by <unknown>
"Blackstone, Blackstone."
Li Yao spoke to the communication channel in a low voice, "This is Vulture. The general has been saved, but we cannot persist for long because we have been surrounded. We've decided to change our strategy and go to the highest control center of the Godly Might Prison directly. Please give us clearances to the pathways on our way and distract all the surveillance cameras and guards.
"Repeat, this is an order from the general. Please see that it is done, or the general's safety cannot be ensured!"
"Blackstone" was the secret code name for Luo Wenyao, the deputy warden that the reformists had bought over.
Since the wireless transmission was adopted, the so-called "secret channel" was naturally not so secret. It would be discovered by the enemy as time went by.
However, due to the emergency, there was no time to bother with that right now.
It was not until a long silence in the communication channel that a voice of surprise finally came over, "What?!"
"We are now moving toward the control center. Please inform us of the safest route."
Li Yao was not bothered by the guy's shock at all. He said quickly, "Or we will have to fight all the way over!"
The secret communication channel fell silent again. Li Yao was almost able to hear the heavy breathing of the guy on the other side. In the next second, a 3D map of the Godly Might Prison was sent over, with a crimson route glittering on it.
Luo Wenyao gnashed his teeth on the other side as he said, "You have three minutes. I will try to move all the guards on this route and cut off the image transmission of the surveillance cameras. Suspicions will be raised if the duration is any longer. Why are you coming to the control center?"
In a smile, Li Yao glanced at Lei Chenghu and said resolutely, "To catch them all!"
According to the instruction of the spy, the two of them entered a broad and comfortable ventilation tube.
Hardly had they crawled in when they heard roars and explosions coming over from the area where they were at in the beginning.
The guards of the Godly Might Prison and the captives of the Covenant Alliance who had received new orders arrived at the same time. Naturally, another bloody battle took place.
Li Yao secretly observed Lei Chenghu, only to discover that the man was groping forward in the darkness wholeheartedly, with thoughtfulness beaming out of his shining eyes, showing no concern for the safety of his son. Li Yao couldn't help but feel cold again.
The Immortal Cultivators were as difficult to deal with as the people of the Covenant Alliance!
After the ventilation tubes were filled with the venomous fog and the corrosive air, most of the guards had evacuated from the place. What replaced them were the surveillance cameras and the automatic defense magical equipment that were floating in midair like green-headed flies.
Since the spy cut off the surveillance cameras for now and Li Yao and Lei Chenghu were carrying the identification units of the highest level, they were determined by the automatic defense magical equipment as friends and let through without any trouble.
Although Li Yao had wasted 50% of his combat ability in the fierce battle just now, it was not a difficult mission to release his spiritual threads to detect enemies in the several hundred square meters around.
Also, the spy was sending the latest distribution of soldiers and their movements over every now and then, allowing them to dodge all the guards perfectly.
Lei Chenghu's estimation was quite right.
The highest commander of the Godly Might Prison was already more than anxious because of the Covenant Alliance's unexpected attack. Even though he had learned the news that Lei Chenghu escaped, he would only think that Lei Chenghu was fleeing to the corners of the Godly Might Prison. Little could he have thought that Lei Chenghu and Li Yao would take a giant detour and stab into the heart of the prison as if they were trying to get caught!
The two of them pushed forward for several kilometers in the ventilation tube without encountering major dangers. They met three unavoidable patrol teams on their way, but Li Yao noticed all of them in advance and knocked them out neatly.
At the front was the control center of the Godly Might Prison.
The ventilation tube, however, came to an end. Lying ahead was a set of completely independent air circulation systems that was absolutely impossible to crawl through.
Down below was defended by heavily-armed troops. Hundreds of guards of the prison were watching over the control center like hundreds of iron fortresses, not letting a single fly pass.
Those soldiers were all the personal guards of the warden. The spy, as the deputy warden, could not dispatch them free at will.
"What do we do?"
Li Yao asked Lei Chenghu with his lips, not making any sound.
The hundreds of guards were tall and athletic, with spiritual energy dancing around their neat crystal suits. They were absolutely different from the common jailors that Li Yao crushed easily just now.
Li Yao had consumed too much spiritual energy and soul power. He had no intention of fighting hundreds of such guards, who were as tough as wolves.
When there were too many ants, they could bite an elephant to death. Even an expert in the Divinity Transformation Stage might be killed when the number of enemies was overwhelming!
Lei Chenghu narrowed his eyes and completely took off the broken mask, revealing a face that seemed to be made of iron.
Then—
He simply broke the ventilation tube and leaped down.
"Who is it?"
The guards who were stationed outside the control center in high vigilance were all greatly shocked. They all aimed their guns at Lei Chenghu.
Li Yao secretly cursed but had no choice except to jump down together with Lei Chenghu. While he was still in midair, the dominating auras of the Divinity Transformation Stage already spread out like a tsunami, raising a ferocious storm around the two of them, which shook all the storm bolters and the crystal cannons hard and made them impossible to lock onto the enemy.
Lei Chenghu, however, did not bother to look at those people at all, and simply considered the blades and firearms in their hands nonexistent. He held his chest high and strode at the control center!
Lei Chenghu's behavior and Li Yao's dominance were great surprises for the guards.
The suffocating pressure of the Divinity Transformation Stage experts that felt like a hundred thousand tons of water made them grit their teeth and bulge their eyes, but they did not have the courage to pull the trigger.
The air around Lei Chenghu that was even more dominating than the Divinity Transformation Stage, as well as his somewhat familiar face, caused the hearts of the guards to palpitate.
"M-Marquis Liaohai!"
Some guards exclaimed, finding it hard to believe their eyes.
Since Lei Chenghu was secretly held in custody here, naturally, only part of the leadership was aware of the news. Most of the guards did not know it at all.
The guards of the Godly Might Prison, even though they were from the four Kurfürst families, were mostly the secondary branches of the families at the bottommost level. They had to suffer all kinds of exploitations from up above, and when all their values had been used, they would be kicked to the desolate, hopeless places such as the Godly Might Prison, where they would wait for their retirement in desperation.
They were quite indifferent to their families, and they were rather familiar, if not reverential, with the famous heroes of the Imperium such as "God of War" Lei Chenghu!
For a moment, many guards were at a loss about what to do.
They did not know why the legendary "hero of the Imperium" suddenly showed up here. They did not know why Lei Chenghu lost an arm and was covered in blood as if he had just been through a fierce battle. They did not have any clue about how to deal with the weird situation either!
Only a few commanders among them vaguely knew the truth, but Li Yao sensed their existence keenly the m
oment he jumped off. His spiritual energy bit their throats as tightly as vipers, making them chill and their hearts pound. They felt that a needle was stabbed to their spines, and they could not utter a single syllable.
"If you know me, why are you still standing in my way?"
Lei Chenghu pressed forward in the shiny forest of blades and bellowed with a face as gloomy as a swamp, "The Covenant Alliance is attacking on a large-scale basis. The Godly Might Prison is in peril. My Astounding Thunder Fleet is still on the near-planet orbit, unable to break in. Where is your warden? I need to speak to him!"
His words were illogical and obscure, but they were enough to stun the guards for a moment.
While they were dazed, Lei Chenghu had already walked to the gate of the control center under Li Yao's protection.
Guarded by hundreds of tough soldiers, and because many officers were entering and exiting the place to pass orders, the gate of the control center was naturally wide open. Even if it had been closed tightly, it would have been barely able to resist Li Yao's full-strength attack.
Lei Chenghu and Li Yao stepped into the highest control center of the Godly Might Prison.
Except for Luo Wenyao, the spy and the deputy warden, everybody in the control center was dumbfounded, unable to say anything other than making meaningless sounds with their throats.
It was not until this moment that the warden's personal guards outside finally realized what was going on. They all crowded in and aimed their trembling guns at Lei Chenghu and Li Yao again!
"Marquis Liaohai!"
When the warden, who was giving commands before the mainframe crystal processor, turned around, it was such a weird picture of dead silence that he saw. He couldn't help but blurt out with a pale face.
The current warden of the Godly Might Prison was named "Yun Chenghua", a direct descendent of the "Yun family of Lantian". He was also a rarely-seen expert in the Nascent Soul Stage with talents both in "administration" and "battle".
However, faced with Li Yao and Lei Chenghu, two experts in the Divinity Transformation Stage, how was he able to unleash the capabilities of the Nascent Soul Stage at all?
"Fellow Cultivator Yun."
Turning a blind eye to the hundreds of storm bolters and crystal cannons that were aimed at aim from nearby, Lei Chenghu kept one hand on his back and said unquestionably, "You have lost. Surrender now!"
Chapter 2223: Pace of the God of War |
Even a Nascent Soul Stage expert like Yan Chenghua was shocked by Lei Chenghu's matter-of-fact declaration, which was made despite being surrounded by hundreds of personal guards. It was not until a long time later that he finally realized what was going on. With a face that was so gloomy that it was almost raining, he gnashed his teeth. "Is this some kind of joke, Marquis Liaohai?"
He seemed eager to lunge forward and catch Lei Chenghu.
But when Li Yao stared at him from Lei Chenghu's back with a pair of unpredictable eyes, he felt that his internal organs were stabbed by ice spears. He couldn't help but cry and wonder where Lei Chenghu found such a great expert to help him.
"Are you still unable to see through the situation, Fellow Cultivator Yun?"
Unhurriedly, Lei Chenghu moved forward to Yun Chenghua, warden of the Godly Might Prison. "The very fact that I'm standing before you right now is evident enough that the Godly Might Prison has been greatly infiltrated, and it was no secret at all that I was kept in custody here!
"Since half a month ago, the news that I was here has already been spread out. Right now, the special mixed troop made of the members of the Astounding Thunder Fleet and the royal guards loyal to the queen are ripping apart the four-dimensional space and jumping to the Mystic Ice Sector. They are about to launch a destructive strike on the Godly Might Fleet!
"Trust me. Now that we have decided to take the gamble, it is impossible that we will lose!
"It is needless to mention the riots caused by the captives of the Covenant Alliance deep inside the Godly Might Prison. The suppression of the riots alone will waste ninety percent of your strength. What can you count on to resist the scourge of the Astounding Thunder Fleet and the royal guards? Or rather, do you want to resist to the end and be destroyed together with the Godly Might Prison?
"Hehe. Even if you are pigheaded enough to remain loyal to the four Kurfürst families, think about the soldiers, guards, and jailors outside. Are you asking so many people to die a meaningless death?
"I swear by the name of 'God of War' that if I cannot leave the place openly today, the entire planet will turn into an ocean of fire. The glaciers that have been frozen for ten thousand years will simmer, and everybody here, both the jailors and the prisoners, will die together with me!
"Fellow Cultivator Yun, the lives of hundreds of thousands of people are now in your hands. Do you still think that I'm joking?"
After every question Lei Chenghu raised, he made a step forward and crashed at the warden like a mountain ten thousand meters tall.
Warden Yun Chenghua, being an expert in the Nascent Soul Stage, had a combat ability higher than Lei Chenghu right now. But he was still sweating hard under the man's aggressive posture.
"The Astounding Thunder Fleet and the royal guards loyal to the queen?"
Yun Chenghua rolled his eyes hard. "It's… It's impossible…"
"You will understand if it is possible very soon."
Lei Chenghu said coldly, "If it weren't for the future that a lot of innocent people would die when the great army arrive, why would I have bothered to come here to persuade you to surrender on my own? I could've hidden myself deep inside the Godly Might Prison while waiting for an opportunity to get away!
"This is the last opportunity for so many people of the Godly Might Prison, including yourself. I am not so lenient every time. Try to make a judicious decision, Fellow Cultivator Yun.
"In my opinion, even if you want to remain loyal to the four Kurfürst families, you wouldn't have a chance to. Look at the rampant captives of the Covenant Alliance on the light beam who have almost burned half of the Godly Might Prison to the ground. This is a tragedy that has never happened to the dozens of wardens during the hundreds of years after the Godly Might Prison was established, but it has happened in your term.
"Somebody must be responsible for such a serious riot and prison break. Even if they are not sentenced to death, they will definitely be greatly punished. Who else can take the blame if not you, Fellow Cultivator Yun, as warden of the prison?
"You are an expert in the Nascent Soul Stage with dual talents. The appointment of you as the warden of the Godly Might Prison was sort of a punishment in the first place. If you take such a huge blame again, you won't have any hope to rise again in the system of the four Kurfürst families.
"Not just you, there are also your personal guards, who are so loyal to you that they are bold enough to aim their guns at us when they know that a battle-type Divinity Transformation Stage expert is standing behind me. Tsk, tsk, tsk. They are all the best warriors, but it is a pity that they have a terrible leader. They will suffer for decades in the land of bitterness and desolation together with you, or be wasted meaninglessly as cannon fodder!"
Yun Chenghua couldn't have looked more awful. His hands, where veins were protruding, grabbed the saber on his waist tightly, and he could chop off Lei Chenghu's throat after a slight wave. But he could not unsheathe his weapon at all.
"Fellow Cultivator Yun, you know very clearly that everything I said is true. The job as the warden of the Godly Might Prison is one on the crater of a volcano in the first place. It is meant to take blames for other people."
Lei Chenghu said casually, "If I were indeed killed miserably in the Godly Might Prison today, the local troops, including the Astounding Thunder Fleet, would certainly burst into fury when the news was out. Then, the four Kurfürst families would have to catch a few scapegoats to appease the public. Whose head do you think will be best to prevent the warlords from complaining anymore? Yours,
Fellow Cultivator Yun!
"Therefore, since the moment I was sent to the Godly Might Prison, whether or not an accident happened to me, you would certainly take the blame in the end. To think that you are still working for the four Kurfürst families so dutifully!"
Yun Chenghua's pale face blushed, and his veins that were as thick as earthworms surfaced, cramping violently.
His personal guards around also fell silent, with panic and confusion flashing in their eyes.
"The greatest reason why the Imperium has walked to the dead end today is that it cannot make the best use of talents and resources!"
Lei Chenghu continued, "An expert in the Nascent Soul Stage with dual talents in battle and administration, leading hundreds of loyal, tough soldiers, would've conquered dozens of planets after a decade of fighting if they were under my command. There would've been too many glittering medals for him to wear on his chest!
"But in the past decade, I hardly heard the name 'Yun Chenghua'. Perhaps you will remain unknown in the next hundred years. I really feel pitiful for the hotblooded men like you and your warriors!"
"S-Stop it!"
Yun Chenghua drew half of his saber out of the sheath from his waist. His eyes bloodshot as if filled with blood. He gnashed his teeth and asked, "Marquis Liaohai, what are you trying to do exactly?"
Li Yao stared at Yun Chenghua's saber tightly; his eyes so sharp that they were almost stabbing two holes on the edge of the blade.
Lei Chenghu, however, did not bother to look at the coldly-shining saber at all. He simply continued staring at Yun Chenghua with earnest and passionate eyes as he extended his only arm to the man and said, one word after another, "The Imperium today is exactly like the Godly Might Prison right now. It is in a moment of life and death. Lead all the ardent men under your command who crave to accomplish something and rescue the Imperium together with me. The Imperium needs you to make the right choice right now!"
"Well…"
