by <unknown>
A roaring sound immediately echoed as the fresh air filled the room.
Before the orange edge of the hole entirely cooled down, Li Yao had already crawled out in a hurry!
Shua!
Every hair on Li Yao's body was pricking.
On one of his knees, he narrowed his eyes and continued locking his every pore. He did not even recover his breath, but he was prepared to summon the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit from his Cosmos Ring at any time!
He opened his hands and took out an air examination device from the Star Glory Federation. The shimmering detector rotated for a moment, and the device gave a report of the elements in the air inside the Nuwa warship very soon.
The inside of the Nuwa warship had been almost devoid of oxygen in the beginning, but as the Cultivators broke the shell from various directions into the warship. The oxygen percentage was rising quickly. Before long, it would reach the level of the outside world.
There was no oxygen, but there was no lethal poisonous gas, either. Although there were some weird impurities in the air, it was more than enough for Li Yao's apocalyptic body that was even tougher than the demons' bodies.
Li Yao was finally relieved and began observing the environment.
The place seemed to be some sort of maintenance room for the air cleansing magical equipment. There was a black pathway that led to who knew where.
Because the Nuwa Clan's body size was many times larger than human beings', the room and the pathway were both astonishingly large, making the place look like a splendid palace.
Li Yao put the air examination instrument back into his Cosmos Ring. He then retrieved a few super tiny crystal bombs that he had crafted through modern approaches in the Star Glory Federation in case of special needs. Finally, he prudently walked to the pathway.
The dark pathway seemed to be endless, trapping him in a world of darkness alone. Even Li Yao felt creeped out although he always considered himself bold.
His eyes were vaguely emitting redness in the dark, as he scrutinized every detail inside the Nuwa warship.
"Ah!"
Li Yao suddenly noticed that a guy was sitting at the turn up in the front and staring at him without blinking his eyes. Before Li Yao realized what was going on, the guy suddenly lunged at him. Li Yao shrieked and almost threw out all the super tiny crystal bombs in his shock!
When he calmed down and observed more carefully, he discovered that it was a tall, huge, hideous-looking member of the Pangu Clan or the Nuwa Clan. The body must have been well preserved in the anaerobic environment. Because Li Yao brought a lot of fresh air into the place, the air had intense reactions with the body, casting the body that should have decayed hundreds of thousands of years ago into powder instantly!
Li Yao breathed heavily, with sweat popping out of his back. He blinked and looked again. The only things left on the ground were a few bright golden bones and some lackluster armor.
He had encountered similar body explosions on Kunlun many times. Except for the initial shock when he was caught by surprise, he did not find it too strange.
However, it remained to be seen what the reactions of the locals of the Ancient Sages Sector would be like when they ran into the exploding bodies as they broke into the Nuwa warship in other ways.
Li Yao could not help but wonder whether or not Qi Zhongdao, who had been grave and solemn the whole time, would be shocked and kneel to the ground when he witnessed a legendary deity obliterating into nothingness in front of him.
Thinking about that, Li Yao could not help but chuckle. His previous anxiety was greatly eased.
As he pressed forward, he discovered a lot of dead bodies that exploded instantly because of the intense reaction with the air.
Judging from their bones, the remains of their armor, and the runes on their magical equipment, some of the bodies belonged to the Nuwa Clan, and some belonged to the Pangu Clan. Of course, there were also a lot of human soldiers on both sides.
It appeared that a troop of the Pangu Clan had once invaded the Nuwa warship and launched a brutal boarding battle, which resulted in the serious damage to the internal structure of the warship. Burnt holes and ripped gaps were everywhere. Broken limbs and frozen body liquids filled up the entire space.
Perhaps that was the reason that the Nuwa warship had crashed in the Land of Eternal Night.
However, for Li Yao, the holes that had been ripped apart by brute force made his exploration more convenient.
Let me make a bold assumption. In most boarding battles, the most important target for the attackers is doubtlessly the bridge of the defenders. As long as the bridge is controlled, half of the warship will be seized. At the very least, even if the warship is not seized, the important people on the enemy's side—such as the captain, the navigator, and the chief technician—will be injured or killed!
Therefore, as long as I study the battlefield carefully and follow the direction of the Pangu Clan's attack, together with Wang Xi's map, and based on the structural designs of the Nuwa warships I've discovered in the past, it is very possible for me to find the bridge and the captain's office!
Chapter 1474: Weird Illusion |
After realizing that the so-called Divine Palace was actually a warship of the Nuwa Clan, Li Yao did not intend to look for the Cloud Qin Gold Statues like the hustling and bustling locals of the Ancient Sages Sector.
As a specialist of the Colossi, Li Yao knew that an intact, thorough industrial system was mandatory for the use of the Colossi, which was a type of highly-precise, strategic magical equipment.
A team was needed to maintain them, fill them with energy, and equip attack magical equipment. Experienced pilots who had received professional training were required, too.
Not everybody had a weird Black Wing as the medium between the pilot and the Colossus like him.
Truth be told, not that Li Yao was looking down upon the locals of the Ancient Sages Sector, but even if a few Colossi that had been fully charged with spiritual energy and all set to go were given to them, they would not even know how to make use of the weapons. The Colossi would be pure garbage!
In comparison, the bridge of the Nuwa warship was much more valuable than the Colossi.
The mainframe crystal processor of the Nuwa warship must have been accommodated on the bridge. Chances were that things such as cruise logs might be found. There might even be communication or teleportation magical equipment that was more advanced than the gizmos in the Star Glory Federation and the Imperium of True Human Beings.
Even if he looked for the Colossi later, Li Yao believed that there would be short-distance teleportation arrays on the bridge that led to the magical equipment warehouses and the maintenance workshops.
Otherwise, it would seem awfully low-efficient if everybody commuted on foot on a super warship that was over ten kilometers long.
Therefore, if he found the bridge, it would be equivalent to seizing half of the warship, and he could go anywhere that he wanted.
Most of the dead bodies of the Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan had exploded into dust before he arrived and lost all value for research.
However, the dents and traces caused by the blades and the cannon balls left on the wall and floor were enough to point out the route of attack of the Pangu Clan.
Passing through the high and dark pathways and cabins, and surrounded by enormous skeletons and armor more than ten meters tall, Li Yao was caught by a sense of depression, as if he was wandering inside a valley of giants.
From the darkness far, far away, Li Yao vaguely heard shrieks and fighting noises that were as feeble as the sound of mosquitoes.
The Cultivators who had boarded the Nuwa warship through other paths must have met the exploding bodies, too, and begun killing each other in their nervousness.
Li Yao glanced around and found the cause of the battles.
The armor and blades of the Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan were much more solid than their bodies of flesh and blood after all. A
lthough the bodies were gone, some of the remains of their gear, however rusted, were left behind.
For the locals of the Ancient Sages Sector who worshipped 'primeval treasures', that gear was the magical equipment and marvelous weapons that the prehistoric deities left behind after they vaporized. Such temptations were indeed enough to drive them crazy.
Even though the Cloud Qin Gold Statues had not yet been found, the primeval treasures were already enough for them to fight a blood battle.
Li Yao sighed. He loathed most of the locals of the Ancient Sages Sector, but at that moment, when thinking that they were biting each other like ravenous hyenas just for a few pieces of primeval magical equipment and that they might die in vain after training hard for decades, he felt somewhat sorry for those people.
Getting to the bottom of it, what other paths of Cultivation did they have when they were born and raised in such an environment?
Any path was a dead end when they were wreathed tightly by the dark nebula!
Li Yao had a stronger urge to dig a hole in the dark nebula so that the Ancient Sages Sector could see the brightness of the future and walk on a brand-new path!
Taking a deep breath, Li Yao dashed toward the center of the Nuwa warship along the route of the Pangu Clan's attack.
Outside his expectation, weak beeps were suddenly echoing next to his ears. A bright silver metal ball around one metal in diameter rolled out of the dark pathway. When it reached him, dozens of green threads popped up on its surface. After a few cracking noises, the ball was dissected along the green threads, turning into a four-legged metal spider, with two three-barreled turrets above where blue electric arcs were dancing, suggesting that the weapons were good to go.
Shua! Shua! Shua!
Dozens of green rays of light darted out of the corners of the pathways around, too. They interweaved into an impenetrate cage around Li Yao and locked onto him!
Li Yao bellowed. He was about to shoot out the super tiny crystal bombs, so that he would have enough time to put on his crystal suit, when all kinds of illusions appeared in front of his eyes. He had been dragged into a Grand Illusionary Land.
He seemed to envision more than ten human girls lying on a dark altar inside a gloomy, horrible temple, naked. The altar was surrounded by more than ten bizarre-looking members of the Pangu Clan, who were slowly turning the chains and lowering a black rock weighing hundreds of tons above the altar.
It appeared that they were going to press all the girls to death and fetch their flesh and blood as part of some sacrificial ritual!
Below the altar, hundreds of bald human beings, whose faces were emotionless and eyes were numb, looked at the altar without moving.
However hard the girls on the altar screamed and cried for help, they showed absolutely no response. Even their breath was not changed at all.
Li Yao seemed to be one of the hundreds of human beings kneeling on the ground.
But he was about to throw up in nausea and fury.
Although he knew that it was just an illusion, the girls, as innocent as lambs who were going to be crushed by the hideous individuals of the Pangu Clan, and their desperate cries for help still triggered intense physiobiological reactions in him. His breath, heartbeat, and secretion of epinephrine were all exploding. He could not help but stand up from the hundreds of human beings who were kneeling and clench his fists toward the priests of the Pangu Clan!
The moment that he stood up, the illusions broke, swirled, and dispersed like thousands of glass butterflies.
He was back in the depths of the dark pathway, but the rays that had locked onto him previously were gone. Even the four-legged metal spider had been compressed into a ball again and rolled back into the darkness.
What happened?
Li Yao blinked. Then, he suddenly realized that the Grand Illusionary Land just now was probably some sort of program to distinguish friends from foes.
The four-legged metal spider and the rays of light darting from the pathway were probably one of the few pieces of automatic defense magical equipment on the Nuwa warship that had persisted to that day.
Since the Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan both had a lot of human beings fighting for them, a program was necessary to decide if the passers-by were allies.
The Pangu Clan regarded human beings as pure tools. They controlled human beings with the so-called 'three fundamental laws' and forbade them from having any feelings or self-consciousness.
When the picture of the Pangu Clan taking human beings as sacrificial offerings appeared in the Grand Illusionary Land, the human beings or 'demi-humans' who were bound by the 'three fundamental laws' would not feel anything at all.
In such a case, the automatic defense magical equipment of the Nuwa warship would certainly launch the fiercest attacks.
However, when Li Yao witnessed such a gory scene, his physiobiological parameters were changing drastically, indicating that he was in the middle of emotional turmoil. It was evident that he was a real human being who had feelings and self-consciousness, someone who could protect himself and his own kind!
Therefore, the automatic defense magical equipment on the Nuwa warship identified him as an 'ally' and did not attack.
"Wait!"
Thinking quickly, Li Yao chased after the round ball that had been the four-legged metal spider earlier.
However, his target disappeared after two corners. Perhaps, it was absorbed into a warehouse through an inconspicuous teleportation array.
But Li Yao did not gain nothing. Judging from the distribution of the pathways just now and the runes on the wall, it was very likely that he had already entered the core area of the Nuwa warship!
The bridge or the captain's office should be ahead!
The conclusion could also be proved by the dead bodies of the Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan scattered everywhere around.
It appeared that this was the end of the boarding battle hundreds of thousands of years ago. Although the Pangu Clan rallied tremendous soldiers to barrage the gate to the bridge, it was still not broken through.
It was great trouble for Li Yao.
Three magnificent gates were standing in front of him.
Each gate was more than ten meters tall, with a layer of vague silver brightness flowing on the surface. They were flawless and showed no sign of joints.
At a height of ten meters, five meters, and 1.5 meters, three complicated rune arrays had been carve respectively, which appeared to be for identification purposes.
Li Yao touched gently on the gate and felt that it was rather soft. There was no telling what the doors were made of.
But when he did pour his spiritual energy into them, he received absolutely no feedback, which indicated that it must be a very advanced energy-absorption material.
It was useless. Even the warriors of the Pangu Clan failed to blow up the gates to the bridge. It was even less possible for him to crack them by brute force.
Li Yao turned back and studied the rune arrays and magical equipment that were designed for identification.
Those at the lowest height must have been prepared for the human warriors on the Nuwa warship.
When Li Yao tried putting his finger on a piece of blue identification magical equipment, it suddenly split from the middle and shot out a ray of light, which soon dispersed into a 3D identification interface.
It was a super complicated identification interface.
Not only were his fingerprints, iris, and voice to be tested, he would also have to input three ever-changing dynamic passwords in only five seconds.
You've got to be kidding me!
Li Yao was dumbfounded. He wondered if there had always been a traffic jam on the gates to the bridge with such complicated procedures to enter and exit the bridge.
On second thought, he immediately realized that they should be the security measures of the highest level when the warship was under the attack of the Pangu Clan, in which case few personnel were allowed to enter the
bridge.
The normal identification procedures could not have been so complicated.
I'm in trouble now!
The three silver gates were all integral. Even the identification magical equipment did not have any gaps around them, as if they had been forged together with the gates. There was no chance for him to dismantle the devices to study them.
After searching the nearby carefully, he failed to find any of the legendary ventilation tubes through which he could crawl into the bridge.
Even if there were, they would have been shut off in the state of the highest alarm. The most fatal traps in them would have been activated!
Right when Li Yao was scratching his face, wondering what to do next, his ears suddenly shuddered.
He heard soft footsteps from a pathway far behind him.
Chapter 1475: The Awakened |
How did anybody get here so fast?
Li Yao was alarmed. He had thought that he was already quick enough. He had snuck in from the middle part of the Nuwa warship and reached this place after such a short period of time with his familiarity with the internal structure of the Nuwa warship.
Most other people crawled in from the tail of the warship. They were also fighting hard on their way. Li Yao had thought that it would take them a few hours to disperse on the warship and find this place by accident!
Who was the guy that was coming close? Was it a coincidence, or was it on purpose?
Li Yao eyed around and retrieved a stealth membrane suit from his Cosmos Ring as quickly as possible.
The biochemical combat suit that the Fire Ant King had provided him played a vital role in the battle to sneak into the Eye of Blood Demon. As long as he remained absolutely still, he would be almost completely invisible.
After putting on the stealth suit, hiding himself behind a pile of scrap armor of the Nuwa in a corner, and lowering his breath, heartbeat, and spiritual waves to the minimum with the Great Dream Tortoise Hibernation Arts that Gui Suishou had taught him, Li Yao stared at the darkness coldly both like a rock and like a ghost.
