movements one after another.
"Crack! Crack! Crack!"
The Vicious Bee Armed Shuttle was not born for speed. Although it had been modified by him, the continuous extreme movements were still too much for it. The noises of fatigue crack were ringing nonstop like the moans of skeletons.
It was the omen that the shuttle was going to break up in the sky!
Another four Taiyi Lightning Railguns that had been silent previously now locked onto him and fired at the same time.
Four electromagnetic lightning balls collided with each other and burst out into a splendid lightning storm which blocked the space in front of the shuttle.
"Come on!"
Li Yao's eyes were entirely occupied by the lightning storm. Two intense waves surged out simultaneously from the Soul Condensing Pendant and the deepest depths of his brain, which flowed all over his body through his veins and nerves, interweaving, before they protruded from his back where they formed two bright gold wings ferociously flapping in the sky.
"BOOM!"
The Vicious Bee Armed Shuttle crashed into the lightning storm and exploded, turning into a blossoming lotus of blood and fire!
In the middle of the lotus, an intimidating figure jumped out like a phoenix that had just been reborn.
Brilliant flames of spiritual energy were dancing around Li Yao. Under the enhancement of the crystal suit, they were ten times more dazzling than usual. The two bright gold wings that were almost ten meters long made him look like a mighty god who had come to earth.
"Break, now!"
His batter saber was surrounded by furious spiritual energy, too, which extended the brightness of his saber to more than five meters away. He activated the Thunderous Tornado Saber Art to maximum as he pushed himself forward. Two hurricanes seemed to have crashed.
The lightning storm was ripped open.
"Swoosh!"
The Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit accelerated suddenly through the lighting storm and was arriving at the crystal warship.
Another three electromagnetic lightning balls were coming at him in a triangle.
More Taiyi Lightning Railguns and crystal cannons were readjusting their angles quickly to lock onto him again.
Dozens of Vicious Bee Armed Shuttles were all flying at him without fear, as if they were ready to perish together with him.
The incoming savage attacks turned into a series of data and lines inside Li Yao's brain.
Since the crystal suit was far more agile than the armed shuttle, he was 70% sure that he could avoid the three lighting balls in the lead.
However, the consistency of his sprint would be interrupted.
More Taiyi Lightning Railguns and flying swords would be able to lock onto him again.
The second wave of attack would be too dense for him to come close to the crystal warship ever again.
"Victory or failure shall be decided now. Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, keep it up!"
Li Yao gritted his teeth. The So
ul Condensing Pendant seemed to be melting into his flesh and blood like liquid metal.
Feeling the cheers of countless professors and senior brothers, Li Yao's soul expanded to maximum. The bright gold wings folded in around him and covered his body. His spiritual shield was also brought to maximum.
He was going to take the blow from the three electromagnetic lightning balls!
Identification of Friend or Foe System
Chapter 330: Close Combat |
"Ka! Ka! Ka! Ka!"
Before the three electromagnetic lightning balls reached their destination, the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit suddenly started revolving and turned into a crazy drill, crawling through the tiny gap between them!
"BOOM! CRACK!"
Three electromagnetic lightning balls passed by Li Yao without hitting him, and then exploded almost a hundred meters away behind him. The electric arcs spluttered like gold snakes and caught up with him quickly, tearing his spiritual shield into pieces.
The Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit was tied by ten thousand vipers made of electric arcs. Every rune array on the suit was cracking. Black smoke was popping up from every gap of the suit.
But it was still sprinting!
There were only two hundred meters away from the sixth deck now!
Li Yao had entered into the blind side of the Taiyi Lightning Railguns.
More than ten electromagnetic lightning balls exploded far away from Li Yao. But the raging electric arcs were not able to catch him anymore.
The flying swords and crystal cannons were the only weapons that could hit him now.
But for Li Yao and the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, they were too sturdy to be blocked by such insignificant attacks, not even for several seconds.
The gate on the sixth deck closed. The barriers on the entrance were fully activated.
"Ca!"
Two crystal cannons flipped up on Li Yao's shoulders, ready to attack.
The Triple-headed Heavy Six-barrel Vulcan Machine Gun had been picked up and aimed at the gate which was locked up.
"Break now! Break now! Break now!"
Crimson, azure, and emerald bullets were shooting out in three lines from the Vulcan Machine Gun.
They were the bullets that Li Yao had specially chosen to dig open the solid shell of a crystal warship.
The crimson line was the flame bullets. Special explosion rune arrays had been carved on the bullets. Unstable fiery crystals were stored inside the bullets.
The azure line was the frost bullets, which had frost rune arrays on the surface and liquid crystals of an extremely low temperature inside them. Once they hit anything, they would freeze everything nearby including the air.
One of them was scorching while the other was frigid. When the two kinds of bullets hit the same point, even the most tensile metal would be as weak as glass because of thermal expansion and contraction.
The emerald line was corrosive bullets. High-intensity corrosive liquid, which was synthesized by simulating the subtle constituents of the body liquid of five different demon beasts, had been stored inside the bullets.
The moment such bullets hit their target, the corrosive liquid would be transformed into super-corrosive mist by the pulverization rune arrays on the surface of the bullets and corrupt the target from outside to inside.
Under the savage of the three different kinds of bullets, the defense rune arrays outside the sixth gate were immediately devastated. The gate itself, although half a meter thick, was brimming with holes and full of rust now.
Then—
Two man-made suns rose up from Li Yao's shoulders, whose glaring brilliance swallowed the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit entirely.
After two earsplitting noises, the brilliance spurted out, blowing the gate which had already been on the verge of destruction into pieces mercilessly!
These were not ordinary crystal cannon attacks, but two critical strikes that were based on the furious spiritual energy from the crystal reactor which had been accumulating for a long time!
The two attacks consumed almost half of the spiritual energy contained in the crystal reactor!
Because of the overloading of spiritual energy, the two crystal cannons dangled from his shoulders like over-soaked, swollen noodles after firing for only one time.
The shoulders of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit were torn to pieces because of the counterforce.
Li Yao even felt like his arms had been ripped off, too.
But, luckily, the sixth deck was finally open now!
Li Yao roared and tossed away the crystal cannons on his shoulders and the Vulcan Machine Gun. He dashed forward with nothing but a battle saber at the top of his speed into Tide Berserker!
The sixth deck was in chaos!
Most of the Vicious Bee Armed Shuttles had been sent out. There were only four inside the sixth cabin.
Two of them had been damaged in previous combat and were waiting to be repaired.
Besides, the space inside the cabin was very limited, which was not suitable for Vicious Bee Armed Shuttles to act.
The two intact Vicious Bee Armed Shuttles released their beast puppets hurriedly and tried to take off.
But one of the pilots was so anxious that his shuttle hit the ceiling before crashing into the other shuttle. The two shuttles fell to the ground uncontrollably.
The soldiers near the deck all picked up their storm bolters and resisted in vain.
Most of the soldiers were ordinary people. Several officers were Cultivators, but only at the beginning phase of the Refinement Stage.
Right now, Li Yao was close to the peak of the Refinement Stage. With the enhancement of the crystal suit, he could fight a Building Foundation Stage Cultivator face-to-face.
Now that he had infiltrated the warship, he was like a hungry tiger in a sheep farm. The marines on board were no match for him at all!
"Chi! Chi!"
The moment Li Yao got aboard on the sixth deck, he released the last few Black Venom Smoke Grenades he had.
A few seconds later, the entire deck was enveloped by dark fog.
Inside the dark fog, which was too thick for anyone to see anything, moans of soldiers, screams of beast puppets, and clattering noise of spiritual shields echoed nonstop.
Five minutes later, the dark fog dispersed.
The place was in an utter mess. But Li Yao had vanished.
The commanding center was filled with dead silence, like a graveyard in the cold winter when the bodies of both the living and the dead had been frozen.
Before the beginning of the sham battle, everybody had thought that the theme of the sham battle was hide and seek.
Strong as the Tiger King Battlesuit may be, it would still have to flee like a mouse into the wilderness under the threat of the Heaven Splitters and twelve Taiyi Lightning Railguns.
Some had guessed that Li Yao might do some crazy things.
Since he was adept at jungle hunting and guerrilla warfare, he might set up a few traps inside the forest, circle around with the hunter and destroy dozens of Vicious Bee Armed Shuttles and hundreds of beast puppets.
This was the best that anyone could imagine.
Even Yuan Manqiu had never expected that Li Yao would be so bold as to hijack a Vicious Bee Armed Shuttle and pierce into the crystal warship with it.
"The guy is too crazy!"
"How can a Vicious Bee Armed Shuttle be so agile? It is even more agile than a super shuttle!"
"The performance of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit is indeed impressive. After so many attacks, including explosions of three electromagnetic lightning balls only a hundred meters away, it was still functioning normally without being torn to pieces by the blast."
Whispers gathered and grew louder and louder, until everyone in the commanding center was shouting at each other in disbelief.
In the heated discussion, Shangguan Ce glanced at his old friend unemotionally.
"This is not included in the plan of the sham battle. If the battl
e goes on, the crystal warship might be seriously damaged. Shall we abort it?"
Ren Xingbei turned his neck aside slowly, as if it had been rusted. Brightness was beaming out of his eyes like bullets, as he said, one word after another, "No. I believe in Ning Feng."
"However, Shangguan, where did you find such a… monster?"
…
Inside the cockpit of Tide Berserker, Ning Feng's eyes were not sloppy like a drunk cat anymore but bulging wider than anyone else on his warship. His brow was furrowed so much that a third eye seemed to be gazing at the front.
The drunk cat had turned into a ferocious tiger!
"Don't presume that you can turn the crystal warship upside down even if you're inside it right now!
"This is my territory, where I am the king!"
The biggest weakness of crystal warships had always been the astonishingly weak internal defense. Once a strong enemy breached its strong exterior, they would be in a passive position.
It was also the reason why the military had been reluctant to send crystal warships into the Dark Desolate Domain and fight the strong demons at a closer distance.
However, as one of the best captains of the Fifth Fleet, Ning Feng had long prepared contingency plans for hostile infiltration.
There was an assault team of three hundred soldiers on Tide Berserker, including twenty battle-type Cultivators armed with powerful melee magical equipment.
Usually, they would be sent out for airborne operations and assault tasks. In the case of an emergence, they would be deployed to defend the warship.
Such an assault team may not be enough to stop a Cultivator at the high level of the Refinement Stage who was wearing a crystal suit.
But together with a hundred Electric Whip Teethed Vipers, there would be no risk at all.
'Taking the blow of the attacks of Taiyi Lightning Railguns and so many flying swords, your spiritual shield has already broken completely. Your crystal suit itself must've been seriously damaged, too, which means your combat ability is at a low point right now. You are biting the bullet and running out of your momentum!
'This is my warship. Crystal cameras and probe magical equipment are everywhere. Wherever you're hiding right now, you will be discovered by me in no time!
