by <unknown>
"Are there any comrades from the No. 35 Regiment? Our men are being bullied in the front. Need backup! Need backup!"
"None from the No. 35 Regiment are here, but the No. 28 Regiment is. Coming right now. Hang in there!"
The first wall made of dozens of veterans was crushed easily, but the second wall, made of hundreds of veterans who were holding each other's hands, was pushing forward slowly but surely. Behind the second wall, the veterans from different towns who were total strangers before were quickly forming the third wall.
No… It was not a wall but an ocean of tough iron!
The several hundred Secret Sword Agents soon found it impossible to move when they were drowned in the ocean of veterans. At a loss, they hesitated and observed the flags of the veterans that represented the glorious history of their troops before, but they could not see where Li Yao was hidden behind the flapping flags at all!
"What are you doing!" Lu Zui's furious voice was echoing again in the communication channel. "Why are you not moving?"
The Secret Sword Agents looked at each other in bewilderment and failed up come up with a reply.
Even the craziest person among them did not know what they should do under such circumstances now.
The attack of the crystal railgun from the crystal warship might have caused dozens of casualties, which could have been explained by the professional term 'collateral damage'.
However, slashing the angrily shouting veterans with chainswords directly? It was a whole different thing. Even the most insane person did not dare to do such a thing!
While they were hesitating, a few explosive noises were breaking out in the sky. Ding Lingdang and Wu Mayan both noticed the change of the situation and broke out of the skyscrapers, getting rid of their opponents!
Ding Lingdang made best use of the specialty of 'Blazing Tyrannosaur'. Craning her head, she shouted out the most deafening sound!
"Do not let them take that guy away! It's Li Yao! Vulture Li Yao!"
Vulture Li Yao exploded above all the participants of the parade. Everybody felt that their head was dizzy, and their ears were hurting.
"What's going on? Li Yao is already dead!"
"Wasn't he killed on the Grand Desolate Plateau in a crash?"
"I know her. She is 'Crimson Queen' Ding Lingdang, isn't she? What's happening? Who is she fighting? She said that Vulture Li Yao is not dead… but right here?"
Other than the veterans, most of the participants of the parade were the students from the high schools and the colleges. Ding Lingdang was quite popular among those hot-blooded young people.
When she activated her spiritual energy to the maximum in midair and summoned nine roaring dragons of fire, which were her signature, many young people recognized her immediately!
"Li Yao is not dead, but he is wounded. He needs protection. He needs all of us!" Ding Lingdang shouted without bothering anything. "Do not let Li Yao be captured by those people. They are all bad guys!"
Hearing her words, the crowd below was seething with even more excitement.
Most of the ordinary people, of course, did not know the truth yet.
But they could tell that the crystal warships in the sky were extraordinarily aggressive.
Just now, a red shadow jumped in the air and had a head-on clash with the ball lightning. Many people here had witnessed it in person, too.
Intuitively, they vaguely knew that the shadow was protecting them!
For the ordinary people, their fists were not strong, their legs were not fast, their computational ability was not high, and their minds were not as agile as the Cultivators'.
Maybe, they could not do anything in such a confrontation.
But at the very least, they could still wave the flag in their hands hard and shout out the voice that was sweeping everything with the last bit of strength in their chest under Ding Lingdang's lead.
"Stop right now!"
"What's going on here? Speak now!"
"Is it Li Yao? Is it?"
The sound was echoing all over the central district.
The few Core Formation Stage Cultivators who were fighting Ding Lingdang a moment ago now arrived, too.
However, under so many pairs of scorching eyes, they did not know whether or not they should continue attacking.
Those Core Formation Stage Cultivators, who had trained for more than a hundred years and could blow up a crystal tank after a single punch, had never known that the eyes of ordinary people could be so overwhelming. They felt that they were being suppressed!
During the moment when they hesitated, Wu Mayan, with bruises all over his body, flew to Ding Lingdang, too. He opened his arms and put on a bloodstained smile to the Core Formation Stage Cultivators in front of him.
"You'll have to get past me if you want to touch my masteress!"
"You little guy!"
Their backs leaning against each other, Ding Lingdang asked in a low voice, "Are you alright?"
"Of course I am. I am the man who will be the strongest qi-trainer in history!" Wu Mayan shrieked. "Masteress, just lead the roars. The punches of those scumbags are not even one tenth as strong as yours!"
The triumph parade, as an unprecedented event in the history of the federation, had naturally garnered a lot of media attention.
If Lu Zui had been able to settle Li Yao cleanly in a few minutes, the media might not have noticed it. Even if they did, Lu Zui had his ways to cover or wipe out the news.
However, he had been delayed for too long, and the situation was too big a mess!
The reporters and photographers from almost a hundred media outlets were crowding toward the center of chaos hurriedly. Those who could not make their way through all dashed to the skyscrapers on the street, trying to look for a high stance where they could observe the riot.
The confrontation between the Secret Sword Agents and the veterans was captured clearly by them.
Of course, at this moment, the so-called 'confrontation' was just a one-sided battle where the veterans were teaching the 'immature brats' a lesson.
On Hidden Star, looking at the situation down there, which had completely fallen into chaos, and the faces of the soldiers, students, workers, teachers, and merchants on the light beams, Lu Zui's eyes suddenly lost focus.
He was gritting his teeth, confused, angry, and grasped by desperation. A bottomless hole seemed to have appeared on his face, absorbing all his facial organs and expressions.
He extended his hands, shivering, as if he touched a piece of burning charcoal when he was trying to catch a nonexistent straw. His hands shrank violently, but he had nowhere to put them. Eventually, he had to place them in front of his chest like the paws of a mouse.
"Open fire. Bombard him. Bombard him!" Lu Zui mumbled.
There was nothing but silence on-board. All the crew members, all the marines, and all the 'patriots' knew clearly that their cause had come to an end.
Opening fire right now would lead to dire consequences and would not reverse their failure at all.
Even if they were determined to open fire, where they should aim at?
On the small square in front of the parliament building, at least ten thousand Rising Dragon of the Nine Stars flags and ten times more flags of schools, troops and civil organizations were flying.
All the flags were equally vivid and hot while they were fluttering in the wind!
Li Yao was hiding below a certain flag, right in the middle of tens of thousands of ordinary people.
Open fire? At whom?
The 'patriots' leaned against their chairs lethargically. Looking at Lu Zui in a daze, they did not have the strength to move anymore.
On the street, Li Yao was protected by countless pairs of hands. More than a hundred flags had covered both him and the hundreds of veterans nearby. Everybody was asking questions.
"You are Li Yao?"
"Are you really Vulture Li Yao? You are not dead yet? What has happened?"
"Why does the S
ecret Sword Bureau want you? What did you do?"
Li Yao did not know how he should answer.
After a few minutes of breathing, he was gradually back to himself and regained the strength to talk.
But he could still not think, not because he was feeble, but because his head was occupied by something more scorching and exciting!
From all directions, the roars, sweat, passion, and fury of the tens of thousands of ordinary people congregated into tsunamis that were crushing his head and cleansing his soul!
Such tsunamis made his eyes red and swollen, his nose sour and dry. Even if he opened his mouth, he could not say anything out but only let out the most primitive, barbaric roar!
He had experienced the same feeling several times before on Iron Plateau in the Flying Star Sector.
The Iron Plateau natives called such a phenomenon 'resonation of the fighting will'!
Right now, Li Yao felt that his own soul was vibrating, melting, and rushing together with the souls of tens of thousands of ordinary people!
The feeling was ten times, a hundred times, a thousand time stronger than the resonation of fighting will on Iron Plateau!
During the intense vibration, his withered muscles were revived, his dried veins and nerves bulged again, and a tiny sprout grew out of his lackluster heart, showing the dawn of a whole new level!
Chapter 1128: Crumbled! |
I was wrong.
In the middle of burning waves of the red flags, Li Yao's brain was stretched to its limits. His soul was expanding nonstop in the intense resonation. As if an invisible barrier had collapsed all of a sudden, a new, vaster world was slowly unfolding in front of his eyes.
In the new world, his soul was as calm, clear, and peaceful as a snowy plateau under the moonlight.
The memories of every second after he returned to the Heaven's Origin Sector were the snowflakes that were spraying in the cool, refreshing world.
It was not until this moment that Li Yao realized what a huge mistake he had made.
I thought that I was abandoned by the entire federation and that nobody trusted me. I felt wronged. I was angry. I was depressed. I almost slid into the dark abyss.
However, in retrospect, have I ever truly trusted my compatriots and all the citizens of the federation?
Before, I had countless opportunities to reveal my identity in public to win their support, but I didn't do it.
Was it because I never truly trusted them from the bottom of my heart? I thought that they were just strengthless ordinary people who could not see through the scheme. Even if they did, they could not help me much and would only add to my trouble.
That is why I brushed past them every single time. I chose to infiltrate in secret and fight on my own, trying to save the world by myself!
Even when I was most desperate, all I could think of were merely Cultivators such as Ding Lingdang and Professor Mo Xuan. I never thought that I could count on them, the millions of ordinary people!
I was wrong. I was really wrong!
My compatriots, everyone who has been working and living carefully on this land, might not have strong fists, fast legs, and a high computation ability like the Cultivators do.
But they are certainly not objects waiting for their salvation. They have their feelings, their standpoints, and their thinking ability. More importantly, they have their own… fighting will!
Cultivators, of course, are obliged to protect the ordinary people.
But the ordinary people… can protect the Cultivators, too. Right now, am I not being protected, supported, and encouraged by them, by tens of thousands of ordinary people?
No…
'Protect' is too thin a word to describe the relationship between us!
Nobody is protecting anybody. Cultivators and ordinary people are comrades who are fighting side by side. We are merely working in different posts through different approaches to protect our mutual home, family, and future!
Huala!
Every word that Li Yao roared out in his brain turned into soundless lightning, illuminating the new world!
His eyes were brighter and brighter. He clenched his fists harder and harder. Every cell deep inside his flesh was echoing like bells being tolled. The deepest part of his soul was blossoming like a lotus!
Li Yao smiled. After everything he had been through, he discovered that Lu Zui and the scheme of the Patriots Partnership were not worth mentioning at all when he looked back.
The power of the so-called 'patriots' was based on the lies and the mistrust between him and everyone.
When he did not trust his compatriots, and his compatriots did not know how to trust him, he felt like he was diving into a bottomless swamp on his own. He could not find a way out in the black maze.
At that time, the Patriots Partnership appeared mysterious, ubiquitous, prophetic, and manipulative!
However, when he learned to trust Ding Lingdang, Professor Mo Xuan, Guo Chunfeng, and everybody else, the seemingly powerful Patriots Partnership was like a sand castle in the wind. No matter how high it was piled up, it would crumble when the wind was blowing.
If he had realized the logic earlier, he might have been able to crack the scheme more straightforwardly.
But thankfully, it was still not too late.
Li Yao sensed that the snowflakes of his memories were falling into his soul before they were condensed into mysterious liquids that flowed slowly into his abdomen along his spine.
Inside his abdomen, his core was shivering. Vaguely, he seemed to hear a yawn, like the first mumble of a baby after a prolonged sleep.
Li Yao thought of something. He realized that after the last confrontation with the mental devil, and through all the tests that followed, his soul had been cleansed, and his belief had been firmed. He examined himself and even interrogated himself. Finally, in the resonation with the souls of tens of thousands of compatriots, he embraced the sprout of the Nascent Soul!
It was perhaps not the real Nascent Soul Stage yet, but it was enough to make him understand the differences between the Nascent Soul Stage and the Core Formation Stage.
The difference between Core Formation Stage and the Nascent Soul Stage lay beyond the simple factors such as strength, speed, or computational ability.
Most importantly, the Nascent Soul Stage highlighted the unification of strength and consciousness.
In the Core Formation Stage, the body and the mind were separate. Maybe, after some fortuitous incidents—for example, accidentally getting marvelous medicines and techniques—one might be granted destructive brute strength if they were lucky enough, which could potentially upgrade them into the Core Formation Stage.
However, impressive as their brute strength might be, they did not know where their strength originated and how they should really apply it. Eventually, they would become the prisoners of their own strength and slaves of their natural instincts, living their whole life unaware.
In the Nascent Soul Stage, however, the strength and the consciousness would be highly combined. A Cultivator would fully understand the source of their strength and its destination. They would really be able to carry out their own will and belief with their strength!
In short, a Cultivator could only see clearly what they were fighting for exactly after they advanced into the Nascent Soul Stage!
Below a ragged, bloodstained Rising Dragon of the Nine Stars flag, Li Yao slowly opened his eyes.
For a moment, millions of stars seemed to be shining inside his eyes, as if the fighting will of the tens of thousands of ordinary people had been concentrated in his eyes!
The next moment, the millions of stars were all absorbed into his soul. Li Yao's eyes became pure black again. The only thing that remained was the dark-golden brilliance in the deepest part of his pupils!
Li Yao carried on shoulder the Rising Dragon of the Nine Stars flag that had been scourged on countless battlefields. Surrounded by almost a hundred veterans, he held his head high and glar
ed at 'Hidden Star' in the sky without disguising his new, burning aura at all!
The spiritual shield around Hidden Star was rippling, as if it were under real attack.
"Lu Zui, you are doomed!" Li Yao declared resolutely. His every word was hitting the spiritual shield of 'Hidden Star' like a bomb.
Hidden Star was shaking violently in midair, struggling in vain under the fury of the public.
"In order to raise the war between the Heaven's Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector, you planned the assassination of the Speaker in the Federal Square and killed more than ten thousand innocent victims. The undeniable evidence of your crimes is now in my hands!
"In order to destroy the evidence, you were trying to bombard me as well as so many compatriots here, when you knew clearly that tens of thousands of people had gathered in this place!
"Everything you did crossed the lines of not only the Cultivators but also all human beings! Lu Zui, the evidence and the eyewitnesses are all here. What do you have to say for yourself?
"Lu Zui, director of the Secret Sword Bureau, I know you are in this very crystal warship! If you are innocent, just come on out and confront me in front of all our compatriots here!"
Li Yao's every word was delivered to the ears of the public clearly, making them understand everything that had happened quickly.
Such a piece of appalling news naturally raised another round of whispers. They eyed the crystal warship in the sky with more confusion and anger.
They did not know if Li Yao was telling the truth.
But they did notice that Lu Zui never showed up.
Li Yao was standing in public openly while Lu Zui was hiding himself in a warship. Naturally, the ordinary people made a judgement without any trouble.
Surrounded by the veterans, the Secret Sword Agents who were loyal to Lu Zui were so ashamed that they almost wished to turn into effluence so that they could flow into the sewer!
On Hidden Star, Li Yao's words were sweeping across every cabin like hurricanes. The ears of every 'patriot' were humming.
