by <unknown>
The Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit was on the verge of destruction. The biochemical membrane on many parts had been burnt, showing the hideous strengthened external skeleton below. Damage and scratches appeared on almost every metal feather. Some of the feathers had even dropped off, making the wings seemed rather bare, like those of a sick bird.
Li Yao's wounds were not recovered in the first place. After rushing tens of thousands of kilometers on the flying sword and breaking through three defense lines by brute force, he was already drained.
What was odd was that, the weaker his body was, the hotter the fire in his soul became. A new strength seemed to be flowing out of his abdomen and circulating inside his body, integrating him into the wind, the rain, the sky, and the earth!
Little Black, hang in there. We're nearly there!
After the new strength was generated, the connection between Li Yao and Little Black was even more keen and tight than before. He seemed able to feel that the soul sealed inside Black Wing, which was as stubborn as himself, was nodding its head solemnly at his call!
Licking the blood on his lips, Li Yao grinned. His telepathic thoughts spread out like tides as he searched the storm quickly.
Burning Prairie is dozens of kilometers long. The spiritual waves that it spreads out must be as overwhelming as an ocean! Calm down. I'm going to find it in no time!
Huh. I've sensed it!
Such tremendous spiritual waves. It must be Burning—
Not good!
As he sensed the unmistakable intent of killing in the spiritual waves, Li Yao's pupils constricted to the minimum instantly. Black Wing shrieked and drove the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit to perform twenty-three small-scale movements in midair, dodging the aura of a blade in the appearance of dozens of blue lightning perfectly!
The aura of the blade, which was almost a hundred meters long, brushed past Li Yao and crashed into a mountain hundreds of meters behind him. After a crack, it split a huge rock at the peak of the mountain that was more than a hundred meters in diameter!
The giant rock rolled down from the peak thunderously in two halves!
In the middle of thunder, lightning, and pouring rain, two shadows confronted each other in silence.
Immense flames of light and electric currents were flowing around both of them, which were expanding unstoppably and enshrouding them in their own domain. They even attracted the thunder and lightning and absorbed the natural power to increase their own intimidation!
The electric arcs around Li Yao were as red as blood—scorching, passionate, and furious.
The electric arcs around Zhou Hengdao, on the other hand, were as cold as iron—solid, determined, and unwavering!
Before the two parties were engaged, the electric arcs under their control had already marched toward the enemy as vanguards. Spluttering noises were echoing nonstop in midair, and light balls that were as brilliant as fireworks were erupting!
In that moment, even the thunderstorm in the ten square kilometers nearby seemed to have turned feeble, awed by the two of them. The wind and the rain could not enter their domains but were only disintegrated into red and blue mist at the periphery. The mists were colliding, swallowing, mauling, and melting, too!
Zhou Hengdao raised his meteorite saber slowly. The telepathic thoughts condensed in the electric arcs and exploded right in front of Li Yao's face one word after another. "Vulture Li Yao, you are on the wrong path. Go back now!"
Squinting and grinning, Li Yao bared his sharp canine teeth and raised his saber inch by inch. "I don't intend to go back now that I've embarked on this path. Moreover, it is you who is on the wrong path, Iron Commander!"
The Blood Moon Dragon Hunting Saber versus the Five Tigers Hell Cutting Saber!
Vulture Li Yao versus Iron Commander Zhou Hengdao!
With the sky and the earth as the battlefield, the lightning as the banner, and the thunder as the drums, the competition of the righteous path was begun!
Chapter 1150: Collision of Creeds! |
The two of them suddenly exploded into hundreds of shooting stars in the color of blue and red, which crashed in midair brutally into thousands of pieces of blurred shadows!
Their real bodies, on the other hand, had attacked each other hundreds of times within the moment. The two sabers were crossed. Exhaust flames resembling torrents were spurting out of their backs at the same time. Several of their power rune arrays broke up almost at the same time. The two of them were blown away and consumed by the swirls of spiritual energy, unable to stabilize themselves for a long time!
Li Yao's Blood Moon Dragon Hunting Saber, which was made of thousands of metal wings, could hardly hold together anymore and was about to collapse.
Zhou Hengdao's brand new Five Tigers Hell Cutting Saber, on the other hand, had dozens of dents, too. Gaps that looked like spider webs were quickly spreading on the body of the saber.
They pointed their broken weapons at the opponent from faraway. The aura of the blades rushed out and illuminated the earth that was as dark as ink!
The two of them made full use of their spiritual energy the moment they were engaged without any reserve!
What accompanied the collision of sabers was the competition of the spiritual energy where their infinite will, belief, and soul power were condensed! In every second, tremendous telepathic thoughts were unleashed from their heads, tied up with the spiritual energy, and darted to the enemy's forehead like flying swords!
The competition of the righteous path was not one of pure strength but the most thorough analysis, debate, and challenge about each other's belief!
"Li Yao, just wake up already! Why do you have to protect the Blood Demon Sector when you are a federal hero?"
Zhou Hengdao's will suddenly exploded and blew the thought into Li Yao's head!
It was not a simple voice but the crystallization of Zhou Hengdao's thinking, which contained Zhou Hengdao's most intense emotions and most unwavering determination. It even included infinite pictures, colors, and even smells!
"I want to know why, too." Li Yao blew over a thought brutally. "Iron Commander, none of your immediate family were killed by the demons. Why are you blinded by hatred and bewildered by Li Yao to join the Patriots Partnership? Why on earth!"
"Wrong!" Zhou Hengdao roared and lunged forward again. He raised the Five Tigers Hell Cutting Saber high. The blade shone brilliantly and attracted the turbulence in the clouds. Hundreds of lightning arcs hit the tip of the saber, only to be absorbed by it. The five ferocious tigers painted on the saber turned into five mystic rays and really lunged out while the weapon slashed down toward Li Yao destructively and overwhelmingly!
"It is exactly because I don't have a personal grudge with the demon race that I joined the Patriots Partnership! As a soldier, all the decisions I made are based on the most rational thinking and the clearest head! I was neither blinded by hatred nor bewildered by Li Yao! My path was chosen after repetitive calculation and careful deduction. It is absolutely correct!"
The thought exploded in Li Yao's head in only 0.1 seconds before the arrival of the Five Tigers Hell Cutting Saber, which was mixed with the power of the thunderous tigers!
Having nowhere to dodge, Li Yao could only raise his weapon to resist. After a huge crack, the feathers on the Blood Moon Dragon Hunting Saber were blown everywhere, and the weapon was almost broken apart. It went all the way back and was pressed back into his own shoulder blade!
Zhou Hengdao's fighting will was higher than ever. The Five Tigers Hell Cutting Saber suppressed Li Yao's Blood Moon Dragon Hunting Saber, and the aura of the blade as overwhelming as flood was running toward Li Yao's carotid artery!
Li Yao gritted his teeth. The toughest wings beamed out of Black Wing again, providing powerful impetus, and pushed back Iron Commander together with his saber!
His brain seemed to be colliding with Zhou Hengdao's as he roared, "Is butchering tens of thousands of innocent victims part of your repetitive calculation and
careful deduction, too?"
Huala!
Zhou Hengdao was blown dozens of meters backward. Quite a few rune arrays on the Basaltic Fighting God Battlesuit broke apart at the same time. The Five Tigers Hell Cutting Saber was kept in his back and shivering slightly in the miserable rain.
"That was not the original plan! The deaths of the tens of thousands of innocent victims were not within my calculation! I will certainly answer for it when everything is over!" Zhou Hengdao roared. "But just because something is wrong with our approach doesn't mean that our path is wrong!
"Regardless of what you say, the Blood Demon Sector is at the feeblest moment in the past thousand years, and we have more than a hundred Children of the Nether World, the Demon God Virus, Burning Prairie, thousands of warships of the entire Flying Star Sector, and hundreds of thousands of Grand Illusionary Soldiers. We are at the strongest moment in the past thousand years!
"Answer me, Li Yao. Do you think that we cannot win such a war? Do you have zero confidence in the federation? Answer me!"
He did not wield his weapon, but the question slashed toward Li Yao with his telepathic thoughts that were condensed into an unstoppable aura!
Boom!
The invisible aura was crushed into pieces when it hit Li Yao's spiritual shield more than ten meters away from him. The streak of light bypassed Li Yao in an arc and dashed backward, disappearing in the storm.
"Of course, I am confident in the federation!"
Li Yao breathed heavily, accelerating the circulation of his spiritual energy and trying to recover his numb arms.
"Our greatest enemy is not the Blood Demon Sector but the Imperium of True Human Beings! Now that the Blood Demon Sector is willing to surrender, we can solve the problem with no bloodshed. Why do you have to sacrifice so many lives that are unnecessary to be sacrificed? Those soldiers should be dedicated to the resistance against the imperium!"
"Surrender? Hahahaha. As the saying goes, those who are not my people will certainly betray me in the end! Li Yao, you have almost stabilized in the Nascent Soul Stage right now, and you are still naïve enough to believe in the sincerity of the enemy's surrender?"
Iron Commander burst into laughter.
"If you're worried that we'll lose too much in the war and cannot get enough slaves to develop the resource planets, you don't need to!
"It's true that the Blood Demon Sector is being savaged by the Demon God Virus. A lot of demons are not dry bones now. Our assault is likely to escalate the plague and turn the Blood Demon Sector into a complete wasteland!
"However, don't forget that we now have the Demon God Virus and the antidote produced based on the blood of the Children of the Nether World!
"We can definitely control the plague and make it only savage the coalition army of demons. For most of the demons, we can capture them, inject vaccines, and impose barriers on them, thereby getting the healthiest, strongest slaves!
"I calculated before. I calculated more than a hundred times repetitively for ten days and ten nights. In such a way, we have a seventy percent likelihood to conquer more than half of the population of the Blood Demon Sector! If all the low-level demons are transformed into slaves, they will suffice to develop the resource planets!"
"Slaves?" Li Yao was gradually back to himself. His eyes were becoming more and more scary. "Do you really think that we can control billions of slaves and force them to mine dutifully on the resource planets thousands of lightyears away?
"It's impossible, Iron Commander. The slaves will definitely rebel! Even if they are suppressed for the next hundred years, and no large-scale uprisings take place, how high will their collection efficiency be?
"Besides, the humiliation and hatred that have been accumulated for a century will be transformed into the most violent bloodthirst the moment that the expedition army of the Imperium of True Human Beings arrives. Those slaves will join the Imperium of True Human Beings without any hesitation and turn against the federation!
"If we are talking about time bombs, they are the greatest time bombs that will blow the entire federation into smithereens at the critical moment!"
Boom!
The auras of their blades crashed into each other one more time, raising thousands of sparks of their thoughts. Zhou Hengdao bellowed, "You know the demons might rebel, too? You know the demons are unreliable, too? And yet, you are trying to introduce those guys into the federation and integrate them with human beings?
"Yes, you are right. Because of the shackles and the barriers, the demons who are now slaves may rebel or turn against us when the Imperium of True Human Beings arrives!
"Then, let's say your plan works out. The demons are integrated into the federation without being punished in a war. Will they not betray if so?
"Yes, they will. Greed is the nature of all creatures. They are still likely to rebel! Without the suppression of shackles and barriers, and when they are at the heart of the federation, they will only rebel faster and cause greater damage to the federation!
"Faced with a great war, the most important thing for us is solidarity, which is impossible between us and the demons. It is better to slay the hidden problem once and for all with the weapons of the people of my generation than to wait until they divide the federation in a hundred years!"
"Iron Commander, you couldn't be more wrong!" Li Yao slashed out hundreds of auras like tornadoes. "Since you captured Elder Nether Spring and even learned the secrets about Chaos, you must know that human beings and demons are of the same origin! Forty thousand years ago, everybody was human being! They were forced into such appearances because they had to!"
The hundreds of auras were taken by Zhou Hengdao the hard way, who would rather his breastplate explode than back off. His Five Tigers Hell Cutting Saber blew toward Li Yao's hands again. "Forty thousand years ago! You know that it was forty thousand years ago, too! Forty thousand years of blood and hatred are enough to turn us into two entirely different species that will not stop killing each other until only one of them stands!"
Under his brutal attack, Li Yao's Blood Moon Dragon Hunting Saber was finally blown away, but it took a circle in midair agilely before breaking into hundreds of streaks of brightness all of a sudden and returning to Li Yao.
With the interference of the Blood Moon Dragon Hunting Saber, Li Yao tore apart his breastplate and revealed the Hellish River Cannon. A light ball that was long prepared was shot out like a supernova outbreak!
"But right now, we have found a way to transform them reversely!"
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
Zhou Hengdao's broad shoulder plate and breastplate exploded into pieces, revealing hundreds of tiny flying swords that dashed out and darted toward Li Yao's attack. Hundreds of brilliant light balls immediately erupted in midair!
"It is exactly because of the simplemindedness of people like you that we decided to start a war at any cost!
"Appearances can be changed, but what about their hearts? Even the heart of a human being can be fickle, not to mention demons! Do you not understand that appeasement only brings disaster?
"Li Yao, stop being obstinate! What you have been doing is merely meant to satisfy your illusionary sense of justice under your wishful, naïve way of thinking, which will only ruin the federation in the end!
"I will not let you ruin the federation. Never. Go to hell!"
Chapter 1151: The Real Spirit of the Federation! |
While the Hellish River Cannon was dealing with the hundreds of flying swords, the long boa in the Basaltic Fighting God Battlesuit suddenly dashed out of the turtle shell and pecked Li Yao's head brutally!
Caught unprepared, Li Yao activated the drill of mystic rays made of the seven dragon heads intuitively, which crashed into the head of the Basaltic Fighting God Battlesuit!
Nobody won the collision, but the Basaltic Fighting God Battlesuit had another four artificial arms!
The other pair of arms that Zhou Hengdao had been hiding on the two sides
of his body finally showed up! Fourteen fingers, with seven fingers in each hand, moved quickly and performed almost a thousand gestures within a breath, which overlapped into a powerful, aggressive rune array!
Bolstered by the spiritual energy sent from the marrow crystals embedded inside the arms, the rune array was developed instantly and turned into a cluster of blue mystic rays in the shape of a tiger head!
BOOM!
The tiger-shaped brilliance hit Li Yao's abdomen brutally!
Blood soared out of Li Yao's body. His defense was finally crushed. Zhou Hengdao took the opportunity and slashed right at his head, knocking Li Yao hundreds of meters down into the mud on the ground!
Pu! Pu!
Another few rune arrays on the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit exploded, burned, and perished. The crystal suit was as slack as the shell of an opened lobster. His body where blood was running out was revealed!
Zhou Hengdao descended slowly with a cold face. He opened his arms. Invisible air currents swept out from him. Deep below the ground, something seemed to be echoing with him!
Crack!
Crack! Crack!
A weird thing happened!
In the middle of the fierce thunderstorm, the land in the dozens of kilometers nearby split apart. Broken metal slowly floated from the depths of the soil and staggered to gather around Zhou Hengdao as if they sensed his calling!
With a closer look…
Many metal scraps were carved with the Rising Dragon of the Nine Stars pattern and the emblems of different troops. They were the clumsy, old-fashioned weapons and the debris of crystal tanks and warships!
This place turned out to be an ancient battlefield where the blades of the past were buried!
"Do you know what place this is?" Zhou Hengdao eyed Li Yao coldly from the high ground. "With the collision of the two worlds, this place has gradually become covered by furious spiritual energy and the edge of the Dark Desolate Domain. But two hundred years ago, this place was the Broken Wind Valley, center of the north of the Grand Desolate Plateau!
