Chapter 735: Palace of Stars
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Take off the crystal suit, restrain the spiritual energy, and suppress the capability to that of an ordinary person?
Li Yao’s first thought was that Bai Xinghe was playing another dirty move. But after thinking a moment, he realized that the situation would be more in his favor if they both lost their crystal suits, since the Dragon King Battlesuit that Bai Xinghe wore, although damaged, still boasted much higher specifications than his Dark Crow Battlesuit.
Besides, Bai Xinghe’s heavy wounds were being suppressed by his spiritual energy. If he were to restrain his spiritual energy and revert to an ordinary person, his wounds would only become heavier.
The proposal that Bai Xinghe made was disadvantageous for him from whatever perspective.
While Li Yao was pondering, Bai Xinghe had already removed his Dragon King Battlesuit and gradually sunk his spiritual energy to the depths of his cells with the Soul Converging Technique.
“Wu—”
Without the support of the spiritual energy and resisting his wounds with his body of flesh and blood, even a man as tough as Bai Xinghe still grunted.
Bai Xinghe flipped his hand and took out a drug, smearing all the ointment on the terrible wounds on his abdomen. As bloody foam popped up nonstop, a hint of color returned to his pale face.
Bai Xinghe smiled miserably and said, “There’s a big guy ahead who takes spiritual energy as food. All the living creatures that emit spiritual waves are prey to it. The more intense their spiritual waves are, the greater an appetite it will have!”
Li Yao thought for a moment and took off the Dark Crow Battlesuit, too. He suppressed his capability to its limits and only dragged the crystal bomb in Bai Xinghe’s stomach with one of his telepathic thoughts to make sure that it wouldn’t explode.
Back when he was in the Heaven’s Origin Sector, Li Yao had once been enlightened by Iron God Yan Ba, a body fundamentalist in the Nascent Soul Stage. If they were both barehanded, Li Yao was the one who had more of an advantage. Therefore, he was not worried that Bai Xinghe might play tricks on him.
The two of them walked forward for another twenty minutes along the narrow crevice.
The rock stratums there were more seriously wrecked. They would be walking through the natural caves one moment, then stepping on rusted pathways, jumping off gaps dozens of meters deep the next moment, and sometimes climbing cliffs dozens of meters tall along the thick and rough walls like lizards.
After walking for a long time, they still had not run into the ‘big guy’ that Bai Xinghe mentioned. While Li Yao was suspicious, Bai Xinghe suddenly hushed him and pointed upward.
Above their heads was a long and deep gap that led straight up to the ground. It was almost like a natural well.
Li Yao glanced at the well roughly and only felt that the rocks inside the well looked quite weird and aggressive.
When he observed carefully, he gasped and discovered that a monolithic beast that looked like a giant spider was crouching on the wall of the well!
The beast was unbelievably huge. It had more than ten limbs, each of which were around seven meters long. It was a bright gray color and covered in rocky lumps, completely fitting in the environment.
The beast was sleeping. Its complex, deformed eyes were a lackluster red color that looked like dried blood on what seemed to be its head.
Li Yao watched more carefully and found that almost ten of its limbs and half of its torso were hidden in the solid rock, like a crocodile that was half sunk in a swamp.
Bai Xinghe said in an extremely low voice, “Don’t fret. I call the big guy ‘Lustful Rock Spider’. It is perhaps a spider-type beast that has gone mutations in the mother lodes of the earth class below the ground. It is naturally endowed with the Earth-Escaping Technique. Despite its enormous size, it can enter and exit the rock stratums freely with the technique.
“However, the Earth-escaping Technique consumes a lot of spiritual energy. Therefore, it spends most of its time dormant to avoid exhaustion until a prey with immense spiritual waves shows up and serves as its dinner.
“We are not emitting any spiritual waves right now. It is not worthwhile for the beast to waste abundant spiritual energy to hunt us down with the Earth-Escaping Technique, because the spiritual energy it absorbs by devouring us will not cover what it wastes to capture us. It is not a fair deal.
“We are totally safe if we don’t irk the beast.”
Li Yao secretly smacked his lips. The route of Bai Xinghe’s escape was truly sordid and perilous!
If Fengyu Zhong and the other Immortal Cultivators chased after him, after passing through the dangerous array of gold threads and the Nether River, they would certainly be most vigilant at this moment. There was no way that they would take off their crystal suits. If anything, they would deploy multiple spiritual shields around them, which would emanate tremendous spiritual waves.
As a result, they would make the best prey for the Lustful Rock Spider!
Li Yao did not know exactly how strong the mutated beast was. However, since it was deep below ground, if the beast of the earth class went on a rampage and collapsed the tunnels, it would be major trouble for anybody.
The two of them treaded lightly and moved forward with only the strength of their muscles and bones for almost ten kilometers, before Bai Xinghe waved his hands in relief and said, “Alright. We are now far away from the hunting range of the Lustful Rock Spider. We can activate our spiritual energy and put on the crystal suits.”
“Don’t move!” Li Yao said coldly. “Don’t put on your crystal suit yet. Let me see if the crystal bomb is still inside your stomach… Very good. You may put on your crystal suit now.”
Bai Xinghe summoned the Dragon King Battlesuit unhurriedly and put it on, before he remarked, “You are very cautious.”
Li Yao wiped off the cold sweat on his forehead and grinned. “I can’t be too cautious now that I’m cooperating with Boss Bai. Are there more dangerous traps ahead of us?”
“No.” Bai Xinghe shook his head and said, “My last shelter is right before us.”
The pathway came to an end. In front of them was a forsaken warehouse that was empty and full of stinky odors.
Bai Xinghe groped all over the wall on the left side of the warehouse. Then, after a ‘chi’ sound, deep blue lines gradually appeared on the wall. The blue lights were blinking and interweaved into what seemed to be a gate.
Next to the gate were three glimmering rune arrays. Bai Xinghe typed almost a hundred times on the three rune arrays instantly as if his fingers were flying. Soon, the blue lines dyed the entire gate blue, which seemed to lead to a different world.
Bai Xinghe and Li Yao entered the blue gate at the same time!
Li Yao’s breathing halted.
He had been prepared for everything. His face color would not have changed at all whatever terrors he saw.
However, in a fortress thousands of meters below the ground, he saw a night sky.
A pure, clear starry sky that was as boundless as ocean where countless brilliant stars were shining.
Li Yao had never seen so many stars at the same time in his entire life. He felt that he had fallen into a beach of stars with his head upside-down.
Taking a deep breath and shaking his head hard, Li Yao finally realized that he had reached an enormous palace.
The dome of the palace was made of countless translucent diamonds, and every diamond was embedded with crystals that were as brilliant as stars.
No…
The crystals were not simply embedded into the diamonds. Instead, they constituted a complicated, overwhelming great array in which they were swirling, shining, changing, and fading like real stars!
It was like a real universe that was slowly flowing above Li Yao’s head!
What… what is this place?
Why is such a mysterious palace that can simulate the fickleness of the universe still functioning after ten thousand years in a fortress ten thousand meters below the ground?
The dome of diamonds is more than a thousand meters in diameter. It is quite a piece of enormous magical equipment itself. The rune arrays that power it must be too magnificent to fathom!
For a moment, Li Yao completely lost his cool.
Below the dome of crystals that looked like a night sky, the palace was packed with countless pieces of magical equipment that Li Yao failed to recognize. Judging from their structure, they should be research facilities.
In the middle of the palace, hundreds of super-large crystal processors were placed in rows, each of which was more than three meters tall. They were like a silent army.
“This place looks like a research center or a command center. Is this the central control room for the underground fortress of Spider Den?”
Bai Xinghe quite enjoyed bathing in the rays of the bright universe. He stretched his arms in great satisfaction and smiled. “Beautiful, isn’t it?
“The dome of diamonds was constructed to simulate the entire detectable universe. Every shining star stands for a real entity!
“Ten thousand years ago, this place used to be a research center, or an ‘underground observatory’, if you will, that was specially designed to study and pry into the secrets of the stars. Therefore, the place is named ‘Star Prier’s House’.
“Star Prier’s House?”
Li Yao vaguely remembered that he had heard the name from somewhere else.
Pondering for a moment, he realized where this vague recognition came from.
Back when he was on Iron Plateau, Xiong Wuji and Sha Yulan had once introduced to him the apocalypses.
They had said that the apocalypses were the most inexplicable phenomena in the modern Cultivation world and that they might be related to the destruction and possession of different civilizations.
It was said that, in the last years of the Star Ocean Imperium, a Cultivator whose surname was Liu was an astrologist who specialized in apocalypses. He claimed that he had pried into the secrets of the stars and therefore named his research institute ‘Star Prier’s House’.
From then on, everybody addressed the Cultivator as—Liu the Prier!
This place was once Liu the Prier’s residence where he studied the apocalypses?
Bai Xinghe touched the research equipment from ten thousand years ago and said casually, “Are you curious as to why an observatory that studies space was established ten thousand meters below ground and how ‘Star Prier’s House’ is related to the underground fortress?
“Also, it is well-known that Liu the Prier was the only Cultivator who resolved the mysteries of apocalypses. Soon after he made the declaration that he had ‘pried into the secrets of the stars’, he was mentally deranged and went mad.
“Do you want to know what Liu the Prier found?”
Li Yao’s head was in a mess. It was true that he was quite interested in all the questions. He immediately concentrated his attention, ready to hear a secret story in ten thousand years ago.
However, he felt ill at ease in the bottom of his heart. An obscure shadow gradually popped up in his brain.
It was Yan Xibei.
Li Yao seemed to see Yan Xibei again, who said to everybody with a smile on the battlefield of apocalypse on Iron Plateau, “Do you want to know the secrets about the Blood Stripe Virus?”
This is not right! This is not right!
What’s Bai Xinghe’s problem? Why is he telling me the secrets of ten thousand years ago without a good reason? What benefits can he get by tell me such things?
Just like Yan Xibei, he is trying to buy himself more time!