by <unknown>
They were enormous holes that could be hundreds of kilometers in diameter, leading to the core of the planets.
One of the satellites had been entirely emptied, with only a thin shell on the surface, but under the support of some uncanny force, it was still able to maintain the basic form.
It appeared that the Pangu civilization regarded all the planets and satellites in the galaxy other than the fourth planet as 'resource planets' and did not intend to colonize them. They were merely exploiting the resources inside and threw away all the planets that had been drained.
It was quite fitting for the status at the last years of the God-Sealing War, where both parties were trying their best and shedding their blood.
Li Yao noticed some existences that were suspected to be the Pangu civilization's relics, too.
But he did not dare explore them recklessly while he was all by himself.
If he was caught in a perilous situation like the one on Kunlun, he would be killed for sure, all alone.
He could only scan and record the appearance and coordinates of the relics of the Pangu civilization for now. After he determined that the Sector was absolutely safe, he could send the coordinates and information back to the federation so that the mother planet could deploy a large-scale fleet for exploration.
A month later, Spark, which was pretending to be a meteor, finally drifted into the gravitational field of a satellite of the fourth planet.
Li Yao docked Spark at the dark side of the 'moon' to maintain a sense of safety, however thin it was.
He did three days of rehabilitative training there. Finally, he felt that his body and soul had recovered to the peak state before the hibernation. Even the invisible cracks in the deepest part of his soul were gone!
Everything was ready for exploration!
This exploration was different from his travels in the Flying Star Sector in that he had very clear targets.
Firstly, he had to sneak into the mysterious world without exposing his real identity. He would observe the development level of the local civilization, study their social form, make acquaintance with the core leadership of the civilization, and figure out why they 'greeted' the Heaven's Origin Sector and the Flying Star Sector without a reason.
Secondly, he would have to find out whether the civilization was malicious or kind.
If Li Yao determined that the civilization was ruthless, hostile one after studies, he would then have to figure out whether or not it was capable of launching a cross-world attack toward the Star Glory Federation.
If it was, Li Yao would try to learn the specific patterns of the attack before he left without a sound and brought all the intelligence back to the federation so that the federation could make preparations or even attack in advance.
Li Yao had been away from the federation for a hundred years. After a hundred years of booming development, the Star Glory Federation today should no longer be a fish on a chopping block at anyone's mercy now, right?
He almost could not wait to establish the 'space gate' and see how magnificent the troop jumping out of the space gate was!
If the hostile civilization did not boast the cross-world remote attack ability, or it was even unaware of the existence of the Star Glory Federation and had simply sprayed the signals to the entire universe aimlessly, Li Yao would take different actions.
He would still bring the information back to the federation so that the federation would leave the mysterious world aside for now and focus its full attention on the expedition fleet of the Imperium of True Human Beings.
In the second scenario, if the civilization was not malicious, and it simply sent out the signals for the purpose of communication, the Star Glory Federation would definitely give a friendly reply, too.
Considering that the army of the Imperium of True Human Beings was approaching, and the dreadful people of the Covenant Alliance were haunting the universe like ghosts, Li Yao would try his best to persuade the Sector to join the federation.
If the civilization wished to retain part of its independence, the Star Glory Federation could still form a partnership with the civilization in order to resist the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance together.
As an adventurer galloping in the universe, Li Yao had been entrusted with great powers. He was allowed to get in touch, communicate, and sign eligible treaties with an unknown civilization before the authorization of the parliament in the federation.
In short, in the boundless sea of stars, Li Yao was not simply a 'diplomat' of the Star Glory Federation; Li Yao was the Star Glory Federation itself!
Other than the two missions with clear targets, there was a variable that might or might not be serious.
It was the expedition fleet of the Imperium of True Human Beings, made of the 'Black Wind soldiers', who were so brutal and infamous in the Imperium that even Su Changfa, Kou Ruhuo, and Tang Qianhe were scared of them!
Over the past hundred years, while the federation was developing fast, the Black Wind fleet had certainly not been resting, either. Chances were that it had already jumped to somewhere in the area.
After Li Yao's personal experience, he doubted that the Black Wind fleet would be stupid enough to dive into the depths of the dark nebula directly.
However, even if the main troops stayed outside, it was still possible that a few scouts had been sent to explore the dark nebula on the super-tiny starships exactly like he did.
The space voyage technology of the Imperium of True Human Beings was much more advanced than that of the Star Glory Federation. Their efficiency would certainly be multiple times higher than Li Yao's.
If the Black Wind fleet of the Imperium of True Human Beings truly discovered the mysterious world and even conspired with the local civilization to attack the Star Glory Federation together, it would be a terrible disaster.
Therefore, Li Yao had to stop such a future.
Should he run into an Immortal Cultivator in the mysterious world, he would have to try his best to sabotage their alliance with the locals and make the locals join hands with the federation!
All things considered, the stance of the mysterious world would have a huge influence on the outcome of the war to defend the federation!
Other than that, there was also a low possibility, which was that it was the blood descendants of the Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan who had been living on the mysterious planet all the time, like the 'living fossils' that had hidden and reproduced on a lone island for hundreds of thousands of years.
But judging from the environment here, the possibility was almost negligible.
If it were the Pangu Clan or the Nuwa Clan who resided in the place, their footprints should be all over the sea of stars, should they not?
Prepare to go!
Spark was too obvious a target after all. Li Yao did not intend to bring it with him.
He landed Spark on the first satellite of the fourth planet, remembered its coordinates, and set up the controller of self-detonation. He then stored all the assets other than the star beacons into his Cosmos Rings and put on his crystal suit, ready for the exploration.
Chapter 1336: This Doesn't Look Right! |
For safety's sake, Li Yao spent seven days gathering debris in space, carving power rune arrays on them, and embedding crystals in them as the source of momentum.
He calculated the volume and density of the debris carefully, making sure that they would all be burnt up while they broke through the atmosphere of the fourth planet without leaving any trace behind.
If the people on the fourth planet raised their head and observed, the best that they could notice was a flashing, glamorous meteor shower.
Meanwhile, Li Yao hid himself inside one piece of the debris in his crystal suit, pretending to be a shooting star.
Sneak into the unknown planet. Now begin!
Li Yao and hundreds of garbage remnants in space accelerated suddenly toward the bright green planet in front of him. After a long journey, they were fin
ally captured by the gravitational pull of the bright green planet. Their speed was higher and higher as they gradually fell to the surface of the planet.
Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua!
The debris immediately turned into fireballs because of the friction.
The atmosphere seemed to boast mysterious constituents, too, because the fireballs were not orange but in various brilliant colors.
Very soon, most of the remnants were burnt up in the atmosphere.
The remnant Li Yao was hiding in was the only exception, which, because of its enormity and solidness, melted and shrank but persisted to the end and broke into the sky of the unknown planet with Li Yao despite the flames.
What a great natural paradise!
Li Yao had never seen such a clear, blue sky before.
It was like a whole piece of sapphire that had been carved into the shape of bowl and placed upside down on the land. It was simply astoundingly beautiful.
In the blue sky, clouds could occasionally be seen. Few of them were pure white. Most of them were glowing in various colors, decorating themselves with splendid views around them.
The clouds were now like galloping stallions and rolling dragons, now like raging, unstoppable rivers, and now like pavilions in a paradise!
Under the blue sky and the colorful clouds was a boundless ocean.
The seawater was pure and peaceful, with a high visibility. The bottom of the sea hundreds of meters deep could easily be seen. Colorful, brilliant coral and seaweed, with translucent small fish swimming among them now and then, were shining in the ripples of the ocean.
It was like a spectacular undersea forest had been embedded into a green amber. Because of the reflection of the waves, the ocean looked even more unpredictable and mysterious.
This was the best example for 'blue sky and green sea'!
When Li Yao looked down from the high sky, he noticed quite a few mountains and islands on the ocean. But there was nothing except overwhelming primitive forests on the islands. When he looked further ahead at the horizon, what he could see on the zigzagging coastline was pure greenness, too, without the slightest trace of modern cities.
It was like this place was a desolate planet that had not been developed at all.
The civilization here is truly not to be underestimated. In terms of environmental protection, they are too strong!
Li Yao secretly clicked his tongue.
The history of colonization in the Imperium of True Human Beings suggested that the more developed a civilization was, the more importance they would attach to environmental protection and the more likely they would build their world in harmony with nature.
After all, human beings were animals that had evolved from nature. If possible, nobody was willing to live in the dirty, smoky forests of rebar and cement.
For many powerful civilizations, after they finished the cruel primitive accumulation by seriously damaging the environment of the mother planet and exploiting the resources on the mother planet, they would repair the mother planet by mobilizing the resources from elsewhere and establishing 'natural reserves' on the mother planet, thereby revitalizing the mother planet.
This should be the case for this particular Sector. Chances were that the dominators here had moved all the cities and warring forces to the underground and left the whole surface of the planet to be a huge, natural park!
The civilization here must've reached the 'nature-returning' level. I can't be too careful!
Li Yao calculated the trajectory of the falling remnant precisely and slightly adjusted it with the power rune arrays of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, ensuring that it was rushing all the way to the continent.
The landing point when an explorer was sneaking into an unknown world was highlighted in the arts of colonization in the Imperium of True Human Beings, too.
Generally speaking, the explorer was not suggested to land on the ocean.
On one hand, most of the habitable planets had oceans multiple times vaster than continents, with countless ferocious beasts lurking at the bottom of such boundless oceans, which could be even more hideous and brutal than the animals on the continents.
It would do the explorer no good if they pissed off the ferocious beasts when they were new to the place.
On the other hand, on the flat oceans, there was no shelter at all. It would be difficult for the explorer to run away if they were discovered.
When Li Yao was staying on the satellite, he had observed and realized that the fourth planet boasted an enormous continent that probably had a larger area than the continents of the Heaven's Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector combined.
Other than that, some islands were scattered around the main continent.
The west half of the continent was higher than the east half. A few running rivers marched their way through the continent, creating many fertile plateaus.
The plateaus seemed to be the pivot of the civilization. The metropolises and even the capital city, which had the highest population, should be on or below the plateaus.
With the situation unclear, Li Yao did not dare land on the plateaus recklessly. Instead, he went to broken mountains and primitive forests at the south of the continent, a landing point that he had long chosen.
Everybody could easily tell that such a place was sparsely populated. There were underground caves and rivers everywhere, too. Even if he was noticed by someone, it would be very convenient for him to run away.
Boom!
With a long exhaust flame, the shooting star smashed into the forests, like a stroke depicted with fire!
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The trees were collapsing, and a deep ravine was ploughed on the ground. The pungent smell of things being burnt filled the air. The bushes and the weeds were all on fire.
Every sign suggested that it was a commonly-seen meteorite shower. The remains of the magical equipment had been burnt and melted into a cluster of bizarre-shaped iron block. Whoever came to investigate it would not notice any anomaly.
Li Yao slowly walked out of the fire before returning the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit to his Cosmos Ring.
From this moment on, he could not keep anything related to the Star Glory Federation with him.
Narrowing his eyes, Li Yao took a deep breath of the air of the new world. Despite the smell of smoke when the buses were scorched, Li Yao still grinned in great satisfaction.
What fresh air!
The oxygen percentage in the air is very high, with multiple types of microelements and spiritual gas!
With such a high oxygen percentage, the insects must be large in size, and the Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures will be easier to find, too!
The civilization here truly knows how to enjoy themselves!
Judging from their efforts in environmental protection, their civilization does not look like an aggressive one. However, everything is just the superficial observation so far. I must investigate it further before I jump to any conclusion!
Li Yao summoned Neltharion from his Cosmos Ring.
After a soft whistle, Neltharion immediately entered the stealth state. Like a breeze melting into the air, it flew toward the north under the manipulation of Li Yao's telepathic thoughts.
The north was relatively close to the plateaus. The odds of finding other people were higher there.
Neltharion slithered above the forests without a sound while scanning the spiritual waves hundreds of square kilometers nearby.
There seemed to be smoke at the southeast, which appeared to be some small towns.
Li Yao was about to drive Neltharion to explore the southeast, when chaotic spiritual waves, mixed with intimidating killing intent, came over from the north, giving every sign that it was a battle between two armies or two experts!
Something is going on!
His heart pounding, Li Yao hurried to press Neltharion into the forests and flew it toward the source of the mayhem carefully under the coverage o
f the branches and crowns.
It appears that the world here is not as peaceful as it appears to be!
But this is a great opportunity for me. I can take the chance to observe the battle patterns and the average combat ability of the world. It will be even better if I can blend into them!
Like an invisible gecko, Neltharion slowly drove close to the battlefield.
The shouts from the battlefield became clearer and clearer. Colorful venomous fog and sword auras could vaguely be seen spurting from the top of the crowns, too, which were quite beautiful in their various colors.
But every time the fog and the sword auras fell down, screams were echoing.
What—what the heck?
Li Yao frowned. He started to feel that it was getting weird.
As an expert in jungle warfare himself, he knew that the most critical factor in a battle in the jungle was inconspicuousness. The two parties engaged in the battle should both be as quiet as they could because any sound that they made meant their failure or even death!
But those guys were shouting so loudly that they seemed to be fearing that they could not be found out. Were they playing some sort of drama?
When Neltharion finally captured the whole view of Neltharion, Li Yao was dumbfounded as if hit by lightning and did not come back to himself for a long time.
What—what—what—what in heavens' name is this?
The battle was taking place next to a lake that was a joint of two brooks in the forests.
Two troops were engaged in a fierce battle. Their blood had turned the lake red.
One of the troops was made of ferocious-looking barbarians who had long hair and tattoos all over their body. They were either wearing vine armor and bone blades or colorful feathers from head to toe, carrying vipers in both arms, or driving bizarre-shaped lions or tigers.
The other troop was wearing vintage style armor. They were much more organized and holding their own banner.
The breastplates of many soldiers were embedded with the pattern of a black tiger, with vague spiritual energy circulating inside.
Judging from their teamwork and their obedience to orders, they should be the well-trained regular troop.
