by <unknown>
In the meantime, he felt that his brain was itching, as if a feather was sweeping past his every brain cell gently.
He knew that the mainframe crystal processor of Sparkle was identifying him and making sure that he was a human being.
A moment later, crimson mystic rays were shot out from the 108 holes on the dashboard. They formed scattered sparks in the midair. Then the sparks were connected together, constituting a large light beam that seemed to be both right in front of him and embedded on his retina and brain.
It was the operation menu of Sparkle, manifested in the way of Half-step Great Illusionary Land.
Li Yao had seen it countless times in the training sessions with Neltharion. He did not find it strange at all.
Shua!
The intimidating Red Dragon Swallowing the Sun appeared again, which immediately turned into thousands of lasers each representing an information stream and flooded into Li Yao's brain.
"Human being identified. Cultivator identified.
"Granting full permissions of Sparkle. Progress: 24%… 53%… 87%…"
"According to 'Wartime Regulations No. 17 of the Star Ocean Imperium', the military is entitled to enlist all human beings, especially Cultivators, to defend our civilization in emergencies. As per the rule, the ownership of Sparkle, 'Lone Star' level multipurpose exploration ship No. 24434552, is now temporarily transferred to you. You will be the acting captain of Sparkle, and you shall transfer the ownership of the warship to the regular army after the crisis is resolved!
"Please enter your identification information and your spiritual fingerprint!"
Li Yao hurriedly typed in his identification information with his telepathic thoughts, including several videos that recorded his battles against the demons, in order to prove his stance and strength.
However, Li Yao hesitated for a while about the field of 'Sect'.
In the Star Ocean Imperium, all the Cultivators belonged to the twenty Guilds of Provenance. There were few unaffiliated Cultivators.
But Li Yao did not belong to any sect at this moment. The Grand Desolate Institute was not a sect in a traditional sense. He was sort of an unaffiliated Cultivator.
Pondering for a moment, Li Yao finally made up his mind and inputted the sect name as:
"Heaven's Origin, Li Yao!"
The redness surged. Streams of enormous information turned into thousands of swirls with a higher and higher speed.
"Identification information saved. Cell feature saved. Spiritual fingerprint locked."
"Li Yao of the Heaven's Origin, you are now the new captain of Sparkle. Please strive forward!"
Li Yao was biting his teeth so hard that they were squeaking. His blood was seething in exultation. He almost lost control and danced in the darkness.
Captain!
This was not a training model like Neltharion but an authentic warship from the Star Ocean Imperium and one of the greatest inventions in the history of mankind!
Li Yao wasn't bothered by the fact that he was merely the acting captain of the warship. According to the mainframe crystal processor, he did not have to hand out the ownership of the warship until he met a regular troop of the Star Ocean Imperium.
But the Star Ocean Imperium had been demolished for thousands of years. Where could he possibly run into a regular troop from it?
Therefore, this warship would be his for all eternity!
As a crazy fan of magical equipment, Li Yao felt that his entire body seemed to be melding with Sparkle into one!
Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua!
The streams of information were still crowding into his brain, including the basic introductions to Sparkle.
For the warships of the Star Ocean Imperium, Sparkle was one of the smallest. But it played a very important role.
It was an instance of 'Lone Star' level multipurpose exploration warship, a model co-produced by 'Star Wolf Sect' and 'High Peak Pavilion', two of the Guilds of Provenance, with consideration of the usages of orbital assault warships, extreme exploration warships and even the science study starships.
It was designed with the exploration of unfamiliar constellations in mind. When necessary, it could also be deployed for missions behind enemy lines. Its performances in scouting, guerilla warfare, and bandit-clearing were quite satisfactory, too.
It boasted amazing self-recovery ability, survival-in-isolation ability, and research analysis ability, with a very low demand on the captain as well the crew. It could travel by itself in a foreign constellation for a long time while supplying itself with the spiritual energy and materials from other planets. Therefore, it was known as a 'Lone Star' level warship.
In short, this was a model born for adventures.
"I'm really a lucky dog!" Li Yao mumbled to himself. Sparkle was perhaps the best warship for him possible.
If it were a super warship tens of thousands of meters long, naturally, it would boast much more advanced technology and fierce firepower. But the difficult of steering would definitely soar, too. Chances were that it would require Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators or even Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators as captains to make it work normally, not to mention a large dock as a base to ensure the logistics and countless well-training Cultivators as back-up crew.
What good could such a warship do to him even if he had one?
But Sparkle was different. As a multipurpose exploration warship designed for adventures in foreign planets, it had taken into consideration the harshest, the most unfavorable environments. Not only was it ultra-solid and able to repair itself, the difficulty of steering was very low, too.
Li Yao was just a Cultivator at the Building Foundation Stage. But he was already able to get it moving after training with Neltharion for a year and a half!
More importantly, for the exploration of unknown areas, Sparkle had been installed with a space jump system made up by 64 magical equipment units that far exceeded its level.
It was almost like a super teleportation array had been set up inside the warship.
With enough spiritual energy, it could shatter the void and cruise the sea of stars at any time!
"Does that mean I can jump to the center of the universe and explore other worlds with the help of Sparkle?"
Li Yao's interest was greatly aroused.
The Heaven's Origin Sector was at the periphery of the sea of stars. It was a world that was relatively bleak and barren. The strongest Cultivators were merely at the Nascent Soul Stage. The Cultivation civilization here was still underdeveloped.
In the center of the cosmos, billions of stars were burning furiously, constituting a surging nebula of stars in which countless worlds with abundant spiritual energy and resources existed.
These worlds were the inland and the most prosperous parts of the Star Ocean Imperium and the Demon Beast Empire.
Although many worlds had been bulldozed by protracted warfare over thousands of years, the remaining worlds must have much more advanced Cultivation civilizations than the Heaven's Origin Sector had right now, with much more powerful magical equipment and Cultivation arts…
If he could reach those worlds and retrieve several treasures, the scumbags of the Blood Demon Sector would certainly be cleared in no time after he returned to the Heaven's Origin Sector.
Li Yao was in delirium. He envisioned coming back from the center of the cosmos together with an invincible interstellar fleet, leading countless top experts in supreme crystal suits, and crushing the Blood Demon Sector brutally.
Shaking his head, Li Yao bit the tip of his tongue and kicked away the alluring idea.
The picture was immaculate, if not imaginary.
Li Yao did not have a star map, or a stargazer on board, which meant he couldn't locate any star beacons. Not to mention that the space jump system had been completely wrecked. Where could he possibly jump to?
The universe was a large place, 99.99% of which was endless void and darkness.
Of thousands of the constellations
that had been discovered, few had enough spiritual energy and materials that were mandatory for the survival of life and the training of Cultivators.
Most of the space in the universe was occupied by dangerous radiation, stardust storms, and spiritual energy turbulences. The safe routes were limited.
Also, many other worlds were still reigned by demons, demonic Cultivators, and other species in the sea of stars.
A reckless space jump without a star map was like voyaging through a surging, perilous ocean on a sampan without a compass or experienced sailors.
Those who tried to find an island where there was food and water without a compass on a boundless ocean were not adventurous but suicidal!
"It appears that I'll have to figure out a way to drag it back to the Heaven's Origin Sector."
"Although Sparkle is not a planetary weapon, the magical equipment and the technology that it carries are very powerful, too. If they can be fully analyzed, our trip to Boneyard won't have been a waste of time.
Li Yao sighed and held back the desire to march into the depths of the sea of stars.
"First of all, I need to overcome the crisis at hand.
"Let me examine the status of Sparkle first!"
One of Li Yao's telepathic thoughts was extended to the mainframe crystal processor, which analyzed and enhanced it to every corner of Sparkle, testing all the units available.
It was a very mysterious feeling, similar to the feeling when he put on a crystal suit for the first time.
He was added with countless extra organs, and he seemed to have become Sparkle itself. He was caught in a special 'inward-looking' state. Endless information was pouring down.
"The situation is bad.
"The spiritual energy leaking through the rock stratum is too weak, resulting to the slow repair progress of the mustard-level maintainers. The warship hasn't been fully fixed although thousands of years have passed.
"The drill of mystic rays is mostly fixed up; the power rune arrays are restored by 29%; the space jump system, 55%, only enough for one or two jumps; as for the weapon system, only a secondary cannon is ready to use."
The ecstasy of owning a warship was gone. Li Yao frowned.
The damage that Sparkle had suffered was beyond his expectations. After self-recovering for thousands of years, it was still barely functional with obvious deficiencies.
"Spiritual energy. Spiritual energy. All is because of lack of spiritual energy.
"Both the drill of mystic rays and Sparkle itself require a huge amount of spiritual energy even if they are to be triggered at the minimum level.
"Without spiritual energy, we will still be trapped in this place despite the marvelous vehicle!"
Chapter 421: Sparkle, Awakened! |
Team Blue Bronze had planned to stay for one month on Boneyard, or even three to five months should the mission demand. Therefore, they'd all carried a lot of crystals inside their Cosmos Rings.
But they were far from enough to provide impetus for a warship from the Star Ocean Imperium, let alone the drill of mystic rays, the cannons, and the space jump system.
Li Yao thought hard for a long time. Then he suddenly realized something and bumped his fists in joy.
Of course! There were the Flowing Brightness Crystals inside his Cosmos Ring!
The marrow crystals that came into being after billions of years of high temperature and high pressure in the underground were captured by the roots of the Flowing Brightness Grasses, and through esoteric chemical reactions, such super marrow crystals which contained enormous spiritual energy were born!
Even in the notes of the predecessors of the Hundred Smelting Clan, Flowing Brightness Crystals had been treated with great importance and deemed as one of the ultimate treasures.
"As a multipurpose exploration warship, Sparkle must have a very adaptive crystal reactor which can absorb crystals of various kinds as its energy source. Also, Flowing Brightness Crystals are extremely condensed and stable with barely any impurities. Even a human body can absorb it directly, so a crystal reactor should be fine!
"Yes, the Flowing Brightness Crystals shall be the source of spiritual energy!"
Although Flowing Brightness Crystals were invaluable items in the Heaven's Origin Sector, Li Yao had made up his mind that he wouldn't hesitate to pour all the Flowing Brightness Crystals he had found into the warship if it was a must to survive and to kill Skeleton Dragon.
"Haha. Skeleton Dragon has fallen victim to his own scheme this time," sneered Li Yao.
According to his estimation, the abundant Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures in the first underground world they saw should be part of the evil plan of Skeleton Dragon, who had somehow spread a bit of his strength and manipulated the underground creatures to modify the environment into one that was more favorable for the invaluable treasures.
The purpose of the plan was simple: to lure the explorers deeper underground.
The explorers would naturally conclude from the fact that there were so many treasures in the periphery that more precious Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures must be buried in Skeleton Dragon's residence in the depths of the endless underground ocean.
In such a way, the explorers would be too greedy to notice the anomalies on their way forward, until they opened Skeleton Dragon's residence in the end!
But right now, Li Yao had received Gao Xingce's warning. He could use the Flowing Brightness Crystals, the bait of Skeleton Dragon, to destroy the small fries such as Wang Ji and the unparalleled deadly beast that was Skeleton Dragon himself!
Li Yao extended his telepathic thoughts through the crystal wires, toward the engine compartment in the rear of Sparkle, and into the main crystal reactor.
The crystal reactor on a warship was much larger than that used in a crystal suit. Its structure was hundreds of times more complicated, too. Li Yao's telepathic thought wandered inside the delicately-made crystal reactor and studied its design meticulously.
As he expected, although the efficiency of the crystal reactor was not very impressive, it could accept spiritual energy from extensive sources. Four magical equipment units inside of it could automatically refine the raw crystals with more than 70% of impurities before they were transformed into spiritual energy; super marrow crystals such as Flowing Brightness Crystals would definitely work well enough.
The crystal reactor was the heart of a warship. It was the most heavily protected component. It had suffered the least damage from the fierce battles and was the first item that the mustard-level maintainers repaired.
After thousands of years of maintenance, it was almost brand new. 85% of it had been fully fixed, guaranteeing normal functions.
"Excellent. With a few Flowing Brightness Crystals, the crystal reactor will be able to generate sufficient spiritual energy to wake up Sparkle and improve the speed of the mustard-level maintainers by hundreds of times.
"Many simple components can even be manually repaired by me. In a couple of days, Sparkle will be able to voyage again!"
While thinking to himself, Li Yao scanned the weapon system of Sparkle with his telepathic thought.
The main gun of Sparkle had been modified into a drill of mystic rays. All the secondary cannons and air defense cannons were too seriously damaged in the fierce battles thousands of years ago to be renewed. After such a long time, only an air defense cannon was close to completion.
Li Yao laughed out aloud the moment he saw the holograph of the air defense cannon.
The air defense cannon, named 'Rogue Meteorite', had an axis surrounded by eight cylindrical crystal rails. At first glance, it was a Six-barreled Vulcan Machine Gun enlarged dozens of times. The trigger and manipulation methods were very similar, too.
"This is a weapon that is destined for me!"
Li Yao's blood was boiling into scorching steam surging out from his nostrils.
His hands were shivering, as he couldn't wait to control the 'Rogue Meteorite' in person!
; For him, an air defense cannon was a weapon even better than the main gun.
The main gun of the warship was designed to deal with the hostile warships, star fortresses, and orbital defense. Its speed of reloading was slow, its spiritual energy consumption extremely high, and it had a high demanding on the user.
Gao Xingce was a Core Formation Stage Cultivator. It was his qualification as the chief gunner of Sparkle to wield the Sky Dragon, the main gun.
On the other hand, air defense cannons targeted the hostile experts who were approaching the warship. It had a high shooting frequency, with remarkable precision and a low requirement for the expertise of the user. Building Foundation Stage Cultivators were more than capable for the task.
What Li Yao was going to deal with were the demons such as Wang Ji. Air defense cannons would serve the purpose better than the main gun.
"The Rogue Meteorite will consume the spiritual energy very quickly. Let me deeply modify it so that it can directly utilize the Flowing Brightness Crystals as a source of spiritual energy. One attack will be enough to blow the biochemical beasts together with the demons inside into smithereens!"
Other than the Rogue Meteorite, there were no other usable weapons on board. Most of them had been dismantled into maintenance materials.
In a corner of the arsenal, however, Li Yao found a metal statue that had been sealed by barriers and protected carefully.
"This is… a whole set of strengthening plug-ins, the Ares Extension!" Li Yao exclaimed in disbelief.
The sea of stars was an unpredictable place. The conditions of many worlds were the opposite of each other. A crystal suit wouldn't be applicable for all battlefields.
Therefore, it was not unusual for a crystal suit to be added with a lot of strengthening plug-ins before it was deployed to a battlefield.
For example, before Team Blue Bronze dived into the silver ocean, Li Yao had installed undersea combat plug-ins that resembled fins to all the crystal suits in the team.
Some of the strengthening plug-ins had been manufactured as sets, with a lot of powerful yet high-consumption rune arrays which would also impose heavy blast upon the materials and the human body.
