by <unknown>
Gritting his teeth, Li Yao tried to hold back the savaging and brutalization on his body and his soul while he thought to himself. No, not during the past thousand years, but a thousand years ago!
A thousand years and a couple of centuries ago, you were still an insignificant Cultivator in the Martial Meritocrats Sector, who had to flee to the depths of the universe in a hurry with your broken body after you were beaten into heavy wounds by the people who worshipped the "Chiyou Cult".
You were obviously dying and could not be too strong. How on earth did you rise quickly after you came to the Star Ocean Republic, which was even more developed than the Martial Meritocrats Sector, and even grew into a border commander before you usurped the supreme power of the Star Ocean Republic in the end?
What are the origins of your strength? How long was it between your escape from the Martial Meritocrats Sector and your entrance into the Star Ocean Republic? Decades? What happened during your vagabond in the universe? What… are you exactly?
BOOM!
Li Yao's brain was almost churned into a mess by thousands of bubbling questions. His absentmindedness was noticed by Wuying Qi immediately. Emerging out of the black fog immediately, "Hellstar" slashed the metal tentacles that were even more dazzling than Li Yao's saber at the limbs of the Gold Vulture.
The Gold Vulture managed to retreat the limbs in time, but it could not stop "Hellstar" from kicking its chest brutally. The blast was so heavy that the entire spiritual residence almost collapsed.
Despite the protection of "Little Black" as a flexible liquid crystal processor, Li Yao was still vomiting blood again. Even his brain was almost spurting out of his earholes and nostrils!
What was even more terrifying was that, together with the collision with "Hellstar", Blackstar the Great's mental power was also crawling into his brain in the shape of black tentacles, inserting the scenes of horror into his soul.
Faced with such powerful mental attacks, if he did not have the mental devil swallowing the negative emotions and dark forces all the time, he would be driven mad already!
A*shole! The gap between this old fart and me is too huge. There's no way that I can win this battle at all!
Holding back the excruciating pain from his head to his toe, Li Yao thought quickly. Quickly, quickly, quickly. Neither the Colossus nor myself has any spiritual energy left now. I have to come up with a solution before the spiritual energy runs out!
It hurts. My brain hurts so much. This old fart's mental attacks are really powerful. What does he want exactly? Wait… I got it!
Li Yao's eyes, one red and the other black, each containing a golden ring, were constricted to the size of a needle tip immediately. Taking a deep breath, he spoke to the mental devil, "Stop. Don't swallow Blackstar the Great's mental power that is flooding in. Just let him corrupt our brain and soul!"
The mental devil was stunned. "Seriously? You can't take it anymore and want to surrender?"
"Surrender my a*s! It's because I've finally figured out what he is trying to do and found a solution to deal with him. Chances are that I can really annihilate the supervillain in the counterattack!"
Putting on a confident, cold smile, Li Yao said quickly, "Hey, do you not feel that what this 'Blackstar the Great' has been doing seems a bit too shameless and stealthy? It is rather different from what we expect of the founding emperor of the Imperium of True Human Beings and much more lowly, isn't it?
"We speculated that he did not recover his peak strength and might even have a lot of hidden diseases. That's why he could not compete with the four Kurfürst families openly and could only play the dirty tricks while hiding inside the queen's body.
"Then, if we were such an incomplete Blackstar the Great, what would be our top priority? To find and possess a stronger body, of course!
"With that in mind, Li Linghai's inconsistent attitude toward Li Jialing and Li Jialing's critical role in the whole scheme will be perfectly explainable. He is the brand-new container that Wuying Qi has chosen for himself.
"Come to think of it, Li Jialing is indeed a very suitable candidate. That is why Wuying Qi offered him a piece of 'Imperial Fire Pearl' through Li Linghai. It was probably part of the preparations for the possession!
"But don't forget that we got a piece of the Imperial Fire Pearl too, which was even larger than Li Jialing's. What does that suggest?"
The mental devil asked back, "What?"
"Idiot. It suggests that we are one of the 'backup containers' that Blackstar the Great prepares to possess!"
Li Yao grew excited as he continued, "It is very possible. Our body is so healthy and strong. Which thousand-year-old ghost would not be drooling when they see it? Now, Li Jialing is still missing. If I were Blackstar the Great, I would certainly possess the body before my eyes at the earliest chance for safety reasons!
"Hehehehe. Then, it is much easier. This old fart couldn't have foreseen how mysterious our soul is and that the last thing we are scared of is possession! In the next moment, all we need to do is to pretend that we are weak and lackluster and allure him to possess us. If his soul is tricked into the gap deep inside our brain, we will be winners for sure!"
Chapter 2335: Critical Moment! |
The mental devil hesitated and said, "You do… seem to have a point."
"It is absolutely going to work out!"
Li Yao shouted, "Think about it. Did we not crush the most ferocious enemies in the past with exactly the same move, including your antecedent 'Blood Stripe Virus'? It's all about dragging the enemy into the area that we are most familiar with before beating them with our abundant experience!"
Pondering for a long time, the mental devil said, "But why do I still feel ill at ease?"
"There is no time to feel ill at ease!"
Li Yao struggled to sustain the fire of his soul from dying out as he grimaced. "We can't defeat him, and we can't run away. What other solutions do you have except this? There's no time to hesitate. Just listen to me. Let's do it!"
While talking, he simply pressed the mental devil's head down, stopping it from further swallowing the dark forces released by Blackstar the Great.
The terrifying illusions were immediately more vivid and hideous. Li Yao's brain was almost riddled with holes.
Li Yao grunted, pretending that he was too seriously wounded to use the Colossus anymore. The flames of spiritual energy around the "Gold Vulture" dimmed to the minimum, and it could not resist the attacks of "Hellstar" at all. The plate armor made of superalloys all fell apart, revealing the broken framework.
In secret, however, Li Yao focused all his mental power and bombarded the gate at the deepest part of his brain, which seemed to be leading to the mysterious world "Earth", forcing the gate to open again.
Come on, Wuying Qi. I am already so "weak" now. It's time to possess me!
Li Yao licked the blood at the corners of his lips while he smiled intimidatingly with soundless roars, As long as most of your soul enters my brain, I will immediately show you how powerful "Earth" is!
His remarkable acting skills seemed to be really working.
The hundred crazily waving metal tentacles around "Hellstar" gradually slowed down. The water that was extremely thick just now became much thinner. It was almost like Blackstar the Great was not in a hurry to destroy Li Yao but was evaluating his status right now—especially his mental status.
Come on, come on, just crawl into daddy's brain!
With a telepathic thought, Li Yao intentionally inputted excessive spiritual energy to the head of the "Gold Vulture", resulting in the explosion of a piece of magical equipment that was about to be destroyed earlier. Then, the head of the Colossus tilted backward.
It was a "weakness" that he intentionally exposed to Wuying Qi!
Wuying Qi was indeed intrigued. "Hellstar" revealed its true self in the swirl condensed by the dark water. The six enormous faces on it were particularly thoughtful and hideous, and the six bloody mouths opened at the s
ame time, spitting out shapeless black forces that interweaved into an enormous helical sting stabbing at Li Yao.
He's coming!
Closing his eyes, Li Yao could clearly sense the enormity, dominance, and cruelty of Wuying Qi's mental world. The invisible helical sting seemed to be made of infinite blood and unrested souls who had dispersed in the universe. When it was still a distance away from the "Gold Vulture", the cries and screams were already delivered into Li Yao's brain clearly.
Li Yao couldn't be more familiar with such a technique.
Blackstar the Great was about to establish a "mental bridge" between their brains before he launched the soul invasion.
It was like when two starships were engaged in a "boarding battle", the attacker would have to pierce the invasion channel deep in the defender so that the troops could be deployed incessantly.
Li Yao was overjoyed, but he knew that he must not expose himself right now. Should there be any anomaly in his soul, all his endeavors would be for nothing.
The invisible helical sting finally touched the breastplate of the Gold Vulture softly.
From "Hellstar", black ripples flooded into the Gold Vulture quickly along the helical sting.
However—
Li Yao was still dwelling in the fantasy of a final battle with Wuying Qi's soul when he suddenly had a sense of wariness. What took Wuying Qi's soul so long? And why were the sharp ends of the hundred metal tentacles of "Hellstar" all opening like blossoming flowers?
"Not good!"
Li Yao shrieked. The fire of his soul was suddenly burning more furiously than ever, and the gold flames of spiritual energy on the "Gold Vulture" that just dimmed became dazzling gold balls again!
The moment he reestablished his defense, the rapidly-revolving spiral sting already pierced at the spiritual residence of the "Gold Vulture". A mental attack that was devoid of any feeling of "occupation" but filled with pure destruction exploded inside the spiritual residence right around Li Yao!
BOOM!
The whole world seemed to be gone, as if Li Yao's soul had been moved from reality to a mental world that Wuying Qi had carefully constructed.
Billions of people who were once massacred by Wuying Qi turned into hideous ghosts and lunged at Li Yao with hollow, bleeding eyes, trying to rip apart his soul and make him one of them.
By the time Li Yao's self-consciousness finally struggled to get away from the terrible quake of the soul, the limbs of the Gold Vulture had already been tied up by the metal tentacles of "Hellstar".
The sharp ends of a few tentacles had even drilled into the plate armor of the Gold Vulture, fixating the two Colossi tightly.
His domain was suppressed, his Colossus was locked, and he had failed the mental competition!
Then, "Hellstar" split apart.
The round structure that looked like a sea urchin separated into two hemispheres, revealing a circle of cannons below the shell that could cover 360 degrees. On the circular rail that surrounded the torso of the Colossus, a thousand ultimate marrow crystals of the highest purity had been embedded. The energy contained inside each marrow crystal could be drained in half a second's shooting, but the next marrow crystal would immediately replace it in the next 0.1 seconds so that the most destructive firepower could be output incessantly!
The four limbs of the Gold Vulture had been tethered by the metal tentacles, and it was impossible to break so many tentacles in only one second. In the meantime, the cannons on "Hellstar" shot out hundreds of purple flames without any mercy, drowning the Gold Vulture completely!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The dull soundwaves, mixed with the destructive blasts, swept across the torso and the limbs of the Gold Vulture. Under the "help" of the intense blast, the Gold Vulture finally broke free from the bondage of "Hellstar", at the price of losing two arms and one left leg.
Even so, it failed to escape from the continuous tracing and bombardment of the cannons and was blown all the way to the bottom of the ocean again. Then, it was even blown into the undersea plateau for almost a hundred meters. For a moment, the sand and mud at the bottom of the ocean were all surging, further adding to the chaos and darkness of the undersea world!
Violent flames were flowing all over Li Yao's body and even in his brain. He did not even have the strength to vomit blood now.
The Colossus was nervily connected to the user. The pain of two arms on the brink of destruction and the left leg being completely minced and ripped off was delivered to Li Yao's central nerves without any reserve, giving him the illusion that he had truly lost three limbs.
"How is it possible?!"
What suffered the greater strike was his mind. His head in a mess, he could not believe what had just happened at all. He had clearly taken every factor into calculation, and Blackstar the Great was supposed to regard him as a backup choice of possession. Why else would he have offered Li Yao the precious Imperial Fire Pearl for training?
It was such a great opportunity. The fat meat had cooked itself and sent itself to his mouth, but why did Blackstar the Great not take the bait? It… did not make any sense!
Little Black flowed forward in time and extinguished the fire on his body, but the trauma in his heart could not be healed.
The devastating damage on the Gold Vulture could not be repaired for the time being either. The Colossus had only 30% combat ability left at best. Did it stand any chance of winning at all when faced with such a ferocious opponent as "Hellstar"?
"I know what you are up to exactly, but you seem to misunderstand my purpose."
Wuying Qi's gloomy voice came from the darkness with faint mockery. "For me, you do have some value to be recycled, but that's in somewhere else and not here. You will know it very soon!"
The cannons at the center of "Hellstar" radiated the most dazzling brilliance again. This time, dozens of mystic rays congregated into the sharpest scythe of energy, which was about to be launched out and chop off the remaining three limbs of the Gold Vulture.
But it all happened too fast. In the deeper darkness, three rhombus crystals slid over without a sound and accelerated abruptly when it was only a hundred meters away. Piercing through the spiritual shield of "Hellstar", they exploded brutally on the shell of the Colossus that was full of thorns, pushing it away for a few meters. The rushing scythe of spiritual energy naturally deviated from the original course and brushed past the Gold Vulture's head, leaving a crack dozens of meters long on the bottom of the ocean not far away!
"Who is it?"
Wuying Qi was both surprised and infuriated. The two hemispheres of "Hellstar" that split apart before were closed seamlessly again, and the whole Colossus began to roll nonstop, increasing the defense to the highest.
"You may find it hard to believe."
Long Yangjun's sharp telepathic thoughts came from the depths of the water. "But I'm your ancestor!"
The Colossus "Heavenly Crystal" leaped out of the ocean and fought Wuying Qi's "Hellstar" in Li Yao's place just now!
"Long Yangjun!"
Li Yao, who thought that he was dead for sure, was almost cheering, dancing, and offering flowers to Long Yangjun.
He knew that he was a charismatic man. As he expected, even Long Yangjun, a eunuch from a corrupted, obsolete society who did nothing but to cause trouble, had been edified by him into a selfless good guy in the new society!
"You are… Dongfang Mingyue!"
Wuying Qi was keen enough to recognize her identity from her spiritual waves that were spreading out. "How interesting. You are perhaps the only person in the entire Imperium that I cannot completely see through. I did not know that you were complicit with 'Vulture Li Yao'. This is really interesting!"
Chapter 2336: All the Reasons to Stay Back |
When Blackstar the Great made a remark that sounded like the overlapping roars of all the deities and devils in the universe, "Hellstar" suddenly disappeared, and six gigantic swirls appeared in the dark sea
water around. From the swirls, six faces in different shapes but equally hideous features gradually surfaced!
Behind the six faces were tails that were connected to the swirls, making them look like six bizarre-shaped monsters that surrounded Long Yangjun's Colossus "Heavenly Crystal"!
"Heavenly Crystal" did not give in at all. More and more glass clusters blossomed on the body, condensing into prongs and horns and expanding the size of the Colossus by several times.
Countless rhombus crystals surrounded her and raged nonstop inside the water. Wherever they reached, the waves were all turned into clear crystals!
Wuying Qi, Blackstar the Great, and Long Yangjun, the heir of the primeval age, had both activated their vitality fields to the maximum. Disrupting and manipulating the materials around them, they built two unique "domains"!
It was not even the competition of the two of them anymore, but the great collision of two realms!
The water around Wuying Qi all turned into a black matter that was as thick as asphalt. The six faces that were made of the black matter got more and more brutal and hideous. One could even notice after careful observation that the six gigantic faces were made of countless incomplete and wriggling bodies!
The water around Long Yangjun, on the other hand, had been frozen into materials that looked like ice and crystal but still retained part of the fluidity of water, making her look both elegant and mysterious.
So, Long Yangjun is actually so strong!
Li Yao was still stuck in the pit at the bottom of the ocean, unable to crawl out, not because he was too seriously wounded, but because the three remaining limbs of the "Gold Vulture", which had reached the limits of the metal fatigue, were deeply embedded in the hard rocks. If he was to break himself away by force, it was possible that the limbs would be ripped off. He had to control the big guy that was on the brink of destruction to move away from the pit bit by bit carefully.
While adjusting the movements of the "Gold Vulture", Li Yao observed the battle above his head. He couldn't help but feel embarrassed.
