by <unknown>
In the meantime, unpredictable explosions also echoed from everywhere in the vast mine.
They were the interferential quake sources that Starlight deployed.
For the hide-and-seek thousands of meters into the sunless rocks, optical senses were of little use. Soundwaves and the perception of quakes from the enemy's drills and tracks were much more important to lock onto the target.
Right now, the earthly dragons of Starlight were in a hurry to escape. Naturally, they had to boost the performance of the drills and tracks, having no time to care about the problems of quake and noise prevention.
Therefore, the crystal bombs that had deployed everywhere before were detonated to create a lot of minor quake sources, making it hard for the Immortal Cultivators to tell which ones were the earthly dragons. That was the only approach for them to escape.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
There were also many resistance warriors who did not board the earthly dragons. Instead, with determination and fearlessness on their faces, they entered the half-fixed turrets that boasted massive firepower but had lost all mobility. Gritting their teeth, they aimed the turrets that were even thicker than their waist at the crags above.
On the crags above their heads, hundreds of interconnected cracks appeared at some point. Broken rocks and dust were falling nonstop, like the breath of a certain underground ferocious beast.
Everybody could feel the bone-numbing quakes approaching from all directions.
The broken stone and the dust smashed into the turrets nonstop in clinking noises, making everybody even more anxious.
"This is our day of glory!"
Wei Longtao ascended from the deepest part of the black smoke in the mine again. He was covered in a bronze-colored crystal suit, which had strengthened plugins that were similar to an Ares Extension. At first glance, he was like a bronze five-meter-tall chimpanzee. His eyes were bloodshot, and the steam popping up from his head was even more intense than the waste spurted out by the earthly dragons. His volume was raised to a higher level too as he shouted with explosive strength, "Hundreds of years of being attacked, hundreds of years of running, and hundreds of years of failures have made almost everyone including ourselves forget the name—the proud and glorious name!
"But after the battle today, whether we win or we lose, nobody will ever forget us! The light of the stars beyond the firmament will be our eyewitnesses, telling everyone in the entire universe that there used to be a group of fearless warriors who called themselves Cultivators!"
"Cultivators! Cultivator! Cultivators!"
All the resistance warriors screamed their most hoarse but most loud voices that had been mixed with blood!
"Cultivators…"
Zuo Jingyun escorted Han Te and Liu Li into the train. Looking at the fellow Cultivators who had stayed to cover the retreat, she bit her lips hard and said, "We will find the temple. I swear that we will!"
On the crags above everyone's head, the gaps that looked like wounds ripped apart by deadly beasts continued expanding. The collapsing rocks grew larger and larger still in size. At first, they were the size of fingernails. Then, fists. Then, heads. Eventually, boulders almost five meters in diameter fell to every corner in the wasted mine, smashing the disorderly metal facilities into smithereens.
"They're here! They're here!"
Orange brilliance could be vaguely seen from the center of the interconnected gaps, which was the mystic rays released by the super-enormous drill that was digging down, as well as the flames when the dust was ignited because of the friction!
Chi! Chi! Chi!
The ear-splitting friction and shattering sounds were like the laughter of fiends that savaged everybody's ears.
"Prepare to fight!" Wei Longtao bellowed and drew two extremely thick machine guns from his waist. Holding a gun in each hand, he aimed at the dome and shouted, "Let's show them who we are!"
Huala!
Finally, when the laughter of fiends reached the loudest point, the dome was completely pierced through by a super-enormous drill!
The drill was more than ten meters in diameter, filled with sharp teeth and mincers on the surface, which were still rotating at a high speed and transforming broken rocks and dust into orange flames.
It was like a gigantic meteor from outer space that had crashed into the mine, raising a deafening explosion and tidal blasts that felt like a tsunami.
The black smoke deep inside the forsaken mine was driven away. Explosions that echoed everywhere were like eruptions of volcanos, whose orange brilliance illuminated the face of every resistance warrior. Even their droplets of sweat that were as large as beans were clearly visible.
Hum! Hum! Hum!
From the vertical caves up above that were more than ten meters in diameter, ominous noises that sounded like dancing wild bees came over.
Chapter 2057: Going Easy! |
In the ear-splitting sound waves, countless round metal balls rolled from the caves and released gliders and honeycomb-type launchers while they were still in midair, turning into round battle puppets that rushed at the earthly dragons around that had yet to leave.
"Stop them!"
Under Wei Longtao's command, the half-fixed turrets released thousands of fiery snakes amid the roars of the resistance warriors, restraining the iron tides from spreading out. The battle puppets of the Immortal Cultivators were pierced through and blown up one after another. Dazzling fireballs were blossoming at the bottom of the earth!
Sensing the massive firepower of the resistance warriors, the battle puppets immediately changed their patterns. They turned into round balls again and gathered together, activating tiny spiritual shields and integrating with each other into a solid wall. The entrance of the cave up above was well protected by them.
Now that the entrance was protected, countless battle puppets were able to flood in, soon surpassing the threshold that the warriors of Starlight could deal with.
They were also mixed with the lizard skeletons that had ravaged Liberty City the previous day. Such biological weapons that were almost perfect lunged at the resistance warriors in weird routes the moment they landed, so fast and agilely that the storm bolters and the crystal cannons could not take care of them over the long distance at all.
"Ahh!"
Several half-fixed turrets were too focused on the war puppets to spare enough firepower to deal with the skeleton lizards that came at them at a high speed. They were surrounded by a couple of skeleton lizards, which corroded the gaps and the shield with acid and dragged the resistance warriors out from inside, before the heads of the creatures that looked like man-eating flowers crowded forward and chewed the prey into blood and bones.
One last earthly dragon was already fully loaded with crew members, ammunition, and fuel. They were about to leave when several skeleton lizards crawled into the cabin doors that were not entirely closed. A storm of blood was immediately raised in the cars.
A lot of turrets and resistance warriors were forced to shift their firepower to the skeleton lizards. As a result, the war puppets of the Immortal Cultivators in midair were able to lock onto and shoot their targets unhurriedly. The spiritual shields of the resistance warriors were all sparking and shaking.
Exclamations, explosions, moans, and curses were echoing nonstop. The situation could not have been more dangerous!
"B*stards, go to hell!"
Wei Longtao took action!
The general commander of the underground branch of Starlight, with the Ares Extension that looked like a bronze chimpanzee, was truly like a dominating, unstoppable God of War when he leapt forward and crashed into where the war puppets were most populated on his own.
Despite his body, which was so brawny that it bordered on clumsy, he danced a most swift and perfect battle dance. He was carrying two machine guns that were supposed to suppress the enemy with the stormy firepower, but they were like two sniper rifles in his hands. Almost none of the bullets missed their target.
When one bullet hit the most vulnerable part of a war puppet's spiritual shield, a second bullet would immediately take advantage of the weakness and blow up its mainframe crystal processor immediately!
Next to Wei Longtao, the Immortal Cultivators' war puppets all turned into burning garbage that fell like hail.
The two machine guns that were roaring crazily in his hands gradually turned from yellow to crimson in spurting sounds, requiring a cooldown because of the overloaded rune arrays.
Dozens of war puppets and almost ten skeleton lizards lunged at him immediately.
Wei Longtao burst into laughter. He picked up two burning axes that seemed to be made of magma. Waving them up and down crazily, he delayed the attack of almost a hundred enemies like a butcher that was dissecting bulls.
In the middle of the soaring flames and smoke, his back was particularly daunting and majestic. One could not find a greater hero than him!
"Go! Go now!"
Seeing that Wei Longtao was as tough and brutal as a god, the resistance warriors who stayed to cover the retreat with him also unleashed their fighting will to die together with the enemy. Their bones and muscles were all broken by the recoil of the crazy bombardment of the turrets as they fired with their entire life and hope. The war puppets and the skeleton lizards of the Immortal Cultivators could hardly crawl out for a moment.
The other resistance warriors took the opportunity to activate the earthly dragons to the maximum efficiency and slipped through the interconnected, complicated tunnels.
Explosions echoed deep underground. The tunnel system that was as complicated as a maze previously was now an even messier knot. It was impossible to track anyone at all.
"Let's go!"
Zuo Jingyun was the last to board her earthly dragon, Cloud Penetrator. Looking at Wei Longtao, who was galloping unstoppably in the storm of bullets and tusks, she gritted her teeth. "We have to find the 'temple' and avenge all the brothers and sisters who died today and in the past hundreds of years!"
Right then, several war puppets and skeleton lizards suddenly ripped apart the fire net of the resistance warriors and lunged at Cloud Penetrator.
Zuo Jingyun raised her hand to shoot, but a gray shadow was even faster than her, which turned out to be Liu Li's beast puppet in the form of a tarantula.
While Zuo Jingyun blew up the other few war puppets, it crashed into a skeleton lizard brutally and pierced its sharp limbs into the enemy's body. Fighting against each other hard, they both fell into the depths of the dark mine. Then, a small, bluish cluster of sparks burst out.
Zuo Jingyun slightly frowned.
In fact, she could have taken care of the problem on her own. The sacrifice of a spiritual puppet was unnecessary.
However, Liu Li was in a trance and sweating hard. The girl must have been frightened and therefore selected a safer approach. It was not entirely a bad decision.
Having no time to think more about it, Zuo Jingyun slammed the door of the earthly dragon. "Let's go!"
The debris of the tarantula that was under Li Yao's control was torn and gnawed by the heavily wounded skeleton lizard crazily.
But his soul had been transferred to Neltharion. Under the cover of the explosions, the fire, and the skeleton lizards, he crawled into a crevice at the bottom part of the forsaken mine without a sound.
Neltharion had a tiny drill, too, which made it possible to go almost anywhere.
With the heated battle up above, absolutely no one could detect that he was lurking quietly in this place in such a weird way.
It was not until Cloud Penetrator completely vanished into the tunnel and blew it up with crystal bombs that Li Yao finally somewhat relaxed and shifted his attention to the battlefield.
Then, his heart was palpitating again.
As time went by, more and more small drills dug in from the crags around the forsaken mine. The resistance warriors were all running about exhaustedly and could barely resist the enemy.
After each tunnel was broken through, war puppets and skeleton lizards flooded in.
When the enemy's units were upgraded to the regular army of the Heavenly Eye Legion in crystal suits and the crazy live streamers, the resistance warriors' defense line finally collapsed completely.
"Long live the Cultivators. Long live Starlight!"
"Hahaha. I've been hiding for fifty-five years and never had a battle as gratifying as today's. My life has totally been worth it!"
"Let's die together, scumbags from the sky!"
The resistance warriors roared, laughed, and carried their crystal cannons that were almost melted with tears in their eyes while they charged at the enemy before they turned into dazzlingly brilliant fireworks in the iron torrents.
Every firework was like a crystal bomb that exploded brutally deep inside Li Yao's soul. He was so infuriated that he almost could not wait to charge out and fight side by side with the fellow Cultivators from the center of the cosmos, turning his soul into furious flames that would ignite and even detonate the entire forsaken mine.
The mental devil shrieked aloud next to his soul and even released many bloody waves to tie up his soul and prevent him from doing anything rash. "It's not going to help. There are simply too many enemies. Also, they are all minions and cannon fodder. If you kill them, ten times more reinforcements will arrive incessantly. If we expose our existence, the whole area will be bombarded by railguns and turned into a living hell. There's no reason we should die with the small fries of such a level, right?
"Besides, our soul has not been completely melted with the body yet. Even if you do your best right now, you can only bring out ten percent of your combat ability at best. How is that going to help?
"After the soul returns to the position and is armed with the crystal suit and the Colossus, and after the culprit hiding behind the curtain of Manjusaka is revealed, you can always go on a rampage then!"
"I know," Li Yao said slowly. His telepathic thoughts locked onto Wei Longtao, who was still fighting a bloody battle like unpredictable spider threads.
The man seemed to be really fulfilling his promise to cover the retreat. He waved his burning axes crazily, safeguarding the resistance warriors next to him into the tunnels.
How brave, how tough, how great, and how selfless he was!
At this moment, even the most coldhearted bandit or thug would have had to raise their thumbs for Wei Longtao if they saw this and praise that he was a real man!
Li Yao, however, did not feel moved or awed at all.
He really seemed to have become a human-shaped crystal processor that had focused all his computational ability on Wei Longtao. To be more exact, it was focused on the bullets, flying swords, and mystic rays that brushed past Wei Longtao narrowly.
"Wei Longtao should be an expert in the Nascent Soul Stage, probably at the middle level or even the high level," Li Yao observed coldly. "But even the peak of the Nascent Soul Stage is still far from invincible. Faced with the iron tides, the overwhelming number of the enemies, and the tornado-like firepower, he should still be injured.
"However, although Wei Longtao has been fighting enemies while heavily outnumbered for such a long time, he can still perform such perfect dodging movements, as if he can predict the trajectory of the enemy's attacks. This is truly… talented and incredible!
"Look, look. Didn't you see that? The gunshot at such a close distance was very likely to have hit his head, blowing up or at least blocking the crystal cameras on his helmet. But the shooter somehow trembled and missed the target.
"What's your take on the situation?"
"Well…" the mental devil said. "There are three possibilities. Firstly, Wei Longtao is adept at mental attacks and has imposed interference on the minds and the sights of the hundreds of Immortal Cultivators as well as their puppets without them knowing it.
"Secondly, the Immortal Cultivators and spiritual puppets that are attacking Wei Longtao are all blind, which explains why they missed the critical part
s at such a close distance.
"Thirdly, it's very simple. The Immortal Cultivators are going easy on him."
Chapter 2058: Beginning of the Epic Quest! |
On the surface, the Immortal Cultivators did not seem to be going easy on him at all. Instead, the battle was rather fierce.
Few resistance warriors were hanging on in the forsaken mine at this moment, but Wei Longtao was definitely the most ruthless and dazzling one of them. He attracted almost half of the Immortal Cultivators' firepower. All kinds of bullets and colorful mystic rays were coming at him, triggering the most glamorous sound and visual effects around him. His Ares Extension that looked like a bronze chimpanzee were riddled with holes and bordering on collapse. The pieces and components erupted, flying into the air crazily.
Wei Longtao seemed determined to die together with his enemy, too. Without caring about his seemingly devastating wounds at all, he threw himself into the Immortal Cultivators like a cannonball time and time again, and he did take down a few opponents.
When the resistance warriors who fell back to the tunnels under his cover looked back, they happened to see him mired in the ocean of Immortal Cultivators but still fighting relentlessly without backing off at all. They could not help but feel moved, their nostrils and chests burning.
"Commander!" the resistance warriors roared desperately.
"Leave me. Just go!" Wei Longtao's voice turned extremely hoarse, as if his throat had been stuffed with frozen blood. "I will break out of the siege. I promise!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A number of fireballs enshrouded Wei Longtao and blocked his voice. The last image that he left to all the resistance warriors was him waving his axes in the flames on a killing spree like a god incarnate!
However…
