by <unknown>
Heiye Ming, a brutal warrior who had earned his fame through life-and-death battles, could not help but slightly tremble. He gloomily said, "For some reason, I am scared of you. Both you and Jin Xinyue. People at the edge of the cosmos like you are as scary as vipers."
"We are not as powerful as the high-level Immortal Cultivators in the Imperium of True Human Beings at the center of the cosmos," the hanging man said. "For survival, the poor folks at the edge of the cosmos waiting to be saved can only develop insignificant plots and schemes. But they are not worth mentioning at all in front of the invincible Imperium."
Heiye Ming sniffed. "Tell me, why should I trust you? Jin Xinyue is faking her surrender. How do I know that you're not? Maybe you are up to something else. Maybe you work for Jin Xinyue and this is just a 'double fake surrender'."
"I can't tell you," the hanging man said. "You have exploited all the information from me and gathered enough information from Jin Xinyue, too. As the commander of the Black Wind Fleet, it is your responsibility to figure out the correct answer from the complicated information, not mine.
"All in all, you have twenty-four hours. If you do not take action in twenty-four hours, Jin Xinyue will know that you have not been fooled. Then, both parties will lose the opportunity to finish the war quickly. So, a war of attrition will be inevitable!"
Heiye Ming stared at the hanging man hard, trying to see the truth deep inside his brain.
But the eyes and upper face of the hanging man were still covered by the iron mask. Nothing could be seen at all.
Heiye Ming was silent for three minutes. The hanging man was equally patient. Except for the bloody bubbles coming out of his nose, he gave absolutely no reaction, as if he were already dead.
"Fine!" Heiye Ming finally made the call. Rebar-like muscles popped up on his face, as he gritted his teeth and threw out his words like cannon balls. "Since Jin Xinyue has prepared delicate traps in the Heaven's Origin Sector waiting for me to step in, if I don't go there, won't her hospitality be in vain? She wants me to go to the Heaven's Origin Sector, and I will do so! I will show her the invincibility of the Black Wind Fleet and the feeling of being killed by her own scheme!"
The hanging man was still silent, as if he did not hear Heiye Ming's choice at all, and as if he was dwelling in a certain deep, profound world inside his head.
"Stop stimulating his nerve endings, but do not loosen his shackles and barriers. Keep blocking his senses, and do not put him down."
While making the gestures, Heiye Ming said, "Lu Qingchen, you are too dangerous. Before the war is completely settled, I'm not planning to let go of you. Are you fine with that?"
Lu Qingchen—the hanging man, the president of the CFIA, and the leader of local Cultivators of the federation—nodded within the range of the shackle. "Of course."
"Right. One other thing. What is the 'Immortal Cultivator 2.0' theory that you have been preaching?" Heiye Ming suddenly asked. "I've read a few of the books that you wrote. You talked as if it was a real thing. I can't help but feel quite curious!"
Lu Qingchen smiled, baring his white teeth. However, since his face was upside down, it looked like intense mockery.
The new-generation Immortal Cultivator from the edge of the cosmos smiled at the old-generation Immortal Cultivator from the center of the cosmos and said, "There's no 'Immortal Cultivator 2.0' at all. That's just bullsh*t that we made up to attract all the Immortal Cultivators in the federation and fish them up."
Chapter 1701: Clean the Mess |
The conversation between the commander of the Black Wind Fleet and the head of the CFIA lasted seventeen minutes and twenty-two seconds.
There were twenty-three hours, forty-two minutes, and thirty-eight seconds to go before the Black Wind Fleet launched a space jump and arrived at the Heaven's Origin Sector, the heart of the federation.
At exactly the same time, in the Hundred Flowers Space Zone, the transfer station at the center of the seven Sectors of the federation, a hundred lightyears away, Li Yao was still having his delicious and spicy noodles.
"Therefore, I vaguely have a bad feeling!" Noodles were dangling from Li Yao's lips. While sucking them into his mouth quickly, Li Yao spoke to Long Yangjun. "I feel that Jin Xinyue's plan has been seen through, and a great scheme targeting the entire federation is slowly unfolding right now. One moment of carelessness, and the federation will be consumed by the very fire it started itself and be doomed forever! Also, the scheme will likely break out very soon, faster than we anticipated. Do you believe me?"
Looking at Li Yao, Long Yangjun tried her best to hold back her urge of rolling her eyes. "You sound very reasonable. It is truly as expected of the wise and meticulous Monster Li. By logic, I should have more faith in you. But this is the third bowl of noodles you have eaten. The third!"
Blinking blankly, Li Yao picked up the third egg with a disposable fork and said, "What's wrong about having noodles? You can only fight the bad guys bravely and smartly and announce your glamorous return if your belly is full!
"Do you know what the critical problem is? The most critical problem is that Jin Xinyue's plan is too precise and too well-organized. She seems to have taken too many things into her calculations!
"It is the same logic as refining. The more precise a piece of magical equipment is, the more likely it will have faults. The more you want it to be perfect, the more likely it will collapse. When you want to install dozens of functions into one piece of magical equipment, you may end up with a device that cannot carry out any of the functions well.
"The bottom line is, based on the tip of the iceberg that we have seen, I think that Jin Xinyue's plan is so gigantic that it far exceeds the limits of her ability to control. Perhaps nobody can ever control such a plan, not even her father Jin Tuyi if the guy was reborn right now.
"If we get to the bottom of it, that is because she is still too young, too simple, and sometimes even a bit naïve. But that's not her fault. The situation that the federation is faced with right now is much more perilous than the situation her father was in. Not only do we have to take care of a Black Wind Fleet, we also have to take care of it in the shortest amount of time at the minimal cost without losing much of our own capabilities in case the Imperium sends out a second expedition army.
"It is a mission that is practically impossible to accomplish. No wonder Jin Xinyue decided to wager on such a risky plan!"
Having finished the egg, Li Yao picked up a piece of sausage that had already become soft after being soaked in the soup for a long time with the fork and bit it hard as he both complimented and felt sorry for his disciple's plan.
Long Yangjun narrowed her eyes to try to avoid watching his gluttonous face. "Then, what do we do now?"
"Up until so far, according to our analysis, Jin Xinyue is still loyal to the federation and to her master," Li Yao said solemnly. "She never crossed the boundaries of the Cultivators, either. So, she is still my good disciple! Now that something might be wrong with my disciple's plan, I'm naturally obliged to clean up the mess for her as her master. Otherwise, why does she even need a master?"
Long Yangjun nodded. "Fair enough. But everything is just our speculation so far. We don't even know who the enemy other than the Black Wind Fleet is or if they have any other schemes. If I may ask, how do you plan to clean up the huge mess that your disciple Jin Xinyue has left for you?"
Li Yao smiled. "That's exactly why I requested when the federation arranged the sailing route that we take a detour in the Hundred Flowers Space Zone!
"The Hundred Flowers Space Zone does not have any habitable planets or enough resource planets. It is even more barren than the Dragon Snake Space Zone, with barely any value to be developed.
"However, this place is at the center of the seven Sectors of the federation. It is a very important node in the space jump. Also, it has a dual-star system. The spiritual waves that the two stars release during their interaction can be condensed into an excellent 'gravity sl
ingshot', which can save a lot of spiritual energy for the starships being teleported.
"Space jumps cannot be performed randomly, especially now that the federation has so many Sectors and starships. Tens of thousands of starships are jumping on a daily basis, creating temporary wormholes one after another. If the routes and jump points are not well-planned, it is very possible that the starships will affect each other and cause a great accident. Traffic accidents in space are rare, but when they do happen, it will be a tragedy where thousands of people may get killed!
"Therefore, after the Water Crystal Sector and the Forest Ocean Sector were discovered, the federation began to develop the Hundred Flowers Space Zone on a large scale and established the super space metropolis 'Hundred Flowers City' as a transportation hub. Around Hundred Flowers City, more than a hundred space gates and ten thousand star beacons have been set up for navigation purposes.
"The starships travelling among different Sectors of the federation often jump from their mother planet to the Hundred Flowers Space Zone first. Then, they refill their supplies, repair their vehicles, and recalculate their sailing routes. In the end, through the 'gravity slingshot' provided by the dual-star system, they jump to their destination. This is the safest, most organized, and most energy-conserving means of transportation for them."
Long Yangjun nodded. "I know that, but this starship, with the delegation on board, does not really need to conserve a tiny bit of spiritual energy and could have asked the federal government to establish a dedicated sailing route for us, right? I've been meaning to ask you for a long time. Why do we have to transfer at the Hundred Flowers Space Zone when we could've directly jumped from the Uranian Ring Sector to the Heaven's Origin Sector? It is a great waste of our time."
"The federation spent a great fortune and decades of time constructing the Hundred Flowers Space Zone into a transportation hub that connects the seven Sectors," Li Yao said. "Countless sailing routes and starships transfer at this place. To calculate the complicated sailing routes and the space ripples after the jump of the starships, a computation center of an enormous scale is required.
"Therefore, Hundred Flowers City boasts the most awesome super crystal processor of the entire federation. There are only three super crystal processors of the same level in the country. One of them is in Hundred Flowers City to control the routes in space. One of them is in the Heaven's Origin Sector, responsible for the big data calculations of the federal government. The last of them is in the Star Prier's House on Spider Den in the Flying Star Sector. It is used to monitor the astronomical anomalies and analyze the star map of the Pangu civilization in order to find more Sectors.
"The last super crystal processor, or a 'group of super crystal processors', was left by the Star Ocean Imperium and only repaired after the arduous efforts of our specialists. It was with the calculation and search of the crystal processor that we managed to discover four new Sectors in a row in only a hundred years! But the computation center in Hundred Flowers City has a computational ability equal to the Star Prier's House. Isn't it awesome?"
Long Yangjun frowned. "Does it have anything to do with the scheme we just talked about?"
"Don't be hasty. Let me finish."
Licking his greasy lips, Li Yao spoke confidently while holding the sausage in his mouth. "Hundred Flowers City is not just a transportation hub in the federation but also the center of the entire 'grand-unified Spiritual Nexus'. The computation center here is actually divided into two parts, one responsible for transportation and the other responsible for the functioning of the grand-unified Spiritual Nexus!
"It is quite easy to understand, right? The enormous streams of information on the grand-unified Spiritual Nexus also need to be reflected in the four-dimensional space in order to reach a world a hundred lightyears away instantly. Is there a place more suitable than the Hundred Flowers Space Zone as the center of the Spiritual Nexus?
"Since the center of the grand-unified Spiritual Nexus is here inside the largest computation center nationwide made of countless super crystal processors, naturally, the control and development center of the game 'Civilization' has been set up in this place, too. It is no exaggeration to say that this place is the heart of the virtual world of the federation."
Brilliance was beaming out of Long Yangjun's eyes, as she remarked, "I understand it now. You're worried that the Black Wind Fleet's target is not one of the seven Sectors but here, right? Once they launch an assault here, the grand-unified Spiritual Nexus and most of the routes in space will be paralyzed. This is a critical weakness for the federation!"
"Not exactly." Li Yao shook his head and said, "At first, after noticing that the Hundred Flowers Space Zone is the transportation hub of the New Federation and the center of the virtual world, I also wondered if the Black Wind Fleet would attack this place.
"But if you think about it more carefully, you will realize that the gains can't outweigh the losses.
"It's because both the sailing routes and the nodes of the Spiritual Nexus are scattered and interconnected. Even if the 'hub' and 'center' are destroyed by the enemy, it is not possible to entirely paralyze the federation's transportation and information transmission on the Spiritual Nexus. The best the enemy can expect is to slow down the speed and efficiency and greatly increase the cost. All in all, the strike will be serious, but it won't be fatal.
"But for the Black Wind Fleet, 'mobility' and 'abruptness' are their greatest advantages right now. If they jump to such a place where barely any resources are available save the two stars, they will lose their mobility and abruptness. It will be difficult for them to jump out again. You must know that the space jump of an entire fleet is different from the space jump of a single starship, right?
"It's like how an ordinary soldier in ancient times can march fifty kilometers a day after training. But you want an army of hundreds of thousands of soldiers to march fifty kilometers in one day? Even the best troops may not be able to achieve that."
Long Yangjun nodded.
The smaller a unit was, the faster it would be. A team of scouts made of elite warriors and Cultivators could march a thousand kilometers a day and a night, but a large army could barely move twenty kilometers in the same time.
The Black Wind Fleet, with its thousands of starships, was like a dinosaur weighing a hundred tons. It would not jump easily, and it would be difficult to jump out if it was mired in a swamp.
Destroying the transportation hub and the center of the Spiritual Nexus would mean that it would be completely exposed to the federation. Harassed by the federal fleets, it would barely be able to jump again. Since there were not enough resources in the Hundred Flowers Space Zone, the two parties would have to start a war of attrition until they both died.
It was definitely not the outcome that the commander of the Black Wind Fleet wanted.
Long Yangjun was surprised. "If so, why are you here? I thought that you wanted to defend the Hundred Flowers Space Zone with our help!"
Li Yao blinked and said, "I'm here for my teacher, Professor Mo Xuan."
Chapter 1702: Okay... That Explains a Lot! |
"Mo Xuan, the star spirit, a new-generation spectral Cultivator who resides in liquid metal, and a firm advocate for the grand-unified Spiritual Nexus?"
Long Yangjun pondered for a moment and said, "Wait. You are not still considering the threat of the 'virtual life', are you? Let's focus on the more imminent issue here. With the current level of crystal processors and the Spiritual Nexus in the federation, it will be tens of thousands of years before a virtual life is truly born, but the threat of the expedition army of the Imperium is real and devastating!"
"No. At first, I was thinking about looking into Lu Qingchen."
After finishing his noodles and drinking up the last drop of the soup, Li Yao tapped the table with the fork and said, "I feel that something is greatly wrong with Lu Qingchen. His whole theory about 'Immortal Cultivator 2.0' makes me stunned and creeped out! I met h
im when he was still a teenager. He was much more sophisticated than his age and definitely not someone who was willing to work below anybody else. I'm scared that Jin Xinyue may not be able to control him or even be swallowed by him.
"Therefore, I studied his life when I was free, especially the collapse of the 'Virtual Spirits Sector', an event that caused him to completely degenerate into an Immortal Cultivator.
"As it turned out, few articles on 'the collapse of the Virtual Spirits Sector' could be found on the Spiritual Nexus. Even the so-called 'in-depth reports' mostly lacked a main focus and did not explain the causes and consequences of the event well.
"But then, it does make sense. The 'grand-unified Spiritual Nexus' that covered multiple Sectors was being constructed at that time. If the news of experimenters being killed by the Spiritual Nexus had spread, people would inevitable have become suspicious of the safety of the Spiritual Nexus. Besides, the victim Su Changfa was an Immortal Cultivator from the Imperium, who was in an awkward position in the federation in the first place. Therefore, the thing simply passed and got forgotten by everyone together with the 'Virtual Spirits Sector'.
"But I felt that something was not right. Despite the deep bond that Lu Qingchen might've had with Su Changfa, his master's death was an accident. It was far from enough for him to loathe the federation and surrender to the Imperium, wasn't it?
"What exactly happened in the 'Virtual Spirits Sector' at that time? Why was Su Changfa killed? Why did Lu Qingchen change? Why did Professor Mo Xuan abandon the studies on 'virtual life'?
"My professor is one of the most resolute people I've seen. Even when he was transformed into a 'Phantom Entity' because of the great explosion years ago and lived half-dead for years, he never gave up on his dream of refining after he was brought back to life. The greater a failure is, the braver and more unwavering he will be!
