by <unknown>
"Sparkle, a ship less than a hundred meters long, could manage to jump over, but a super warships dozens of kilometers long such as Burning Prairie cannot jump to a place with such complicated conditions!
"Besides, it is impossible for us to deploy star beacons here, which will be destroyed by the meteoroid cascades before they are unfolded. Even if they are not, they will barely be able to guide the way precisely because of the interference of the pulsar and will likely lead Burning Prairie toward the pulsar!"
Space jumps could be highly perilous. A starship was always defenseless when it just finished a space jump.
Sparkle was a super mini exploration ship that was agile and easy to maneuver. That was why it could risk jumping to the middle of the turbulence.
Burning Prairie, on the other hand, was too huge. At the most vulnerable moment after it finished the space jump, the odds of it getting hit by the meteoroid cascades were thousands of times higher than Sparkle. Also, it was bound to be affected by the pulsar!
Another very dangerous possibility was that some large meteoroids would melt into the engine unit or the warehouse of crystals during the space jump.
Objects that did not belong to the same place would be overlapped by force, and a great explosion would definitely be raised!
One other possible that was even more dangerous was that Burning Prairie would land too near the pulsar!
Once it was captured or even swallowed by the pulsar, the dream warship, along with the hundreds of Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and Core Formation Stage Cultivators on board, would be compressed to the size of rice, and even their remaining souls would not be able to escape. They would not even know how they were killed.
After discussing the issue with the four star spirits for a while, they all agreed that it was impossible to establish star beacons at this place. Thus, they had two options.
Firstly, they could fly to the opposite direction out of the crab nebula and then build up star beacons beyond the reach of the pulsar.
The advantage of such an option was that it was secure, but the shortcoming was that it would waste a lot of time. Even if Burning Prairie was teleported over, it would still be outside of the crab nebula. They would still have to slowly clear the sailing route and fly in bit by bit.
Secondly, they could fly further into the crab nebula and stop somewhere near Kunlun.
"The crab nebula is like a cosmic storm. The outer area has a complicated spiritual and electromagnetic environment, but the center is a relatively stable zone, just like the 'eye' in a storm!"
Analyzing the astronomical parameters just collected, Professor Mo Xuan said, "The Pangu civilization's relic 'Kunlun' is exactly at the center!
"Deploying the star beacons at the 'eye' will allow Burning Prairie to pass the crab nebula and directly appear in Kunlun. What do you think, everybody?"
Although the plan was a bit risky, the odds of success were still quite high with the delicate control of the four star spirits. Right now, they were trying to beat the Immortal Cultivators of the Imperium to their destination; there was no time to worry too much.
After activating the spiritual shield and the force field twisting system to the maximum, Sparkle wriggled forward in the crab nebula like a glittering firefly.
They ran into small meteoroid cascades and spiritual energy turbulence on their way, but the probe magical equipment on Sparkle detected the events in advance and dodged them perfectly. The journey proved to be soul-stirring but safe.
However, the closer they got to Kunlun, the denser the meteoroids in front of them became. They had nowhere to dodge and could only crash into the meteoroids.
"This is abnormal. The 'meteoroids' look very weird. They do not seem natural!"
Manipulating two artificial arms, Professor Mo Xuan dragged a 'meteoroid' into Sparkle. After five sterilization procedures, he examined the elements of the object in person. As it turned out, it was made of a super alloy that would hardly appear in a natural environment.
"This is not a meteoroid but a certain synthetic material."
Everybody looked at each other in bewilderment, but they had no choice except to move forward.
In the voyage in the next hour, everybody was breathing ill at ease, as if they were on a ragged boat that was sailing in infamous, dangerous reefs.
"Look!"
Very soon, they discovered edges that were obviously unnatural on more meteoroids. Some of the meteoroids were even carved with complicated spiritual stripes.
The spiritual stripes were a hundred times more chaotic than the most sophisticated spiritual stripes of the present day. Even Li Yao, a specialist who was familiar with the ancient spiritual stripes and the contemporary ones, had never seen such eerie, messy spiritual stripes that contained boundless information before!
"Li Yao, what does the 'meteoroid ocean' remind you of?" Professor Mo Xuan asked him in a low voice.
In a trance, Li Yao mumbled, "I'm thinking of the debris of the space battlefield that we saw when we just arrived in the Flying Star Sector. I feel that this is also a relic of a space battlefield, not ten thousand years ago, not forty thousand years ago, but… from a primeval era that is much more ancient!"
Right then, a star spirit exclaimed.
The searchlight of Sparkle detected a human-shaped object!
"Fly over, let's take a look!"
All seven of them got excited. Maneuvering Sparkle, Professor Mo Xuan drilled a channel in the ocean of meteoroids with the drill of mystic rays. Very soon, they discovered a body that was floating in the cold universe!
It was a gargantuan body in a heavy armor that looked very similar to a crystal suit but with additional solemnity and dominance, indicating that its master might eclipse the stars.
Counting the armor, the ancient body was more than twenty meters long. The general appearance of the body was very similar to that of a human being, but it boasted six arms and a hairy tail.
The facial cover of the body had been knocked off a long time ago, revealing a hideous face with long tusks. Traces of scales could be found on many parts of its face, too.
For some reason, the body was still preserved perfectly and vividly after such a long time. The fury, regret, and desperation on the face were etched onto Li Yao's heart.
There was a hole more than three meters in diameter on the abdomen of 'him', and all the internal organs inside had disappeared.
If 'his' biological structure was similar to that of a human being, the wound should have been fatal.
But even after death, 'his' arms were still waving different weapons.
Li Yao could vaguely distinguish several sabers and swords in ancient structures. Some other magical equipment was cylindrical. It was hard to tell whether or not they were remote weapons such as guns.
"This is a member of the Pangu Clan!" The Fire Ant King's eyes were beaming with joy.
They had once seen a corpse of the Pangu Clan in Ba Yanzhi's Mausoleum of Chaos. Although the previous guy was half human being and half snake and looked quite different from the six-armed dude in front of them right now, the armor that had almost melted into their bodies shared a lot of similarities. It was not hard to tell that their style was consistent.
"It seems that a fierce battle once took place in 'Kunlun'. The Pangu Clan had a confrontation with other primeval species. The ocean of meteoroids is made of the debris and scraps from the broken starships at that time!"
Controlling Sparkle, Professor Mo Xuan drew close carefully. After scanning up and down more than ten times and making sure that there was no anomaly, he extended the mechanical arm, trying to pluck a weapon in the hand of the dead body.
Li Yao, however, felt a sharp pain in his head as if somebody stung him. He shouted subconsciously, "Watch out!"
Chapter 1220: Pangu's Roar! |
But there was no time!
Professor Mo Xuan was himself an experienced adventurer. He had scanned the corpse from inside and outside and ensu
red that there was absolutely no sign of life before he actually touched it.
Also, before Li Yao shouted, the professor felt something wrong himself and aborted operating the artificial arm in time when it was still one millimeter away from the dead body of the Pangu Clan.
However, the dead body seemed to be 'revived'. Brightness was spurting out of every gap on the armor. The previously lackluster colors became vibrant again, as if an invisible barrier had been broken!
For a moment, everybody saw the same illusion. The warrior of the Pangu Clan seemed to have been awakened from millions of years of dormancy and was lunging at Sparkle unstoppably, waving his six arms and thick tail!
Before anybody had time to react, he had already crashed into the spiritual shield of Sparkle. The console was uttering such deafening alarms that they were even louder than when the starship was hit by the meteoroid cascade after the space jump!
Boom!
In 0.1 seconds, the spiritual shield surpassed its limits, and the unit exploded!
In the explosion, the shield around Sparkle was much brighter than before, turning from the previous ivory to deep red!
Thankfully, they had aimed the head of the starship at the corpse in the beginning, and the drill of mystic rays on the head, having just drilled through the meteoroid ocean, was also standing by. Professor Mo Xuan responded quickly and activated the drill with a bellow!
Dazzling sparks burst out as the drill pushed forward. The warrior of the Pangu Clan was immediately disintegrated into cosmic dust. The high-energy particle flow pierced Sparkle and everybody on board!
Sparkle was shaking violently like a bird whose wings were broken in a storm.
Li Yao felt that a raging river of magma, passing millions of years and millions of lightyears, poured into his brain, bringing him infinite fear, fury, hatred, and desperation!
The primeval memories hidden deep inside his brain cells awakened again.
He seemed to envision countless bizarrely-shaped giants in the same armor as this warrior's flying and fighting in space!
The dark universe was soon brimming with colorful blood. Even the cold space was simmering because of their fighting will. It was a vacuum, but the thunder made of billions of roars were clearly audible!
Pu!
Li Yao vomited a mouthful of blood. He felt that his head was ten times its normal size, and he could barely condense a telepathic thought.
His brain might explode if he did!
Touching his face, he discovered that dark red blood was leaking out of his pore!
"Moo!"
The dead body of the Pangu Clan was gone. However, from the deepest part of the dust, a magnificent, immense, and solid roar came over and swept across the whole of Sparkle!
Tremendous rune arrays inside Sparkle exploded. The units all lost their effect, lights were flickering on and off, and fire seemed to have consumed the ship!
The 'storm' lasted about one minute.
But it was not until ten minutes later that the three explorers and four star spirits gradually calmed down from the chaotic state of their souls.
The automatic maintenance system on Sparkle had begun working a long time ago and doused the fire. The damaged shell was fixed, too. However, the broken units that were too complicated required manual work to be repaired.
The starship was only seventy-seven percent intact. The spiritual shield had suffered the most damage. It would not be able to work again without a few hours' maintenance.
All seven of them were dizzy and unable to talk, still dwelling in the vast primeval battlefield.
"It's… part of the undying will of the dead body that didn't disperse after millions of years. Attracted by the spiritual waves of Sparkle, it suddenly burst out!" Professor Mo Xuan analyzed, not entirely recovered from the shock. "To quote the ancient Cultivators, the warrior of the Pangu Clan must've 'died with his eyes open full of hatred'. We have just suffered from the blast of his hatred!
"Thankfully, the spiritual shield of Sparkle was powerful enough to withstand most of the blast. Otherwise, our souls might've been blown apart, and we would be mentally deranged!
"Is everybody alright?"
Li Yao, the Fire Ant King, and the four star spirits examined themselves with their own techniques. A moment later, they all nodded in relief.
It was a dead body from millions of years ago after all. After floating near a pulsar for such a long time and bathing in pulses and radiation all the time, the body had already become ninety-nine percent disintegrated.
It was also why the body was so feeble that it was obliterated after the first crash.
The seven of them were just awed. The four star spirits, who were relatively weaker, were not quite back to themselves yet, but they were all physically fine.
"Did you hear a 'moo' resembling the sound of a bull a moment ago?" Li Yao picked his ears, only to dig out a cluster of blood. He wanted to make sure that he had not been hallucinating. "It was from the deepest part of the dead body and sounded like a message or a sentence!"
"Yes, I did!"
"Me, too!"
The rest of them all nodded; everybody received the message.
Professor Mo Xuan turned on the surveillance system of Sparkle and replayed what had happened a while back. From the broadcast rune arrays, not just everybody's exclamations and the explosion of units but also a flood-like noise were echoing.
"Moo!"
The expressions of the seven of them all changed. It was exactly the sound!
"This is the last word of the warrior of the Pangu Clan!" Professor Mo Xuan mumbled, somewhat in excitement. "Let's try to decipher it!"
Li Yao had heard the Pangu Clan talking in the primeval memories, but it was not a unique privilege. Many other Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and demon emperors had entered the 'primeval memory' state and heard a lot of sounds before as well.
But they could not understand the meaning of the sounds both then and now because what the Pangu Clan employed was a more advanced and sophisticated language system.
The common tongue of mankind was a standard two-dimensional language, with every word denoting a certain meaning. When words were ordered in a specific sequence, an episode of complete information would be expressed.
The sequence was unique in every utterance.
The language that the Pangu Clan adopted, however, was sort of a three-dimensional language, in which many words were combined and overlaid according to mysterious rules. They might sound like one syllable, but when they were expanded, they contained more than a hundred syllables that had thousands of combinations and could express infinite meanings!
Although such a language system was esoteric, it was not entirely unlearnable for human beings.
In the world of Cultivators, many spells were the mutations, or 'descendants', of such a cubic language.
For example, the spell 'by the decree of the deities' could be used to activate many techniques. However, the spell was not as simple as six words but in fact a compression of more than a hundred commands to summon spiritual energy and cast the technique. 'By the decree of the deities' was just how it sounded on the surface.
Also, many Cultivators liked to shout out the names of their moves when they were performing their techniques. For example, 'Five Thunder Piercing the Heart', 'Chasing the Clouds and Fighting the Lightning', 'Purple Fire Green Glow', and such. They might sound awesome for the teenagers who did not know the truth, but it was actually quite awkward for the irrelevant bystanders who were watching them.
The Cultivators were not being pretentious. Such shouts were also part of the high-level language and contained hundreds of commands to construct force fields and combine the moves of attack.
Right now, there were more than thirty mainstream spell systems in the world of Cultivators. As for the non-mainstream and the obsolete ones, there were more than two hundred of them.
Professor Mo Xuan did not know the basic grammar of the Pangu Clan's l
anguage system yet. He could also try to crack it by brute force in the most primitive way, which meant that he would unzip the 'moo' sound according to the rules of the two hundred spell systems and see if he could get anything meaningful.
"Since the Pangu Clan is our creator, and we share similar biological structure and both transmit information by vibrating the air with a certain organ, it is very possible that the grammar on which our language systems are founded is the same!
"Many of the two hundred spell systems were inherited from the ancient Cultivators forty thousand years ago. Chances are that some of them are language fossils and still keep the features of the Pangu Clan's language!"
A linguist of the Sky Fantasia Academy had come up with the idea, and soon, it had been accepted by all the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators. After three days, a new technique, which was dedicated to the decryption of the information left by the Pangu Clan, had been added to the mainframe crystal processor of Sparkle.
This was the first time that the technique had been used. Whether or not it worked remained to be seen.
Professor Mo Xuan activated the technique and decompressed the 'moo' with the two hundred spell systems collected from the three Sectors.
More than a hundred and forty systems were inapplicable, but sixty-seven soundtracks were successfully extracted.
Everybody held their breath and listened to them one by one.
Most of the sound tracks were meaningless noises. Some parts seemed to be patterned, but their meanings were unknown.
"Try denoise processing!"
Professor Mo Xuan filtered more than ten times and finally got three audio tracks.
Each audio track was only several seconds long and contained around twenty syllables. They sounded rhythmic, suggesting that they were part of a language.
Judging from the gap of the syllables, the three audio tracks meant the same thing. They were just the different expressions of the same information under three different spell systems.
However, the three expressions were vastly different from the common tongue of mankind.
"Nuwa? Vous nous avez trahi? Je jure de vous tuer! Je jure de vous tuer"
