by <unknown>
Hardly had Li Yao sprinted out of the planet's gravity circle and entered the dark space when he sensed a magnificent wave of spiritual energy coming at him at high speed.
It was Li Lingfeng!
The guy indeed did not intend to let him go but was only ambushing him.
Not just Li Lingfeng, even the hundreds of starships of the Immortal Cultivators' fleet nearby were also attracted by Li Yao and marched at him aggressively like countless bloodstained tusks.
Hehe. You want to surround a Colossus in the vast, boundless space where there are no obstacles at all?
Li Yao sneered nonstop. You can't be more stupid!
It was not a siege on the ground.
The universe was too vast. Not just Li Lingfeng's several hundred starships, even thousands of them would be nothing more than grains of dust.
There was at least a thousand kilometers between every two starships, which was not enough to completely control the entire space at the edge of a planet. In the meantime, common material weapons could not catch up to his speed at all, and only the weapons of mystic rays that moved at the speed of light could possibly hit him—on the condition that the enemy could lock onto him first!
Until the fuel and the spiritual energy ran out, only Li Lingfeng's Colossus had the opportunity to catch up to and stop his Colossus, creating a window for the fleet around to surround him.
But Li Lingfeng's Colossus…
Very fast. "Tempest God", it is certainly not a wrong name!
Li Yao grinned, baring his glittering teeth. The cunningness beaming out of his eyes made him look like a weasel that had just stolen a chicken.
It was impossible for Li Lingfeng to have predicted the coordinates where he broke through the atmosphere. So, the two of them were tens of thousands of kilometers away from each other at the beginning.
Despite the high speed of the Tempest God, it had to resort to the maximal power output in order to cover the long distance as soon as possible.
The result of a prolonged extreme output was that, when the two of them were only slightly more than a thousand kilometers from each other, the spiritual waves of the Tempest God suddenly blinked weirdly, and the speed of the Colossus plummeted!
The tricks that Li Yao played on the power units of the Tempest God in the competition at the beginning at the cost of the heavy damage to the Tartarean Skeleton had finally worked out!
Sensing that the enemy's speed was lower and lower, and it was unlikely for him to be caught, Li Yao burst into laughter and rushed off in confidence!
Not far away up ahead, however, there was a lone starship of the Immortal Cultivators, which was launching mystic rays and electromagnetic bullets at him in vain, hoping to slow him down.
A "Piranha"-level arsenal warship!
Li Yao's eyes glittered with interest, and cruelty spread out of the smile on his lips. To completely blow up an arsenal warship of such a level, it will only take me… seven seconds!
In the blink of an eye, the Tartarean Skeleton disappeared, or melted, in the space like a cluster of unpredictable black smoke.
The enemy's stormy attack all missed the target, achieving nothing but the feeble ripples that were spreading out.
Shua!
In the next second, the Tartarean Skeleton somehow appeared on the top of the arsenal warship of the Imperium, staring at the enemy coldly from the high stance.
Although the Tartarean Skeleton at this moment had been heavily wounded and riddled with holes, it could not stop the ripples of spiritual energy from spreading out of the Colossus' arms and condensing into a drill that looked like a red lotus. Tearing apart the seemingly solid armor of the arsenal warship, the Colossus raged and went on a rampage inside the cabins unstoppably!
Only seven seconds later—
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The "Piranha"-level arsenal warship, which had been armed to the teeth, indeed turned into dazzling light balls. The warehouses of ammunition and crystals all had the most intense explosions, releasing abundant radiations and high-energy particles that completely disrupted the detection of Li Lingfeng and the starships of other Immortal Cultivators.
There being no friction in vacuum, the remnants resulted from the explosion of the starship all darted away at a high speed like shooting stars. Without the interference of external forces, they would continue drifting forward until they flew out of the Martial Meritocrats Sector!
The moment when the arsenal warship exploded, Li Yao already retreated the Tartarean Skeleton under the cover of the intense spiritual waves. He simply covered him in the mustard-seed combat suit and Little Black, the mysterious "liquid crystal processor", while he crouched in the middle of a medium-sized remnant and rushed to the edge of the Martial Meritocrats Sector.
There were thousands of such remnants in space right now. It would take Li Lingfeng at least a day and a night to scan each and every one of them.
Han Te, Liu Li, this is as far as I can help you!
Looking at the Land of Sins not far away, Li Yao had a lot of complicated feelings, which all turned into one blessing. I wish the best of luck for you and all the fellow Cultivators!
Realizing that he had been fooled, Li Lingfeng, who had burst into a fury, showed no intention of letting Li Yao go.
That did make sense. Li Yao had many secrets and even pointed out his relationship with Li Jialing. He was truly more valuable than Starlight.
Li Lingfeng, as expected, threw away the chaotic, unresolvable Land of Sins for now and summoned all the available forces to catch Li Yao.
However, he went in the wrong direction. He couldn't have foreseen that, instead of running to the peripheral space zones of the Martial Meritocrats Sector, the guy had slightly adjusted the direction and moved to the ninth satellite of the fifth planet of the galaxy.
"Jingle Bell", the most advanced stealth exploration starship of the Star Glory Federation, and the greatest reliance for Li Yao's escape, was hidden right there!
Chapter 2126: Blind Jump! |
Li Yao spent half an hour searching before he found Li Jialing on the ninth satellite of the fifth planet of the Martial Meritocrats Sector.
Li Jialing had been sending out feeble signals through his crystal suit while hiding in the deepest fold inside a crater.
The special signals could only be received when one was close enough to the satellite and adjusted the communication channel to a certain frequency.
Of course, it was the communication method that Li Yao and Li Jialing had agreed on earlier.
Seeing that Li Jialing, the little weirdo who was full of enigmas but also deeply connected to him, was safe and sound, Li Yao took a long breath in relief. Dragging Li Jialing's elbow, he connected their communication channels and said, "Let's go to my starship. We'll talk later!"
Inside "Jingle Bell", Li Yao stored the crystal suit and Little Black back into the Cosmos Ring. Wearing only the mustard-seed combat suit and warming up his slightly exhausted body, Li Yao more or less calmed down.
There was only one last step to go before the final escape.
His hands turned into two clusters of mists as he operated quickly on the control panel of Jingle Bell.
Li Jialing, however, watched him from the back in a daze while observing Jingle Bell in suspicions and fear.
"What's up?"
Li Yao said without looking back, "Why are you flinching? You are scared of me?"
"Of course I am, because you are an out-and-out monster."
Li Jialing swallowed hard and summoned his courage. "I knew you were strong, but I did not know that you were THAT strong. Even 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky' was blown up by you. So many Immortal Cultivators were also killed by you on the live stream. I-I have never seen anyone as terrifying as you before!"
"Monster?"
Li Yao grinned. "I feel flattered to be respected as a 'monster' by you, because you are a little monster yourself. As I told you before, although my sk
ills are extraordinary, my combat ability is unparalleled, and my level is immeasurable, I am a low-key and approachable man. So, you need not regard me as an omnipotent expert who can destroy a world free at will, and you can just consider me as a regular 'brother'."
"Huh. Low-key and approachable?"
Li Jialing said in disbelief, "If I had not seen your brutal rampage and massacre on the live stream in person, I might have believed you."
Li Yao smiled again. Not planning to pursue the issue any further, he simply threw a Cosmos Ring at Li Jialing. "Take it. This is the storage chip of the mainframe crystal processor of Wuying Lan's most confidential laboratory. I believe that the data of his most cutting-edge projects must've been stored inside, for example, the procedures that have been performed on you.
"Those things should be of great help to unraveling the secrets in you!"
Li Jialing grabbed the Cosmos Ring and breathed fast. Thinking for a moment, he asked again, "What happened to Wuying Lan?"
Li Yao replied, "Now that even 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky' has been blown up, of course, he was killed by me. But speaking of which, his strengthening mutations at the last moment were truly something. I once practiced a technique named 'apocalyptic body'. His mutations were like an upgraded version of the 'apocalyptic body'. Had he not underestimated his enemy, it would've been quite tricky to deal with him!
"Right, when I eavesdropped on Li Lingfeng and Wuying Lan's conversation, they mentioned that Wuying Lan had performed exactly the same type of procedures on you as he did on himself. Also, the refinements on you seemed even more advanced. Does that mean you will be like Wuying Lan when you are in an extreme outburst?"
After hesitating a moment, Li Jialing nodded his head dutifully. "Yes. While my combat ability is not as tough as his right now, we are on the same path."
"So—"
Li Yao grew excited. "You can turn into a magnificent and hideous primeval beast like Wuying Lan did? Come on. Make a change and show Brother Yao what it's like!"
Li Jialing: "… No!"
Li Yao: "Why are you so reluctant? I'm not asking you to do it for fun but only in order to measure your extreme combat ability, so that I can draft a few tailor-made tactics for you and figure out if there are ways of teamwork in a battle for the two of us. You must know that there is a long future road up ahead where too many battles are awaiting us. 'Lawless, unrestrained freedom'? How can you get such a precious thing so easily?"
Li Jialing bit his lips softly, with a hint of confusion and panic beaming out of his eyes.
Ever since his independent will was awakened, the young man with unique origins and experiences had considered it his sole purpose; to rise against Li Lingfeng and to escape from the cage. It almost felt that he lived his life for a single goal.
When he was in the cage, every second of his life was fulfilled. He felt that he was one step closer to his target after every second.
However, now that he was about to get rid of Li Lingfeng's control, he was somewhat at a loss about where to go next.
"Brother Yao" was quite right. The universe was a large place, but where could he find real freedom?
After a moment of silence, Li Jialing said, "Where are you taking me to, Brother Yao?"
"Let's run out of the Martial Meritocrats Sector with a space jump and find a world far, far away from here first!"
Li Yao performed final tests as he admitted to Li Jialing frankly, "When I fought Li Lingfeng, I elicited some very interesting intelligence from him. Our speculation before was correct. There is indeed a very amazing relation among you, Li Lingfeng, and Li Linghai, queen of the Imperium. After we are out of danger, I'll explain everything to you in great detail. But you must understand one thing first. Until the issues between you, Li Lingfeng, and Li Linghai are completely resolved, you will never find real freedom. Do you agree?"
Li Yao did not intend to deceive Li Jialing.
On one hand, he was hoping to reach out to Li Linghai, queen of the Imperium, through Li Jialing, so that he could observe the operation of the power center of the Imperium at the closest distance. It required Li Jialing's cooperation, and honesty was the foundation for any cooperation.
More importantly, he was now 99% sure that Li Jialing was his foster father's child, and probably the only one.
Li Yao had deep feelings for his foster father. Naturally, he did not wish to push his foster father's biological son to a different side, in which case the two of them might be engaged in life-and-death battles one day in the future.
At the very least, from his experiences with his foster father in the Heaven's Origin Sector, his foster father was more inclined to the ideology of the Cultivators. He was a kind, righteous, and warm man.
Li Yao did not think that his foster father would want his biological son to become a selfish, iron-hearted, and even inhumane Immortal Cultivator, a cockroach that was armed to teeth!
Li Jialing looked at Li Yao carefully for a moment, before he nodded his head slowly. "I agree. However, leaving Li Lingfeng and Li Linghai aside, I'm more curious about the role you are playing in the whole incident, 'Brother Yao'. Was our encounter really a coincidence?"
Li Yao said, "It was. You can stop overthinking."
Li Jialing frowned deeply. "I still find it hard to believe, and I feel that something is greatly wrong with your arrival, 'Brother Yao'. So, let's change a different way of asking. Were you and me not related at all before our encounter?"
Li Yao was slightly dazed.
Li Jialing, the little freak that had been built by Wuying Lan and Li Lingfeng together, was truly unexpectedly smart.
He couldn't help but scratch his chin as he said, "Let's get out of here first. I'll explain it to you later!"
"So, that is a yes?"
Li Jialing blew a whistle in contentment with a simple and brilliant smile of a common young man.
He took a long breath in relief and sat down comfortably while leaning against Li Yao's hibernation capsule, not scared of Li Yao anymore.
Tilting his head and looking at Li Yao's back, he said in a low voice, "Brother Yao, do you know that I have never trusted anyone in my entire life, not Li Lingfeng, not Wuying Lan, or anybody else in the Li family? I never believed anything they said."
The young man paused for a moment. His Adam's apple moved up and down as he said softly, "However, I have decided to take a gamble. I would like to trust someone without any reservation for the first time. I only hope that I'm making the right decision!"
Jingle Bell began to shiver softly, and its shell that was as smooth as jade was covered in a dark red halo. Blowing away the stones and dust on it, the starship flew to space!
"You can never be wrong to trust me!"
Li Yao laughed aloud while the starship trembled violently. "Look. Haven't we already escaped—"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Before Li Yao concluded his sentence, more than ten violent fireballs already burst out around "Jingle Bell". The rocks were spluttering out and crashing the shell of the starship in cracking noises.
The tiny stealth exploration starship was shaking as hard as a canoe in a surging tide. Li Jialing was knocked away, and he hit the ceiling with his head, which almost stunned him and made him rub his head hard.
Perhaps the raging, rampant, shocking performance earlier had used up all of Li Yao's luck. Their almost perfect escape plan finally had a small error at the last moment.
Li Linghai detected where Jingle Bell was in time. Leading almost ten starships of the Immortal Cultivators, he came at the enemy aggressively!
Although the distance was too long for them to lock onto a tiny Jingle Bell, it was absolutely not a problem to aim at the gargantuan ninth satellite of the fifth planet of the galaxy. Cannons of mystic rays, crystal rail guns, and all kinds of space torpedoes bombarded the ninth satellite like a storm, until it was almost falling apart into pieces.
"Come on. You don't have to go that far!"
Li Yao shrieked, "The space around us is so unstable. How can we perform a space jump?"
"What do we do now?"
Li Jialing clenched his fists hard; his face pale but with brutality beaming out. "I would rather die than being captured by Li Lingfeng back into the Li family to be studied like a freak and a monster. I might as well try my best to avoid that!"
"It's true that we must try our best, not to fight against Li Lingfeng, but to see if we have enough luck!"
Gritting his teeth, Li Yao quickly altered the space jump pattern on the control panel and changed the destination into the nearest habitable planet in the star map database, before he turned on automatic navigation and landing. "However unstable space is, we have to jump out of here first. The time is too urgent for us to charge energy and lock onto the destination. We can only try a super-near space jump and see where it will take us to!"
Chapter 2127: Desperate Escape |
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
Under the scourge of the blasts and the pieces of rocks, the shell of Jingle Bell and the supporting structure inside were being twisted and broken quickly. Gaps and dents visible for the naked eye had shown up.
A starship that had been reduced to such a degree was absolutely unsuitable for a space jump. Even a gap as thick as a finger might result in the fallout of the entire starship during the journey in the four-dimensional space, and it would be trapped there forever.
It was the common sense of all common senses.
However, Li Yao already did not have any choice.
He could feel Li Lingfeng's overwhelming fury even though the man was in the cold space tens of thousands of kilometers away.
He would rather be buried in the chaotic storms in the four-dimensional space than fall into the hands of Li Lingfeng!
"It can't be helped. We have to wager on our chances now!"
