by <unknown>
Their crystal suits were undamaged in the crash, and there was sufficient fuel in the reactors. Therefore, with dazzling light spurting out of the power rune arrays, they turned into two streaks of brilliance and charged at the mountains where the terrain was most unfavorable and the thunderstorms were most intense.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Li Lingfeng's starships opened fire nonstop, building highly-rising volcanoes around the two of them. The magma and the metal shrapnel smashed at them overwhelmingly, only to be blocked by Li Yao's volatile and ever-moving tentacles of spiritual energy.
Before Li Lingfeng's Colossus approached, Li Yao and Li Jialing already marched into the forest of lightning that was enshrouded in black fogs and the cries of gloomy winds one step in advance!
BOOM! CRACK!
The environment within the thunderstorm was even tougher than they imagined.
Under the blowing wind, the raindrops that were surrounded by electric arcs seemed to be on parallel to the ground and shooting at them vehemently like bullets, raising colorful ripples on their spiritual shields.
The bolts of lightning as thick as boas and as hideous as dragons struck the ground straightly, spraying countless balls of lightning on the surface of the planet, which did not disperse until more than ten minutes later.
The highly-rising folds on the ground were all shattered by the lightning strikes. The smaller rocks had all been blown away by the furious wind, colliding with each other at a high speed in midair into a weird belt of floating stones. They were like the sharpest teeth of the monsters!
The magnificent power of the great nature was something that even the starships of the Immortal Cultivators did not dare to mess around with easily.
Even Li Yao and Li Jialing had to slow down in the thunderstorm despite their monstrousness. Increasing the intensity of the spiritual shields, they tried hard to resist the scourge of the wind, the lightning, and the broken stones.
With the help of the pale light when lightning illuminated the sky, Li Yao vaguely saw a collapsed building standing deep within the folds and mountains not far away.
When they drew near to observe more carefully, they discovered that it was a religious building that looked like a temple.
Perhaps it was high, magnificent, and awe-inspiring hundreds of years ago, which could be seen from the dark, gargantuan statues that were still standing inside the temple…
But right now, after hundreds of years of scourges from the lightning, corrosions from the wind, and blows of stones, the splendid temple in the past had only the shivering, dilapidated walls left. The iron-made, impressive statues had also been split apart by the bolts of lightning. They were more or less melted and inclined to two sides.
"This should be a 'Chiyou Temple'."
Observing the building carefully for a while, Li Jialing said in a low voice, "People of the Sand Primitive Sector worshipped the 'Chiyou Cult' in the past. The Chiyou Temples were the most important buildings in their civilization. They were mostly the hearts of the towns or the tribes."
Looking at the collapsed temple before his eyes, Li Yao had a lot of mixed feelings.
It had been more than a hundred years since Su Changfa told him the stories about the Martial Meritocrats Sector and the Sand Primitive Sector for the first time in Kunlun.
No matter what a barbaric, zealous, and bloodthirsty role the people of the Sand Primitive Sector played in the destruction of the Martial Meritocrats Sector, it was already no longer important, because their civilization embraced its doom almost immediately after the civilization of the Martial Meritocrats Sector did.
Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust. The Martial Meritocrats Sector in the past turned into the Land of Sins, and the only things left by the Sand Primitive Sector were probably the collapsed Chiyou Temples.
The civilizations of mankind were sometimes extremely tensile and powerful, and yet, they sometimes could also be as vulnerable as the candles in a storm that might completely die out at any moment!
While Li Yao was pondering, creepy noises suddenly echoed from the collapsed temple. Then, hundreds of half-transparent energy entities crawled out!
The spiritual energy around was highly disordered, but the energy entities did not seem affected at all. They simply hissed at Li Yao and Li Jialing aloud before they lunged at the strangers aggressively!
"Apparitions!"
Li Jialing exclaimed in shock, "The apparitions that evolved based on the negative feelings such as hatred, regrets, and violence of the people of the Sand Primitive Sector in the old days after their destruction?"
"They are apparitions? They don't seem very different from regular devils to me."
Li Yao smiled and moved his hands quickly to cast his spell. Crimson flames of spiritual energy soon condensed into the image of a giant almost five meters tall. With dazzling brilliance beaming out, it extended its arms agilely and grabbed a few apparitions without any trouble. After crumbling them into the purest negative emotions, it devoured the prey.
Naturally, it was the skill of the mental devil.
In the first place, the mental devil and the extraterrestrial devils came from the same origin. One might even say that it was a very special extraterrestrial devil in a unique form.
In the ultimate battle in the Star Glory Federation, it also absorbed all the tenebrum energy of the "Internet devil" and gained a deeper understanding of the structure of the tenebrum energy.
The so-called apparitions were not even real extraterrestrial devils but only slightly more advanced than the pure negative emotions. However many of them there were, they were like lambs sent to a tiger when they approached the mental devil.
The mental devil gulped in the apparitions that were lunging over and soon swallowed all of them without leaving out any. Still unsatisfied, it uttered the weird noises of hunger and ravenousness.
The remaining apparitions wasted no time running back into the wind and lightning, not having the courage to mess around with the "unparalleled devil".
Li Jialing, on the other hand, was truly dumbfounded. He did not expect that everything his "Brother Yao" spoke was true. When the man said that he was going to eat the apparitions alive, he was indeed swallowing all of them without any concession.
He couldn't help but have even more complicated remarks on "Brother Yao".
"What is going on?"
Li Yao cleaned up all the apparitions in the Chiyou Temple quickly. But there was confusion all over his face. Narrowing his eyes, he looked back beyond the thunderstorm. "Li Lingfeng and his lot did not chase after us, did they?"
"It seems they didn't."
Li Jialing was slightly dazed. "Is it because the lightning, thunders, tornadoes, and stones here are too violent for their starships to break in?"
"Even so, they should have small assault warships, all-terrain armed shuttles, and crystal suits, right? Shouldn't they send a large batch of warriors to invade the place and surround us?"
Li Yao's nose flipped fast, as if he smelled danger from the air that still carried the scent of electric currents. "Not right. Something's seriously not right. Li Lingfeng… seems to have run into some trouble?"
Outside of the thunderstorm, very feeble explosions that sounded like broken bubbles were vaguely coming over from the obscure horizon.
Li Yao's expression changed quickly. He was even more anxious than when he discovered that Li Lingfeng had followed him here.
"The eight starships that Li Lingfeng brought seem to have been assaulted, and it was quite an unexpected attack?"
Li Yao mumbled, "Who is insane enough to attack an expert of the prime generation of the Li family, one of the four Kurfürst families, at the heartland of the Imperium of True Human Beings?"
Li Jialing observed, "Well, isn't it you, Brother You?"
"No, that's not the same."
Li Yao's eyelids twitched, and his expression was more and more grave. "I only played a trick on Li Lingfeng and went on a rampage
while the place was out of his reach. It is impossible for me to have a head-on clash with Li Lingfeng.
"But right now… Somebody seems to be annihilating both Li Lingfeng and his eight starships!
"Who can possibly have such capabilities, such boldness, and such precise control over the timing?
"Is it an accident, or has somebody been observing Li Lingfeng from the dark the whole time, waiting for the opportunity to cut his throat?
"Let's go to the Chiyou Temple!"
Li Yao circled around the Chiyou Temple with Li Jialing for a few rounds, but instead of hiding inside the Chiyou Temple, they found a natural underground fissure behind the temple. The result of Li Yao's scanning suggested that the fissure was connected to a complicated cave with many branches, which led to the surface of the planet through another fissure five kilometers away. Since there were exits on both ends, it was the best shelter for them.
Inside the underground fissure, the roars of the thunders were finally less disturbing.
Sitting cross-legged on the ground, Li Yao closed his right fingers and touched the center of his eyebrow where the spiritual root was located. Spreading out his senses to the maximum, which passed through the chaotic thunderstorm, he "watched" where Li Lingfeng was at.
Chapter 2131: In the Thunderstorm! |
The thunderstorm was simply too chaotic and intense and echoed deep inside Li Yao's soul like ten thousand vortexes, which significantly disrupted his senses.
However, in the meantime, it provided perfect protection for his telepathic thoughts, making it impossible for the two parties who were engaged in the fierce fight to notice him.
Through the pouring rain and the rumbling thunders, Li Yao gradually painted a fuzzy, mottled picture inside his head.
The eight starships that Li Lingfeng brought were patrolling and searching like tyrannosaurs that were as huge as mountains.
However, from the dark corners, a hundred "velociraptors" marched out. They should be assault warships, hunting warships, and full-terrain armed shuttles designed for the battles within the atmosphere. Breaking apart the formation of the "tyrannosaurs" with their blow, they bit the critical parts of the "tyrannosaurs" brutally!
Li Lingfeng did not anticipate that he would encounter a second enemy other than Li Yao in such an unpopulated, forsaken world as the Sand Primitive Sector. He wanted to command the starships to float beyond the atmosphere, but there was already no time!
Everything had its own advantages and disadvantages. The main-force starships that could be three to five kilometers long were indeed awesome in the vacuum of the space, but in the atmosphere with high gravity, high friction, and disordered spiritual energy, their shortcomings, including the enormous weight, the weak anti-gravity units, the clumsiness in turning, etc., would all be exposed.
The enemy's small starships, on the other hand, seemed like the cutting-edge models that were designed most recently. Despite their small size, their firepower was no less impressive. Also, they had come in full preparations, and their first round of barrage already ripped apart the plate armor of Li Lingfeng's starships, raising a series of dazzling fireballs.
This is a planned attack!
Li Yao thought to himself, This is definitely not an accidental encounter, but a fatal attack launched by a mysterious new force, which had been monitoring and following Li Lingfeng all the way, until Li Lingfeng was separated from his main troops and recklessly asked the main-force starships to cut into the atmosphere!
Li Yao's telepathic thoughts were concealed and made to appear as the waves of lightning in the thunderstorm as he continued searching the battlefield. Very soon, he locked onto Li Lingfeng's coordinates.
The man's Colossus "Tempest God" had unleashed the most devastating tides of spiritual energy that were even more eye-catching than a volcano eruption. Naturally, Li Yao couldn't have missed him.
However, Li Lingfeng did not have any opportunity to deal heavy damage to the enemy's starships because his opponent was another Colossus!
What's happening? Another Colossus? And one that is even stronger than Li Lingfeng's "Tempest God"?
Li Yao's heart was racing, and he was breathing fast. He felt that all his pores were stinging as if somebody were stabbing needles at him.
If the spiritual energy that Li Lingfeng was spurting out right now was like the infinite magma erupting out of a volcano, the Colossus that was fighting him right now was like a boundless ocean that was filled with the most horrifying swirls.
However much magma erupted from the "volcano", it would be completely swallowed by the swirls without leaving any drop after it flowed into the ocean!
Of course, Li Lingfeng just had a fierce battle with Li Yao, and the shock and unsteadiness of his mind was inevitable after his decades of hard work was destroyed.
Also, the power units of his Colossus had been sabotaged by Li Yao, which resulted in the plunge of his speed. They were all the advantageous factors for him.
However, based on the collisions of the spiritual energy from the two Colossi, Li Yao estimated that, even if Li Lingfeng were at his peak state and his Colossus were just maintained with absolutely no damage and that he had the most sufficient supplies, he still would have been no match for the mysterious enemy.
Are you kidding me? My combat ability right now is more or less at the middle level of the Divinity Transformation Stage. I don't have a slight chance of defeating Li Lingfeng in a head-to-head battle. So, he must be at least at the high level of the Divinity Transformation Stage.
But right now, the mysterious enemy is beating Li Lingfeng up as easily as eating a pie, which means that the mysterious enemy is at least at the peak of the Divinity Transformation Stage, or even higher—
Li Yao swallowed hard and did not dare to think any further.
While the mysterious enemy's target was Li Lingfeng right now, Li Yao was in the Imperium of True Human Beings where everybody was a potential foe after all. He did not think that the mysterious enemy had come here to rescue him.
Now that the enemy had been monitoring and following Li Lingfeng, they certainly had witnessed everything he did in the Martial Meritocrats Sector, and they knew that Li Lingfeng jumped to the Sand Primitive Sector in such a hurry just in order to capture him and Li Jialing. Then here came the question. Would the enemy let go of him and Li Jialing after they took down or captured Li Lingfeng alive?
"This is bad!"
Li Yao's face suddenly turned extremely awful.
He was absolutely confident to survive from the hands of Li Lingfeng, who had more ambitions than capabilities and who was only slightly stronger than himself.
However, the new mysterious enemy gave him the feeling of a viper—a viper that was as thick as a boa and could turn into a dragon to swallow the world at any moment. It was someone much more sophisticated than Li Lingfeng!
While Li Yao was thinking quickly on countermeasures, Li Lingfeng had already failed!
Li Yao sensed that his "Tempest God" spurted out a cluster of most dazzling spiritual energy first, as if a supernova were rising from the ground and blossoming to the maximum abruptly.
Then, it collapsed at a visible speed, as if it were reducing from a supernova into a black hole. Nothing could be sensed anymore!
Generally speaking, it was the sign that a Colossus had been completely blown up.
However, Li Yao captured Li Lingfeng's intentions keenly—the guy was about to escape!
The Immortal Cultivators' starships that Li Lingfeng brought crashed at the mysterious enemy's Colossus relentlessly. While they were obviously no match for the mysterious enemy, they did manage to postpone the enemy for a few minutes.
Taking advantage of the precious time, Li Lingfeng retreated his Colossus into the Cosmos Ring and put on a stealth crystal suit quickly just like Li Yao did a moment ago, diving into the thunderstorm and disappearing into the disordered spiritual waves!
"Let's go!"
Pondering for a
moment, Li Yao rose suddenly. "We have to find Li Lingfeng!"
"What?"
Li Jialing was dazed, finding it hard to believe his ears. "Find Li Lingfeng? Wouldn't we be feeding us to him? Also, it seems to be a mess out there. How can we find him?"
"We are not feeding us to him, and we do not have a choice right now."
Li Yao sighed and said with a bitter smile, "As to how we can find Li Lingfeng, that is not a problem, because he is secretly sending out spiritual waves to all directions. He is expecting us!"
Concealing their spiritual energy and scent to the minimum, Li Yao and Li Jialing moved soundlessly in the thunderstorm like the ghosts of two loaches.
Very soon, they discovered Li Lingfeng who was staggering forward in the bolts of lightning and storms.
A few days ago, Li Lingfeng was still intimidating and awe-inspiring, giving the feeling that everybody was under his control. He was truly like a powerful, unparalleled expert.
But the Li Lingfeng right now, although not having many wounds on his body, was brimming with fear and panic, which were flowing out of every gap on his crystal suit. He couldn't have looked more wretched, like a wild dog whose tail had been cut off.
Witnessing such drastic changes on him in only a couple of days, even Li Yao had to feel sorry for him although he was an enemy.
"He seems to be suffering from very serious internal injuries."
Li Jialing said affirmatively, "If we join our hands to ambush him, there will be a good chance to take him down!"
"Wait a moment. I don't think Li Lingfeng is our primary problem anymore."
Pondering for a moment, Li Yao made the call. "Let's talk with him first. There are many secrets about you that we have to dig out from his mouth, don't you agree?"
Li Yao and Li Jialing showed up in the storm, one in the front and the other in the back, staring at Li Lingfeng who was not far away like two shadows without real entities.
Li Lingfeng sensed their existence immediately. Quivering, he wiped his helmet that had been covered in icy rain.
In a triangle, the three of them confronted each other in silence in the middle of the roaring winds and the pouring rain.
