by <unknown>
He cleaned the liquid with the hygiene system of the helmet and rolled his tongue. Then he opened his mouth again. "Have we really crossed ten thousand lightyears?"
"Yes. But we're not there yet."
Captain Hong Tong freed himself from his foam seat by force and treated Yan Yangtian together with 'Dummy' Ba Weiqi.
A distance of ten thousand lightyears was too much of a burden for both the body and the brain. Yan Yangtian's soul had been shocked, resulting in minor injuries to her brain.
Li Yao shook his head to refresh himself. Besides a strong sense of nausea, he also felt numbness all over his body now that he regained control over his internal organs, limbs, and fingers.
He turned back and noticed that Ding Lingdang was waking up too. She was extending and folding her fingers one by one to warm herself up.
Li Yao barely had chance to feel relieved as the star shuttle started trembling violently as if someone had punched it right in the face. Ominous red lights were blinking inside the cabin.
Hong Tong and Ba Weiqi both fell over because of the unexpected impact.
Fortunately, after the mental guidance from Ba Weiqi, Yan Yangtian had awoken. Li Yao heard her gasping for almost ten seconds in the communication channel and her desperate cough as if she had just returned from the worst nightmare.
Hong Tong and Ba Weiqi hurried back to their seats and buried themselves in the buffer foam again. The captain bellowed, "Careful! We've been captured by the gravity of Ultimacy. But we are passing through a debris belt!"
Li Yao looked at the outside through the cabin window. From his angle, he could only see a deep, dark universe, with no sign of any stars, let alone Ultimacy.
But he did notice that many tiny metal scraps were brushing past the star shuttle.
Li Yao felt like somebody had grabbed him by his neck.
They were not teleported to the surface of Ultimacy directly, but the middle of the atmosphere and the gravity boundary.
Without any guidance of star beacons, this was already a very favorable outcome.
To teleport a star shuttle precisely to the surface of a planet ten thousand lightyears away was as difficult as hitting the wing of a fly hundreds of kilometers away with a needle.
Frankly speaking, it was already a miracle that they weren't teleported into the mantle of Ultimacy, or a galaxy nearby.
To be prepared for the expedition to ten thousand lightyears away, the five star shuttles for the mission had all been installed with a simple power system which could calculate the best route and landing spot automatically with the advanced crystal processor on board.
But this was as far as their luck went.
They'd been teleported to a debris belt occupied by space garbage in the periphery of the gravity zone of Ultimacy.
The seventy-eight crystal cameras on the outside of the star shuttle scanned the surrounding and sent the image to them.
Therefore, they all saw a space battleground that probably dated back to thousands of years ago.
Scraps of weapons and magical equipment, as well as bodies of Cultivators and demons in all kinds of bizarre shapes, were all around them.
Not far ahead were several starship remnants that were riddled with holes. There was also a lumpy star fortress of the demon race which looked like a super large hermit crab.
"Judging from the scale of the debris here, it seems that humans and demons had a fierce battle in the space around Ultimacy before, which means there must be something very important on Ultimacy!"
While he was talking, Hong Tong turned to Li Yao.
Li Yao observed for a while and commented as the magical equipment expert of the team, "Correct. Although the broken starships ahead are not very clear at this distance, it is not hard to tell from the distribution of cannons and cabins that they should be more powerful than the 'Tiger Shark' starships that we excavated before!
"The 'Tiger Shark' starships require at least five Core Formation Stage Cultivators to steer. If I had to guess, the starships in front of us can only be driven by Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators!
"Given the amount of debris, there are presumably dozens of such starships nearby. Far ahead, I can see starships of even higher levels!
"Which means, the battle here involved dozens of Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and even stronger Cultivators!
"Although the Star Ocean Imperium was the peak of the Cultivation civilization and there were countless brilliant Cultivators, a battle including so many Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators was still a rarely-seen one!
"It is the same for the demon race. I've never seen a star fortress of such a shape before. But it should be no weaker than the star fortresses recorded in our database. Based on its enormous size, I think it is safe to conclude that it was also a high-level, or even a main force, weapon of the Demon Beast Empire!
"There must be something precious on Ultimacy that led to this great war."
Hong Tong pondered for a moment and asked, "Are the starships and the star shuttles valuable enough to be retrieved?"
Li Yao thought for a while and shook his head.
"They are not, I'm afraid. They perished together at the end of the battle after using up their spiritual energy. Also, judging from their appearance, they were detonated on purpose, too. After floating in the sea of stars for thousands of years under the scourge of cosmic dust and radiation, even perfect magical equipment turns into garbage, not to mention that they were garbage in the first place.
"I suggest that we focus on the exploration of Ultimacy for now. If we find nothing of value on Ultimacy, we can always come back and clean up this ancient battleground.
"To be honest, they are just a nuisance at the moment!"
Before Li Yao could finish his sentence, another two metal scraps hit the star shuttle heavily, making it tremble like in a storm.
The debris in front of them was becoming denser and denser. The noises of impact turned from the sound of a breeze to that of a gale.
The spiritual shield of the star shuttle was dropping down fast. The 3D model on the light beam turned from green that represented absolute safety to bright yellow that indicated the vehicle was under attack, until in the end it lit up in a dangerously orange color.
In another dozen or so seconds, it turned into desperate crimson!
The mainframe crystal processor was calculating the best dodging route. But since they were tossed into the middle of the debris zone by the inertia of the space teleportation, they were wreathed by debris with no way to escape at all.
The only solution was to accelerate downwards and breach into the atmosphere of Ultimacy as soon as possible!
"BAM!"
Li Yao saw half of the corpse of a hideous demon crashing into the shell of the star shuttle.
The corpse had been weathered by cosmic radiation to the brink of disintegrating in the first place and only managed to maintain the basic appearance. Now after the heavy clash, it immediately broke into smithereens.
"Ahhhhhhhh!"
But his teammates were all screaming.
Li Yao turned around, only to find that the almost ten light beams inside the cabin were showing the same picture, which was a wrecked star shuttle more than three thousand meters in length floating in the path of their descent.
The star shuttle continued diving, trying to pass the barricade through the gaps in the middle of the starship.
Although the route calculated by the crystal processor should be precise, the scraps around them had been stirred by their movement and were flying everywhere. Who knew whether or not new scraps would fill in the gaps because of the new collisions?
The defense ability of the spiritual shield had been reduced to minimum. A minor impact would be deadly for them.
"Beep!"
All the lights inside the star shuttle were turned off. The only feeble brightness was from a light beam. All the spiritual energy was transmitted to the mainframe crystal processor for it to overclock.
/> Holding their breath and keeping their eyes wide open, everyone watched the wrecked starship growing larger and larger in front of them in silence.
The star shuttle was like a small firefly dancing into the bloody mouth of a tyrannosaur.
The sharp bumps inside the starship was like the interconnecting teeth of the tyrannosaur.
The ten seconds passing through the 'teeth' felt even longer than the duration of the space teleportation to Li Yao.
It was not until the lights inside the cabin were turned on and the cabin was bathed in brightness again that everyone finally exhaled a mouthful of air in relief. They fell into their foam seats, not even having the strength to cheer.
The debris belt was left behind. In front of them was a mottled planet, half blue and half red.
The star shuttle proceeded toward the atmosphere of Ultimacy.
The atmosphere of Ultimacy was thinner than that of the Heaven's Origin Sector. Something unknown in the air cast icy flames on the cabin window, as if thousands of flowers of frost were blossoming.
"BOOM!"
After a shiver, the star shuttle broke through the atmosphere.
The mysterious Ultimacy finally revealed itself to the guests from ten thousand lightyears away!
Chapter 404: Natural Paradise? |
This was a planet covered in blue and red. Different from the Heaven's Origin Sector, the earth here was bright blue, and the ocean was deep red.
The blue continent was devoid of any traces of living creatures. The tectonic movements of Ultimacy were apparently hundreds of times more intense than those of the Heaven's Origin Sector. The ground seemed to have been torn apart and sewed together countless times. Hills, mountains and valleys were everywhere.
Based on the pictures captured by the crystal cameras, the crystal processor had discovered more than a hundred mountains that were more than ten thousand meters high and dozens of gorges that were thousands of meters below the sea level.
This was a rocky planet.
The territories were too complicated to have naturally formed. They could've been the result of a salvo from a piece of 'planetary magical equipment'.
Maybe ten thousand years ago, this place had been a heaven for animals and plants like the Heaven's Origin Sector. However, savaged by warfare, glory of the past turned into scattered sand, gone in the passage of time until nothing existed.
Since the land were too unfavorable for landing, the star shuttle searched for a new landing point toward the crimson ocean with brilliant exhaust flames spurting out of the power rune arrays.
They were preparing to land on the ocean.
The surface of the ocean was quite flat. The seawater could serve as a buffer, too. The odds of success would be much higher.
The shell on the stomach of the star shuttle opened quietly, sending out five metal sensors analyzing the components of the air quickly.
In the meantime, another metal ball carved with countless runes was ejected from the star shuttle into the ocean in advance to assess the substituents of the ocean.
Soon, a report was displayed on the light beam.
Except for a very small proportion of demonic energy and impurities, the air of Ultimacy was rather clean. The oxygen percentage here was 5% higher than that in the Heaven's Origin Sector. Building Foundation Stage Cultivators could breathe the air with no aid.
There were more than 550 kinds of minerals and microelements in the seawater, which was almost as remarkable as the most famous hot spring in the Heaven's Origin Sector.
Or rather, the ocean was itself a vast 'hot spring'.
The average temperature of the seawater was 72 degrees.
By preliminary evaluation, many spiritual lodes with amazing reserves were underneath the surface of Ultimacy. Due to the intense crustal movements, the spiritual lodes clashed into one another, forming volcanoes at the bottom of the sea. A huge amount of marrow crystals and ores erupted together with magma and melted into the seawater, until in the end the ocean turned red. The temperature of the seawater was brought up during the process as well.
The conclusion excited all the six of them.
Since there were so many spiritual lodes on Ultimacy, it was quite possible that a lot of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures had been conceived. Perhaps, the battle between the Star Ocean Imperium and the Demon Beast Empire beyond the atmosphere of Ultimacy was to compete for the Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures on Ultimacy.
This trip was definitely worthwhile!
"1,200 meters to the surface!"
Everyone stopped staring at Ultimacy and sank into their foam seats. The foam twisted and enveloped them all.
"800 meters to the surface!"
Their heads were their only body part left out of the foam.
"300 meters to the surface!"
At this moment, even their heads were covered by the foam, making them look like six giant cocoons.
"Three seconds left. Prepare to land!"
The plate armor of the star shuttle exploded into pieces after a cracking sound, unveiling a layer of dense, bright-silver runes which were shining dazzlingly. Streaks of silver flowed and formed a translucent white spiritual energy shell which covered the star shuttle.
"BOOM!"
Roaring, the star shuttle crashed into the crimson ocean heavily, stirring up splashes hundreds of meters high with earsplitting noises.
The translucent spiritual energy shell was quite elastic and took most of the force of the collision. After bouncing on the surface of the ocean dozens of times, the star shuttle finally stopped.
The spiritual energy shell vanished. What was left was a broken star shuttle from which black smoke was popping up nonstop.
"We've made it!"
After a long while, the cabin door was opened. The six Orb Patrollers of Team Blue Bronze crawled out slowly. They stood on the surface of the ocean, took off their helmets and breathed the air which was even fresher than that of the Heaven's Origin Sector.
"The air here has a flavor of sweetness. I feel that my spiritual energy flows more fluently after I take a long breath! Amazing!"
"Of course. A lot of spiritual lodes are buried under the surface of Ultimacy with much higher reserve of spiritual energy than those in the Heaven's Origin Sector. Now that the volcano eruptions have sent them into the air, the particle concentration of spiritual energy in the air is multiple times higher than that of the Heaven's Origin Sector. Naturally, we'll find it more comfortable to breathe here!
"This place must be what is known as a 'natural paradise'. Training here for one day will be more fruitful than training for ten days in the Heaven's Origin Sector!
"In the Heaven's Origin Sector, there are natural paradises, too. But the area is quite limited. Only the headquarters of the top 100 sects of the federation, or the personal training clubs of the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, have the privilege to establish residences on such places!
"While in this place… Well well well. The entire ocean, or rather, the entire planet, is a giant natural paradise!
"If one day the technology of teleportation arrays allows, we will be able to build a permanent wormhole between Ultimacy and the Heaven's Origin Sector, saving us the trouble of travelling here through star shuttles. A giant gate to the starry sky will be constructed; Ultimacy will be conquered; the resources on Ultimacy will be exploited…
"Then the Heaven's Origin Sector will be hundreds of times stronger than right now!"
Standing on Ultimacy enjoying the inexhaustible spiritual energy, everybody was greatly amazed by the promising future.
Captain Hong Tong was more practical than his teammates. He waved his hands and said, "Alright, let's focus on the job at hand for now. As the first explorers of Ultimacy, it is our responsibility to bring back as many precious Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures as possible, or a few pieces of magical equipment and Cultivation arts that are far more advanced than what we have in the Heaven's Origin Sector
!
"Let's get down to business. Vulture, set up the first star beacon!"
They were in the middle of the ocean, about hundreds of kilometers from the seashore. It was quite tranquil nearby. The only thing that could be seen was the endless mountains in the horizon, which were distinguishable although there were hundreds of kilometers in between because of their remarkable height of almost ten thousand meters.
Li Yao scanned the environment through his crystal cameras and found no anomalies.
He retrieved a lot of magical equipment components from his Cosmos Ring, preparing to build the first star beacon.
Star beacons were the lighthouses in the sea of stars. They could broadcast their coordinates in the universe and their specific location to the Heaven's Origin Sector.
Once a star beacon started burning, it would be much easier to launch a second star shuttle, which would be teleported nearby the star beacon instead of the outside of the atmosphere, provided they were not thwarted by accidents like cosmic storms.
Star beacons were the most important magical equipment for mankind to conquer the sea of stars.
Back in the era of the Star Ocean Imperium, human beings had established gargantuan, permanent star beacons in every corner of the universe, many of which remained active despite the countless wars by absorbing the natural spiritual energy automatically.
Finding the ancient star beacons was also one of the goals of Occult Orbs Fellowship.
It was with the guidance of countless such ancient star beacons that the Heaven's Origin Sector was able to locate so many Occult Orbs, even though it was still underdeveloped.
The star shuttle which Team Blue Bronze had taken, after the intense collisions in the debris belt and the high-temperature friction while breaking through the atmosphere, was already on the verge of destruction and impossible to bring them back to the Heaven's Origin Sector.
Therefore, their priority was to deploy a star beacon.
In one month, the Heaven's Artillery would send five new unmanned star shuttles to Ultimacy. As long as they waited near the star beacon, they would be able to get a new star shuttle.
