by <unknown>
Li Yao had calculated Wang Xi's ninety-nine possible reactions. But whatever her reaction was, she was not getting away from Li Yao.
The problem was—
What the heck?
After the aftershock of the explosion was ripped apart, Wang Xi, who was sprinting at him at full speed, had changed her appearance yet another time!
Her shoulders, arms, legs and chest were covered in a crystal suit that was an integral whole with her skin that was exposed to the air, as if it were part of her flesh and blood and triggered from her bones!
Detecting the unbelievably high spiritual waves, the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit immediately sent out ear-splitting alarms.
But it was too late.
The two parties were too close to each other for Li Yao to change his route of attack. He could only grit his teeth and crash at the enemy anyway!
The only comfort for him was that, at the moment of impact, he seemed to see an equally stunned expression on Wang Xi's face on the opposite side.
Boom!
Li Yao felt that he had crashed into an iron plank that was fully embedded with nails.
He even lost his consciousness for a brief second, during which time he could see nothing but a bunch of mottled butterflies flying in front of his eyes.
When his soul was condensed again, he immediately heard the cries of the mainframe crystal processor of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, which was reporting the plummeting performance parameters of the key units.
"Cough, cough. Cough, cough, cough, cough!"
Li Yao swallowed the blood and shook his head. He grabbed the handle of his saber with one hand and pressed the ground with the other, ready to launch a few hundred Six-Barreled Vulcan Machine Guns and crystal bombs to bombard the enemy.
A hundred meters away from him, Wang Xi was also shaking in dizziness as if she were drunk. She tried three times to stand on her feet but failed. She could only breathe quickly on one of her knees while staring at Li Yao with half astonishment and half confusion.
The unimaginably gorgeous crystal suit was still growing on her body. Four octagonal, shiny crystals were rotating around her like satellites. Although they were much more lackluster than before, they should be more than enough for her self-protection.
The situation was indescribably awkward.
Li Yao had thought that, as soon as he summoned his crystal suit to double his combat ability, he would capture Wang Xi without any trouble. Then, it would totally be up to him how he would deal with the captive.
But outside his expectations, Wang Xi had exactly the same idea, and she had been hiding such a critical trump card!
The scales were balanced once more, with neither of them able to defeat the other, and the only outcome of continuing the fight would be that they were both suffer great losses!
Chapter 1477: The Way to Break the Impasse |
What should he do?
There was a brand-new Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit inside Li Yao Cosmos Ring and an Ares Extension that could bring the damage to the maximum instantly.
It was his last trump card.
But how could he be sure that Wang Xi did not have other trump cards?
When he was hesitating, Wang Xi laughed coldly and said, "It is indeed you, Master Spiritual Vulture, or should I call you… Hehe, anyway, your scheme has been seen through. This trap was specially prepared for you. Just wait for my subordinates of the Ghost Character to come!"
Li Yao was suddenly alarmed, wondering if his identity had been fully exposed. However, half a second later, he realized that Wang Xi was bluffing!
"Ghost Character? Would you dare let anyone in the Ghost Character see your creepy appearance right now?" Li Yao burst into laughter. "Surrender now. Your struggle will be in vain. We've had our eyes on you since long ago! You gave yourself away after hiding for almost a hundred years! You have your Ghost Character, but I have my reinforcements, too. Let's just see whose backup comes here first!"
Wang Xi was dazed and sneered. "Are you trying to fool me with such a petty trick?"
Li Yao laughed in contempt, too. "As if you weren't bullsh*ting. Do you really know who I am?"
The two of them glared at each other with a hundred meters in between and rested in silence for three minutes. Naturally, neither Ghost Character nor Li Yao's reinforcements arrived.
The atmosphere became increasingly weird. Neither knew how they should break the impasse.
"It appears that you have come here alone without any conspirators," Wang Xi suddenly said.
"Are you any different? You apparently didn't want anyone to discover your secrets and plans!" Li Yao snapped back.
"The fully-enclosed armor on your body is quite advanced." Wang Xi continued. "A lot of super tiny gadgets seem to have been embedded into it. It looks like neither the traditional armor of the Cultivators nor the primeval treasures. It is even less likely to be a product of the legendary 'Great Zhou Dynasty'. It seems that my guess is correct. You are indeed not 'Master Spiritual Vulture'!"
"It's true that I'm not Master Spiritual Vulture, but if you are just a common eunuch, how can you secrete such a weird crystal suit from your body and enter the bridge after passing the identification of the highest level?" Li Yao's eyes narrowed until they were like two thin sabers. "You are as much not 'Lead Eunuch Wang Xi' as I am not 'Master Spiritual Vulture'!"
Wang Xi, however, was slightly dazed. Two clusters of brilliance burst out of her eyes as she mumbled, "Is this place called a 'bridge'? You do seem to know a lot of stuff."
Li Yao was confused. "What? You didn't know what a 'bridge' is?"
"Am I supposed to know?" Wang Xi frowned.
"Well…" Li Yao was even more confused.
Wang Xi rolled her almost transparent eyes, but her killing intent, which had been blossoming like thorns just a moment ago, gradually faded back below her skin. Taking a long breath, she casually said, "Therefore, we are both alone without any support, and we both have secrets that we would rather nobody knew. Yet, as it happens, we have learned each other's secrets."
"Seems so," Li Yao said. "I am not Master Spiritual Vulture, and you are not Lead Eunuch Wang Xi. We have both appeared at this place uncannily when there is absolutely no reason for us to have. Also, you can't kill me, and I can't kill you. How do you propose we should handle such an awkward situation?"
Wang Xi's scanned the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit with her gloomy eyes, as if she were evaluating her odds of success if she suddenly charged forward. A moment later, she smiled bitterly. "You're right. Neither of us can kill the other when we are both on high alert!"
Gazing at his opponent and without letting go of the tiniest movement all over Wang Xi's body, Li Yao added, "While we are talking here, a large batch of uncontrollable Cultivators are wandering on this Nuwa warship.
"They are more saboteurs than helpers. I'm sure that neither of us want to see them mess around and damage the key parts of the warship, right?"
"Nuwa warship?" Wang Xi blinked and said, "So, the real name of the 'Divine Palace' is the Nuwa warship?"
"Huh?" Li Yao was utterly dumbfounded. "You can enter the bridge by swiping your face, and you don't know that this is a warship of the Nuwa Clan?"
There was another moment of awkward silence.
Breaking the silence, Wang Xi said, one word after another, "If this is some sort of trap, and you have been acting the whole time, then I've got to say that your acting skills are so unbelievably incredible that I feel that I'm going to be fooled."
"I was going to say the same." Li Yao gnashed his teeth. "If you've been acting the whole time while preparing a flawless trap to bait me into confessing my secrets, then your acting skills are certainly the best that I've seen in my entire life. I'll admit my failure even if I'm fooled by you!"
"Let me make a bold assumption." Wang Xi gradually recovered from her bewilderment. Her voice was calmer and calmer than before. "You must have a clandestine plan after sneaking into this place und
er the identity of 'Master Spiritual Vulture'. Naturally, in your eyes, I have a mysterious plan, too!
"We have both learned part of each other's secrets, and at first glance, it is obligatory that we fight each other until one of us lives!
"However, allow me to reiterate what I said in our last encounter. Our plans that are equally scared of the sunlight might not necessarily be in conflict, especially when it is obvious that we both know a lot of things that the other guy doesn't but are quite interested in. There may still be chances of cooperation.
"After all, we are now in a secret chamber. While we are watching over each other, it is impossible for either of us to run away. The people outside are unlikely to break in!
"If we have to kill each other, should we at least exchange our intelligence first and get everything straight before we start fighting? That way, we will at least know what we die for!"
Li Yao tilted his head for a long while. "How do I know that you will not be lying to me?"
"Of course, we may be lying to each other," Wang Xi said unhurriedly. "However, a lot of critical information can also be analyzed and retrieved from lies. It is certainly better than dying with each other for no good reason, isn't it?"
"Sounds reasonable." After considering for a moment, Li Yao nodded quickly. "For the sake of fairness, I propose we ask each other questions in turn. If a question is too sensitive, we are allowed to refuse to answer it and demand another question. What do you think?"
"Very good." Wang Xi's eyes were glittering. "As a gesture of our sincerity, should we remove our armor?"
She was not a particularly beautiful woman in the beginning, but when the plain face was adorned by the glittering eyes that were as shiny as diamonds, her entire body was enshrouded in an elegant, ethereal vibe. When she spoke that sentence, there was inviolable intimidation in her voice!
"We should." Li Yao nodded. Removing his Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit meant that he was almost exposed to the mysterious Wang Xi naked. Naturally, he was under a lot of pressure.
However, nothing was going to work out if the impasse went on. Also, he was very curious to watch how exactly Wang Xi would remove her weird crystal suit!
Li Yao tapped the center of his eyebrow with two fingers. The Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit dissected into streaks of brightness and flew back to the Cosmos Rings.
The crystals all over Wang Xi's body, however, spread out rings of ivory halos as they gradually softened. Then, like some sort of thick fluids, they were absorbed into her body through the skin.
It made Li Yao more certain about his judgement. The crystal suit was not a piece of magical equipment but part of Wang Xi's body, just like the scales, bone spurs, and energy-concentrating crystal that Li Yao had after activating the primeval cells, except that it was much more weird and advanced than Li Yao's additional features!
Li Yao had been in touch with all kinds of bizarre demons when he was in the Blood Demon Sector, including some weird mutants among the chaotic-blood demons. However, he had never seen or heard of any existences that could secrete a highly-advanced armor from inside the body or transform their sex freely!
Thinking quickly, Li Yao said, "Since I was the one who ambushed just now, you may ask first… Lord Wang!"
Wang Xi was right. Lies had to be founded on the pieces of truth. The facts that his opponents were trying their best to hide were very likely to be concealed in the questions that they raised.
Therefore, the askers might not be at an advantage, and the answerers might not necessarily suffer losses.
"Alright!" Wang Xi seemed even more earnest than Li Yao. She asked in a hurry, "You said just now that this place is a 'Nuwa warship'. What is it exactly?"
Li Yao found it queer. "Lord Wang, you know the passwords of this place, you passed all the procedures of identification, and you were the one who found the map of the Divine Palace and initialized the quest for the Divine Palace. Why do you not even know what kind of place this is?"
Wang Xi sniffed. "I'm the one asking questions now."
Li Yao was deep in thought. He had nothing to hide about that question. If Wang Xi was a spy of the Imperium of True Human Beings or some other mysterious forces, there was no reason at all why he did not even know the Nuwa warship!
The primeval war between the Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan was not a secret in either the Imperium of True Human Beings or the Alliance of the Holy Covenant. The files regarding the war in their possession would only be much more than what the Star Glory Federation knew.
Therefore, if Wang Xi did not raise the question intentionally to ease Li Yao's wariness, it would suggest that she knew absolutely nothing.
"The Nuwa warship is a starship of the 'Nuwa Clan', a prehistoric civilization. Judging from the facilities and structure of this warship, it probably falls into the category of medium-sized assault warship, which is mainly used in the battles in the orbit of planets but can also carry out the assault missions within the atmosphere!
"This warship must've crashed somewhere between a hundred thousand years ago to five hundred thousand years ago, probably because of the serious damage that the Pangu Clan caused to the engine compartment. But the rest of the cabins, especially the bridge and the mainframe crystal processor, are still well-preserved. A lot of valuable stuff should be able to be uncovered!"
Chapter 1478: Mysteries About Long Yangjun's Birth! |
"The Nuwa Clan? The Pangu Clan?"
There was confusion all over Wang Xi's face, as if too many things that she could not understand had been poured into her. She frowned and said, "I know that the Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan are both primeval creatures. A number of their bones and magical equipment were excavated in the Ancient Sages Sector tens of thousands of years ago. But the remains are much fewer nowadays, although they are not entirely extinct. So to speak, the Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan were hostile with each other, and the so-called Divine Palace was a warship of the Nuwa Clan?"
Her eyes were suddenly ten times more brilliant than before. She could not help but raise her voice as she said, "So, I was right. There is indeed a boundless universe and infinite worlds beyond the Ancient Sages Sector where I can cruise on such an amazing boat!"
Li Yao scratched his hair, shocked by Lord Wang's ignorance.
Such general information was not a secret to the Imperium, the Covenant Alliance, or any other force in the universe. It did not concern the safety of the Star Glory Federation, either. Pondering for a moment, Li Yao selected some obscure, basic concepts and explained them to Wang Xi.
Of course, all the information was retained to the war between the Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan per se. As to exactly why the war broke out, the role human beings played in the God-Sealing War, and the 'three fundamental laws', that was all omitted.
He was not going to give away the history about the conversion from the ancient Cultivation civilization to the modern Cultivation civilization easily, either.
Wang Xi listened quietly. Tears as clear as pearls suddenly flowed out of her glittering eyes, as she declared in excitement, "I was right. My dreams were true. The Ancient Sages Sector is indeed just a narrow, deep well, and only if we crawl out of the well can we view the boundless world!"
Li Yao thought of something and took the opportunity to ask, "If you didn't know anything about all this, how did the idea to explore the Divine Palace even occur to you? Also, Lord Wang, you seem to be very familiar with the internal structure of the Nuwa Warship, and it is quite baffling that you can pass the identification tests of the most crucial cabin!"
Wang Xi glanced at Li Yao. The brilliance inside her eyes dimmed. This time, she did not reject it coldly but said in a gentle voice, "If I say that I don't know the reason, either, will you believe me?"
"You… don't know?" Li Yao was dazed. "What do you mean?"
"I don't know what this is all about. That was why I spent my entire life searching for the Divine Palace at all costs!" Wang Xi furrowed her brow. "There have been
some voices and mottled pictures in my head, telling me that I will be able to crack everything and find out who I am after I find the Divine Palace!"
Li Yao was greatly shocked. He held his breath in case he disrupted Wang Xi's memory.
Leaning against one of the giant pillars, Wang Xi slowly slid and sat down. She took a long breath and, staring at something nonexistent in midair, spoke hesitantly. "Since you dared to participate in the exploration of the Divine Palace, you must've read my files before and know that I was born in a remote valley at the border between Great Qian and Ghost Qin. Our poor village was the only settlement of human beings in the hundreds of square kilometers nearby."
Li Yao nodded. It was exactly as the files said.
'Lead Eunuch Wang Xi' was not a person who jumped out of nowhere. It was impossible for the royal family to allow a eunuch of ambiguous backgrounds to approach the emperor.
"However, something is not recorded on any of the files."
After a long hesitation, Wang Xi finally spoke it out. "I was not exactly born in that village. My foster parents told me before their death that I landed from the sky enshrouded in a fiercely burning fire ball to an unvisited place deep inside the valley. When all the flames died down, it was a black, iron shell in the crater.
"My foster parents were both poor, illiterate villagers. Their only son had been killed in a raid of the wolves that year. While they were grieving, they noticed the anomaly in the sky and traced it to the crash site, where they found the mysterious iron shell.
"The iron shell split apart from the center. A lot of thick, blue liquids spurted out, with a wrinkled baby soaked inside.
"Naturally, it was impossible for them to figure out what exactly the iron shell was. They thought that the heavens had mercy and delivered a baby to them to ease their grief of losing the son. So, they took me back to their home and raised me."
Big iron ball from the sky? Thick, blue liquids? Wrinkled baby? Li Yao thought quickly and had some fuzzy speculation in his head.
"At first, they naturally didn't tell me my real birth. I grew up together with the other naughty kids in the village," Wang Xi said. "Although I wasn't their blood child, my foster parents treated me very well because they thought that I was a blessing, and they had me when they were quite old. They paid a visit to the nearest town hundreds of kilometers away and found a scholar to pick a name for me. My foster father was surnamed 'Long'. Long Yangjun is my real name!"
