by <unknown>
Kou Ruhuo had poured a lot of tutelage telepathic thoughts into the mainframe crystal processor of the Rockman so that Li Yao could get the hang of it more quickly through the Half-Step Grand Illusionary Land.
After he was familiarized with the superstring shield and the shoulder cannons, Kou Ruhuo allocated ten spiritual puppets to him.
Considering that it was his first time, the spiritual puppets were all set to an automatic defense mode and did not require manual maneuvering. Their main responsibility was to protect him.
After examining the list of spiritual puppets, Li Yao noticed that the Immortal Cultivators had indeed spared no expense for the exploration into Kunlun. They had mobilized more than eight hundred spiritual puppets to go to the underground with them.
Li Yao was more than glad to see that.
After all, the fewer spiritual puppets left in the war base, the easier it would be for the Fire Ant King and Professor Mo Xuan to attack.
Chances were that Professor Mo Xuan could even find an opportunity to hack the mainframe crystal processor of the war base!
In that case, the faces of the three Immortal Cultivators would definitely be indescribable after they returned from the underground with full loads.
He did find one thing odd, though. "Why don't we simply send the spiritual puppets for the exploration mission instead of placing ourselves in danger?"
"The spiritual and electromagnetic interference beneath the primeval battlefield are too strong," Kou Ruhuo explained. "We sent a squad of spiritual puppets down there for investigation earlier, but they lost contact with the base after marching around ten kilometers! It is estimated that a certain anti-invasion rune array that can block telepathic thoughts has been installed somewhere in the primeval battlefield and is still functioning to some extent after hundreds of thousands of years!
"Therefore, we must go down in person and control the spiritual puppets at a short distance through our brainwaves that are magnified through the control unit in the crystal suit!"
"It explains a lot!" Li Yao nodded and, thinking for a moment, asked again, "We have eight hundred spiritual puppets. Aren't they too many for us to control?"
"It doesn't matter!" Kou Ruhuo smiled. "The spiritual puppets have been programed with almost ten thousand classic tactics in advance. As long as they remain connected to our brain, they will automatically choose the most suitable tactic after receiving a fuzzy order from us!
"For example, we only need to give orders such as 'attack' or 'stay alert' but don't have to mind the specific operations of every spiritual puppet—they will choose the best plan themselves!"
Li Yao nodded and understood everything.
The spiritual puppets were the upgraded version of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers. They were somewhat similar to the modifications that the Heaven's Origin Sector and the Flying Star Sector were performing on the Grand Illusionary Soldiers.
If I can steal the technology of spiritual puppets of the Imperium of True Human Beings, it will be a great help for the modification of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers on our side!
Li Yao looked forward to the trip into the planetary warship more and more.
He was eager to find out the true capabilities of the three Immortal Cultivators and what kind of delicate tactics they and their spiritual puppets could present.
Very soon, Su Changfa and Tang Qianhe were all set to go.
In order to manipulate the tremendous spiritual puppets, they had each installed a special brainwave enhancement unit on the back of their crystal suit. A few circuits that looked like magnifiers also protruded out of their helmets like awesome horns.
"Let's go!"
Kou Ruhuo waved his hands toward the giant pit at the center of the primeval battlefield.
Su Changfa was the leader of the exploration team, but after they entered the real battle, Kou Ruhuo, as the chief of arms, took over commander.
A hundred spiritual puppets were ahead of them as vanguard, three hundred were staying on alert behind them, ensuring their retreat at whatever cost when they were in peril, and the other four hundred were gathered around them.
All the spiritual puppets were within three kilometers from them, which was the maximum range for the manipulation of their brainwaves.
I didn't expect that I would have Xiao Xuance's privilege one day.
Li Yao felt like laughing. When he was confronting Xiao Xuance in the past, what he hated most were the hundreds of Grand Illusionary Soldiers that the guy summoned to help him.
He had never thought that he would be living a happy life where hundreds of meat shields would rush forward and slash his opponents into pieces at his cough.
If looked at from a hundred kilometers up in the sky, the center of the primeval battlefield was a dark, giant hole, dozens of kilometers in diameter.
However, when they did reach the edge of the hole, they seemed to have reached the end of a cliff, with a bottomless abyss in front of them.
Spiritual energy was surging out from underground like scorching steam.
When Li Yao scanned with the special crystal cameras that were mixed with the powder of the rare metals, he saw colorful geysers rushing up in a hurry into enormous pillars that stabbed into the sky, consuming the entire world!
Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!
Many units on the crystal suit were sending out alarms.
Even the operation menu that was projected to the retina showed colorful streaks and ripples.
They were signs of serious interference.
As the saying went, water can lift a boat, but it can knock over a boat, too. Spiritual energy was naturally an indispensable resource for both Cultivators and Immortal Cultivators. However, when the intensity of the spiritual energy was too high, to the point that it was like a raging flood, they would not be able to bear it, either!
It was as simple as one could not eat too much food or drink too much water during a short while. If soaked in the spiritual energy whose density was too high, not only would the magical equipment be seriously affected, even the circulation of spiritual energy of the Cultivators themselves would also be vulnerable to the interference. They might even become mentally deranged!
Li Yao understood why they had to go down in person now.
In such a complicated environment, any remote-control magical equipment would malfunction.
Hundreds of spiritual puppets flew into the dark abyss as the first echelon.
Despite the serious inference, they managed to send back a lot of fuzzy pictures.
The channel leading to the core of the planet was perhaps an entrance for a certain middle-sized starship. It was more than a hundred kilometers long. Sophisticated traces of burning that looked like bizarre paintings could be found on the walls.
"Let's go down!"
A minute later, when the spiritual puppets that had descended three kilometers reported no anomaly, the four of them drove their crystal suits to fly downward slowly, too.
Zhi! Zhi! Zhi! Zhi! Zhi!
Wuuu! Wuuu!
In the middle of the tide of spiritual energy that was rushing from the core of the planet, Li Yao immediately heard the cries of ghosts, as if the darkness below their feet led to the gate of the deepest level of hell, where countless hungry apparitions and fiends were impatiently waiting for their arrival.
"There's no need to fret!" Kou Ruhuo reassured them solemnly. "It's not anything alive. Our surveillance rune arrays must've been affected by certain flames of spiritual energy whose frequency and nature are unclear!"
The four of them held their breath and continued descending. As it turned out, after flying down almost a hundred kilometers, except for the ghost cries that were becoming more and more miserable and devastating, they ran into nothing abnormal.
However, in the darkness in front of them, glittering floccules were gradually showing up. They looked like fluorescent jellyfish and translucent hairtails.
When the spiritual puppets at the front to
uched the floccules, they immediately entangled the hands and feet of the few spiritual puppets.
From the manifestation of the local area network, Li Yao could tell that the erosion of the few spiritual puppets was quickly soaring. They were apparently under the attack of the floccules.
"Those things are probably abnormal creatures that slowly came into being after the planetary warship was abandoned, but they are still in a very low-level phase."
While observing the floccules to attack the spiritual puppets, Tang Qianhe said softly, "I think that they are somewhat similar to the 'Spirit Devouring Insect Grass', an ancient creature in the primeval era. However, the Spirit Devouring Insect Grass lived in the ocean, but those things are floating in the air."
"Given the abundant spiritual energy in the place," Su Changfa said, "perhaps, the creatures that feed on spiritual energy such as the 'Spirit Devouring Insect Grass' are provided with a force field the resembles buoyancy. This is a very unique mini ecological system!
"Be careful, everybody. The Spirit Devouring Insect Grass is already one level more advanced than the moss and bushes that we discovered on the ground. Although their attack is not fatal, it is quite a nuisance when then entangle the joints of the crystal suit.
"Their appearance suggests an intact ecological system down there. Perhaps, more ferocious ancient creatures, which have survived for generation after generation as 'living fossils', are lurking in the broken interior of the planetary warship!"
Eerie as the Spirit Devouring Insect Grass was, their speed was quite slow, and they were quite sparse. It was not difficult to pass through them.
After passing through the activity zone of the Spirit Devouring Insect Grass, they descended another thirty kilometers before they ran into the first branch.
It was an enormous hole that was apparently blown out by brute force in the smooth tube leading straight downward. A new pathway that was almost parallel to the ground had been dug out.
"According to my speculation…" Su Changfa pondered for a moment and said, "The tube we've flown in through was probably one of the 'jet impetus tubes' of the planetary warship. Through the power rune arrays deployed at the center of the planet, the spiritual energy can be blown out crazily through here so that the direction and the rotation speed of the planetary warship can be adjusted.
"It is obvious that the power rune array at the core is somewhat damaged, resulting in the significant leak of spiritual energy. That's why the spiritual energy here is so dense!
"I tested it just now. The density of spiritual energy here is already two times higher than at the entrance. If we go any further, neither our crystal suits nor ourselves will be able to bear it. Also, if the spiritual energy is supersaturated, a great explosion might be triggered if we are careless for one second!
"The hole in the tube must've been made by the invaders during the primeval war.
"They certainly had their reason for breaking in here. Perhaps, the valuable items are along this branch!"
Su Changfa's speculation made a lot of sense, and the other three nodded in agreement.
Right then, Tang Qianhe pointed at the depths of the branch and shouted, "I have detected a lot of signs of life!"
Chapter 1271: The Blood Tide and the Hellish Light Butterflies |
The signs of life came over exactly from the pathway that was blown out by force.
The four of them did not hesitate anymore. Covered by the hundreds of spiritual puppets, they changed their direction and flew into the enormous hole.
The pathway, which had been formed by an explosion, did not belong to the planetary starship. Traces of melting metal could be found everywhere, making the pathway look like a cave in a mountain. Occasionally, circles of whorls could be seen on the wall.
If Li Yao was asked to take a guess, he would propose that the invaders dug into the wall with a huge drill which had an unbelievably high temperature. The drill melted all the metal components of the planetary warship and created such a destructive channel.
The invaders must have planned to hit the critical part directly in such a way!
Therefore, there was surely a certain invaluable treasure, or a core facility of the planetary warship, at the end of the channel!
Because of the enormity of the planetary warship, they had not reached the end yet even after they walked forward in darkness for ten minutes.
Occasionally, they ran into the broken dead bodies of the Pangu Clan and the giant metal puppets that had been twisted and deformed. The hollow eyes of the metal puppets were gazing at the depths of the channel, as if they were monuments guiding the way for them.
Tang Qianhe pierced into the dead bodies with a syringe but failed to retrieve any living material.
After almost a million years of erosion, the corpses and the puppets had long lost their vigor and magnificence of the past. They had turned into what appeared to be fossils and gradually melded with Kunlun.
It was not until half an hour later when a tiny red spot, which looked like a flickering lantern in the dark night, popped up ahead.
The signs of life were suddenly getting intense.
All four of them held their breath. The spiritual puppets entered the state of the highest alert.
As they moved forward, the red spot grew larger and larger still until it gradually occupied their eyes and turned into—
A red inferno.
Li Yao swallowed subconsciously. He felt that his throat was both stinky and scorching.
The scene in front of them obviously fitted the description of the inferno.
At the end of the channel was a boundless square that was more than a hundred kilometers both in length and width.
Li Yao discovered what seemed to be starship debris at the edge of the square. They were similar to the primeval warships on the ground.
Therefore, it was quite possible that this place was a starship manufacture center deep inside Kunlun.
A planetary warship was massive, so it would not often perform space jumps but usually served as a 'base'.
Both the Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan certainly needed starships that were more agile for the regular battle, patrol, and logistics missions.
The starship manufacture center was brimming with dead bodies of human beings and soldiers of the Nuwa Clan and the Pangu Clan. Everybody was mauling each other in the most resolute manner.
Their twisted bodies reminded Li Yao of the bacteria under a microscope.
The scale of the battlefield and the fierceness of the battle were a hundred times greater than the battlefield on the surface!
What was most blood-freezing for Li Yao was that all the dead bodies—whether they belonged to human beings, the Nuwa Clan, or the Pangu Clan—were buried in thick redness. They were even wriggling under the influence of the spiritual waves.
Everybody became a creature of blood. They seemed to have been skinned and were struggling miserably with their bleeding wounds.
It was like the soldiers who should have been killed hundreds of thousands of years ago were still haunting the place and having the most brutal battles day after day incessantly!
"They are moss," Kou Ruhuo said calmly. He commanded a spiritual puppet to fly to the battlefield.
Li Yao observed carefully and finally discovered the truth.
All the dead bodies and the remnants of magical equipment were densely covered in a layer of blood red moss with barely any gap left.
The moss was extremely thick, and it was even able to move around. The hundred square kilometers there was its territory. It was the moss that made the dead bodies red and seem to be moving.
When the spiritual puppets were still more than ten meters from the ground, the blood red moss on the ground suddenly flowed crazily, like a storm that was brewing on a peaceful ocean. An enormous tide made of the red moss rolled up to almost fifty meters high and consumed a spiritual puppet directly!
Being enveloped by the moss, the spiritual puppet seemed to ha
ve fallen into an extremely weird stomach. It soon gave up struggling and simply allowed the moss to drag it into the debris. Soon, there was no sign of it anymore.
"This is a kind of weird moss named 'Blood Tide'. It is a 'living fossil' that has survived to this day from the primeval era," Su Changfa explained to Li Yao. "The Blood Tide is also known as 'Ghoul Moss'. It feeds on crystals and also corrodes metals. A very foul creature, actually. It's not unusual to go through all the trouble of excavating a relic only to discover that everything inside has been devoured by the Blood Tide.
"Thankfully, the primeval battlefield here is too large for the Blood Tide to spread to every corner. Otherwise, the ecological system wouldn't be functioning at all!
"As you have seen, the Blood Tide can attack targets thirty to forty meters from the ground. For our safety, let's not fly to below fifty meters from the ground."
Li Yao did not know much. He was there to learn from the three Immortal Cultivators after all. He nodded and asked again after thinking for a moment, "Now that the Blood Tide has covered all the dead bodies and puppets, how are we going to excavate them?"
"There's no need to be hasty," Su Changfa said softly. "Adjust the spiritual energy output of your crystal suit to the minimum level. As long as the gravity control unit can keep you floating in midair, it will be good enough!
"Kou Ruhuo and Tang Qianhe will take care of everything."
Li Yao turned off most of the magical equipment units on his crystal suit as he was told obediently. Like a giant rock floating in midair, he calmed down and observed Kou Ruhuo and Tang Qianhe's operation.
The two Immortal Cultivators examined the square carefully with two squads of spiritual puppets, paying special attention to the dome that was covered in darkness.
The two of them and the spiritual puppets soon vanished into the darkness.
Very soon, golden brilliance was bursting out in the darkness like lightning in a dark cloud.
Kou Ruhuo and Tang Qianhe fled out, followed by dozens of dazzling streaks of light, as if they were being hunted by dozens of dragons!
