by <unknown>
"Ahhh!"
Completely overwhelmed by Li Yao, the 'gardener' suddenly shrieked in a way that did not sound like a human being. The next second, his entire head seemed to be exploding!
Chapter 1734: Neither Dead nor Alive! |
Naturally, his head did not really explode. However, when Li Yao perceived with the spiritual root above the epiphysis at the center of his eyebrow, a colorful and glamorous volcano was really erupting from the man's eyes, forehead, and skull. It immediately condensed into surging tides of a mental attack and poured into Li Yao's brain!
Boom!
Despite the solidity of his soul in the Nascent Soul Stage, Li Yao still felt that ten thousand crystal bombs were detonated inside his brain at the same time. His brain was turned into a swirl, and ten thousand bells were tolling and shaking nonstop at the deepest part of the swirl!
Even the mental devil was ripped apart by the unexpected attack. It was screaming in a loud voice and was unable to be condensed again for a long time!
Such a powerful mental attack!
Li Yao was somehow stunned by the attack. He fell to one knee and breathed heavily. Then, his head expanded like a balloon that was being blown until the helmet of his crystal suit was cracking.
The attack also consumed all the soul power of the 'gardener' on his opposite side. In Li Yao's perception, the forehead that was hidden below the helmet had collapsed to the bottom, and the brain cells inside all withered. His soul, spirit, and even self-awareness were all gone, leaving nothing.
Like a marionette whose strings had been severed, he fell to the ground, unable to move anymore, without even a single cramp.
It was a suicidal attack, like the detonation of the core for Core Formation Stage Cultivators, except that the man had detonated his own brain.
He had activated all the power of his soul through a certain weird secret art and transformed it into the fiercest mental attack!
Although the man was already dead, the twenty or so 'gardeners' and numerous battle puppets were all lunging forward and launching attacks at Li Yao fearlessly with no consideration for their own lives.
Those battle puppets were vastly different from the Grand Illusionary Soldiers that had given Li Yao quite a hard time before in the Flying Star Sector. They seemed to be even more advanced than the Grand Illusionary Soldiers!
The Grand Illusionary Soldiers could only filter and choose tactics and movements from the combat data stored in the crystal processors according to the situation in a battle. Therefore, their movements were limited, rigid, and delayed, and they were vulnerable to the interference of the network. They were merely 'puppets'.
However, the battle puppets here were fighting fluently with the most immaculate teamwork. They were even performing a lot of terribly ugly but absolutely effective movements that were highly irregular. They gave Li Yao a feeling that… they were not puppets but inhabited by real souls.
So, it meant that they were spectral Cultivators and real 'human beings'.
But why were there so many expert spectral Cultivators in this place? And what was the weird, suicidal mental attack all about?
Li Yao slashed a battle puppet in half from the waist with his hand, only to discover that the 'gardener' next to it launched the most excruciating suicidal mental attack again. The man burnt his entire brain just for a single moment of brilliance, which was then struck Li Yao's brain!
Li Yao grunted. He could almost hear his brain vessels and nerves exploding nonstop.
The two 'gardeners' that had detonated themselves were at least in the Core Formation Stage. Their souls seemed to have been specifically polished, too, and were much more powerful than what was expected of the Core Formation Stage. Together with the enhancement magical equipment on the helmet of their crystal suits, their suicidal attack was definitely not something to be underestimated!
Li Yao glanced around and noticed that Long Yangjun had finished more than ten battle puppets in a streak of brightness within a moment, too. But she had also suffered two suicidal mental attacks, and her movements were more or less slowed down.
Thankfully, after four 'gardeners' died from suicidal attacks and three were killed by Li Yao and Long Yangjun before they had the chance to, there were only a few 'gardeners' left.
While Li Yao and Long Yangjun were slightly surprised by the toughness and fierceness of the 'gardeners', the 'gardeners' and those behind them must have been even more startled.
Judging from the intensity of the suicidal mental attacks of the 'gardeners', it should be the most powerful and ultimate approach. Even if their enemy was at the beginning level of the Nascent Soul Stage, it was possible that the enemy's soul would have been shattered or at least confused for a couple of seconds, in which case they would still have been killed under the collective attack of the puppets.
But never could those behind the puppets have foreseen that the 'intruders' were super experts at the peak of the Nascent Soul Stage with particularly weird and tough souls!
"Interesting!"
Li Yao and Long Yangjun looked at each other and both sneered. Their competitiveness was raised by the uncanny 'gardeners' and the battle puppets, and they raised their combat ability to eighty percent simultaneously!
BOOM! BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!
Flames of spiritual energy erupted from their bodies and surged into the sky like a tree almost ten meters tall before it exploded in midair.
Even the air could not bear the compression and tearing of their auras anymore. Thunder and lightning spread out in ripples that were almost substantial objects.
The daunting auras alone were enough to freeze plenty of battle puppets to where they are. The rune arrays and chips inside their bodies were cracking and breaking amid dazzling sparks.
After a breath, the flames of spiritual energy that had been released to the maximum were absorbed into their bodies again. Their bodies seemed utterly unchanged compared to before, but when perceived by the spiritual root, their bodies had expanded by more than ten times into two ferocious primeval beasts!
Shua! Shua!
One on the left and the other on the right, Li Yao and Long Yangjun turned into two flashes of destruction. They accelerated to three times, five times, and ten times their original speed. As if they were living in a world where time flowed ten times faster, other people were all stuck by invisible glue and were unable to react at all until their veins, nerves, bones, and metal architecture were blown apart!
A moment later, the whole ground was scattered with debris.
However, battle puppets were still emerging incessantly from the two enormous holes on the lawn, occasionally mixed with one or two perfectly-shaped, lifeless weirdos whose eyes looked like black holes.
Those weirdos had already put on their crystal suits before they flew out of the ground. Despite knowing that they would certainly be killed, they were still lunging at Li Yao and Long Yangjun relentlessly.
"Those guys are at least in the Core Formation Stage!"
Li Yao kicked one of the 'gardeners' back into the hole after blowing up the man's crystal suit together with his ribs, which seemed as thin as paper under his attack.
"Also, their souls have been specially modified, allowing them to increase their mental combat ability to the Nascent Soul Stage when they are launching that suicidal attack!"
Long Yangjun swung her sword unpredictably. The auras of the blade split into nine whips of light instantly, penetrating through at least twenty battle puppets. Then, she shook her wrist and turned the sword around. Waves were immediately raised from the whips, blowing the twenty battle puppets into dazzling fireballs simultaneously!
"It's impossible. Where did my professor find so many lifeless Core Formation Stage experts? There seems to be an infinite number of them!"
"Simple. Let's just go down there and check!"
Right then, from the silver 'dome' behind them, hundreds of Exos popped up from the entrances of the channels to quite a
few different locations. They formed a grave battle formation in midair.
Judging from the paint and emblems on their crystal suits, they belonged to the federal army!
"Well…"
The soldiers of the federal army who had been sent there because of the abrupt explosions were somewhat confused.
According to their intelligence, only two spies of the Imperium of True Human Beings had snuck into Hundred Flowers City. But the 'battlefield' at the periphery of the Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital seemed to suggest that two elite legions had just had a huge fight in this place!
If one side was the spies of the Imperium, who was the other side?
How could a private hospital boast such immense forces for defense?
Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!
Almost all the soldiers detected tremendous powerful spiritual waves with their crystal suits.
Their attention was particularly attracted by the two waves that were surrounded by the battle puppets at the center of the law. It was almost…
"Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators?"
"That's impossible!"
Exclamations of shock and confusion were echoing in the federal army's communication channel.
"You can't cover fire with paper. Soldiers of the federal army have arrived here. I would like to know how Director Lei Yuqin of the Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital will explain her particularly 'strong' gardeners!"
Smirking, Li Yao and Long Yangjun sprinted at the same time. Like two raging crystal trains that were running at the highest speed, they blew away the few battle puppets that were on their way and jumped into the two channels leading underground as fast as tornadoes.
Shua!
The moment he entered the hole, Li Yao raised his hands. Dozens of crystal bombs darted into the underworld before he did. The crystal cannons on the shoulders of his crystal suit, the honeycomb-like launcher of flying swords, and other remote attack magical equipment opened fire at the same time, raising a storm of furious fire in the entire channel.
Li Yao descended to the bottom of the channel majestically in the middle of the storm. The battle puppets that were affected by the explosions but not killed yet were all shattered by the auras of his saber!
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Identical explosions were echoing behind him. When he turned around, Long Yangjun had already broken through the other channel and appeared in front of him.
Judging from the structure of the two channels above their heads and the joints with the underground buildings, the channels could not have been opened easily. They must have been emergency exits.
The underground buildings were of a much grander scale than they had anticipated. Li Yao released more than ten scanning grenades and feedback grenades that rolled quickly in midair. But the preliminary result of the reconnaissance implied that the place was as complicated as a maze.
The defender seemed to have run out of available soldiers. After blowing up dozens of battle puppets along the way, they did not meet any new resistance.
Naturally, the two of them did not demean themselves by looking for stairs or an elevator. They simply blew through the floors and jumped down. As a matter of fact, there were probably few floors in the entire universe that could withstand the collective bombardment of two experts at the peak of the Nascent Soul Stage.
After blowing through five floors in a row and reaching the minus sixth floor, they were already surrounded by silence. Long Yangjun suddenly pointed at the glass window on one side of the pathway and said, "What's that?"
Li Yao peered through the glass window, only to discover that it was a rather spacious hall in which almost a hundred medical cabins that looked like cocoons were placed. The cabins were filled with green nutrition liquids, and soaked in the nutrition liquids were a lot of people whose eyes were closed and who appeared to be neither dead nor alive!
Chapter 1735: Shells |
Those people…
They were mostly naked, but their private parts were covered with thin film that looked like latex. Their bodies were connected with crystal wires and cables from head to toe, too. A lot of the wires extended deep into their bodies along their veins and nerves.
A lot of tentacles that looked like biochemical nerves also dangled down from the medical cabins and extended to their heads.
A rather powerful new crystal processor was placed next to every medical cabin to monitor the status of their bodies. Thousands of data streams were changing on the light beam every second.
All the crystal processors were then connected together through cables that were as thick as boas to a super crystal processor that took up an enormous amount of space at the end of the hall.
The crystal processors were still emanating a creepy light and functioning amid various hums. The green nutrition liquids were bubbling nonstop, too.
Stimulated by the wires, cables, and biochemical nerves, the half-dead-half-alive people were both cramping softly and displaying joy, anger, sadness, and other emotions on their faces. Some of them even opened their eyes abruptly, and their empty eyeballs were rolling crazily, unfocused, projecting a light of lifelessness.
The scent of death filled the room, outlining a mortifying scene!
However, no matter how they cramped and how their facial expressions changed, they were confined to the tiny medical cabins from beginning to end. It did not appear that they would really wake up anytime soon.
Li Yao swallowed and stuck his right hand to the tempered glass. Exerting his strength slightly, he immediately broke the entire tempered glass into pieces.
The noises of the broken pieces hitting the ground randomly was particularly clear and ear-splitting in the hall that was dead silent.
Floating in midair, Li Yao and Long Yangjun flew into the weird hall to the middle of the hundreds of medical cabins and the hundreds of half-dead-half-alive people in them.
Although some of them had their eyes wide open, they simply ignored Li Yao and Long Yangjun's arrival, as if they were still dwelling in a different world, and only the most primitive reflexes of the animals were kept in the real world.
Li Yao and Long Yangjun glanced at the nameplate on every medical cabin sharply. Li Yao even walked to the crystal processor and operated on it quickly.
"This place is the Deep Sustenance Treatment Center of Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital," Li Yao said. "They are all the vegetative patients who have been sent here for treatment. Most of them were specialists of crystal processors and the Spiritual Nexus in the past."
"That explains a lot. According to the files I found online, Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital has adopted a certain 'immersive virtual stimulation procedure', in which a unique virtual space is created with their memories of the past and poured into their brain, thereby soaking them in special dreams, simulating their brains intensely and helping them to wake up. Other than that, their internal organs and limbs are also stimulated by bioelectricity all year long."
Against the glass window, Long Yangjun observed the vegetative patient inside the medical cabin carefully. "Through the simulation of bioelectricity and the irrigation of spiritual energy, it is possible to maintain the body functions of the patients at a healthy level. Muscular dystrophy, organ failure, bone ossification, and other common symptoms for the vegetative patients can be avoided in such a way. So to speak, this should be a public ward instead of a weird experiment base?"
"But where are the doctors and nurses?" Li Yao glanced around quickly and frowned. "There isn't a single doctor or nurse in such a huge ward? Besides, where did the battle puppets and the weirdos who boasted tremendous mental combat ability come from?
"Also, don't you feel that it is quite strange? I checked the files of more than ten patients in a row, only to discover that they were exclusively specialists in crystal processors and the Spiritual Nexus. None of them specialize in other fields?"
"That is actually not very strange," Long Yangjun said, "According to the introduction on the official
website of Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital, the ward of the Deep Sustenance Treatment Center is classified according to professions, levels, and types of patients. In such a way, it is easier for the patients to resonate. It is more convenient for large-scale treatment procedures to be carried out, too."
"Is that so? I still feel that something is wrong." Li Yao gazed at the vegetative people who were soaked in the green fluorescent liquids. Most of them were admin-type, research-type, and creation-type Cultivators, who usually worked in an office. Naturally, their bodies were different from the 'gardeners' whom they had encountered previously, and they were far less perfect and athletic.
Right then, Li Yao and Long Yangjun both heard glass being broken far away.
Although the sound was quite distant and feeble, the two Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators were still able to hear it clearly.
The two of them looked at each other and immediately rushed toward the source of the sound.
They found three halls in exactly the same style on their way. Almost a thousand vegetative people were lying quietly in the medical cabins. Simulated by the bioelectricity and the incoming spiritual energy, their bodies were cramping, and they were wearing vivid expressions as if they were having a dream.
"Hiss!"
In a corner, a naked, muscular man suddenly shrieked and lunged at the two of them, only to be blown away immediately, forming a human-shaped dent on the wall. The bones all over the man's body were broken, and thick bodily fluids flowed out of his nose and ears.
"This is…"
Li Yao fell to one knee and picked up a cluster of greasy, gooey liquids from the dead body. He rubbed the sample with his fingers and said, "It's nutrition liquid that contain tremendous spiritual energy, identical to what was injected into the medical cabins just now."
"That's right. Also, the man's private parts are covered by membranes as thin as paper, too." Long Yangjun examined the man's skin carefully. "Look. There are traces of wires and soft tubes among the pores, just like the vegetative people that we saw a moment ago."
