The space pirates, the Immortal Cultivators, and the Grand Illusionary Soldiers only sensed something flash by. The next thing they knew, a man who had been jumping and yelling a moment ago vanished into thin air!
Inside an abandoned warehouse far away from the battlefield, Li Yao shook his right hand, and cracking noises echoed inside the space pirate’s body, which looked like a black, iron tower. Li Yao broke all his joints, and he was tossed to the ground like a spineless snake.
Li Yao’s spiritual energy entered the space pirate’s body and mercilessly stimulated the nerve endings and acupoints like needles.
“Ahhhh!”
The space pirates jerked up as if he had been hit by ten thousand lightning bolts simultaneously, only to be pressed down by Li Yao’s spiritual energy. He seemed to have hit an invisible cap and fell back to the ground heavily. His eyes were so bloodshot that they might have burst out at any point!
Right when his soul power was the weakest, redness blinked in Li Yao’s eyes, and he threw a ‘terror bomb’ into the space pirate’s brain, where it was detonated!
In a moment, the space pirate began seeing all kinds of illusions. He felt if he was placed in the middle of a magnificent furnace whose walls were as smooth as mirror. He could not get out of the cage however hard he tried. On the bottom of the furnace, the temperature was rising, and the air gradually turned more scorching than ever.
On the top of the furnace was a horrendous devil that was staring at him emotionlessly.
The space pirate completely broke down and stopped struggling. He breathed heavily and cramped uncontrollably.
Li Yao observed for a moment and asked solemnly, “Did you enter the underground fortress five years ago? What became of Bai Xinghe in the end?”
The space pirate shuddered in both fear and confusion. As if hypnotized, he murmured, “Five years ago, I followed captain and went to the underground fortress. But we encountered flood, explosions, and collapses and got trapped for an entire month before we finally escaped.
“Bai Xinghe… Boss Bai… was strong. Too strong!
“Boss Bai fought hundreds of space pirates and Immortal Cultivators all by himself. He heavily wounded captain and the Black King of the Temple of Immortals. Although the blood on his body was almost running dry, he killed two of the Eight Blades of Black Spider unhurriedly before he finally fell into the flood.
“We searched for his body in the water for a long time but found nothing. It was perhaps swept to a deeper part of the underground fortress by the flood.”
“Oh?”
Li Yao was immediately interested. It was unlikely that Bai Xinghe survived the battle against two experts in the Nascent Soul Stage and hundreds of other high-level Cultivators. However, since the man’s body was never found, he could make something out of that.
After pondering for a moment, Li Yao spoke again. “Tell me any news on the Great Horn Exo Society in the past five years.”
The space pirate quickly replied, “The Great Horn Exo Society has been growing quickly over the past five years. It is almost the biggest Exo Society of the Flying Star Sector now. They established their headquarters on Iron Plateau, and a lot of elites among the qi-trainers have joined the Great Horn Exo Society. As for their equipment, the Glorious Sunlight Group has greatly supported them.
“The Glorious Sunlight Group is another organization that has been expanding quickly over the past five years. The Glorious Sunlight Magical Equipment Research Center is now almost on par with the three main crystal suit centers and has provided a lot of advanced magical equipment.
“Supported by Iron Plateau and the Glorious Sunlight Group, although Lei Dalu, the captain, and Bai Kaixin, the advisor, are merely in the Core Formation Stage, the Great Horn Exo Society has a lot of hands and a high comprehensive capability despite its lack of super warriors!”
Lei Dalu and Bai Kaixin had both escaped!
Li Yao was greatly relieved. It was a piece of good news that he had been looking forward to for five years.
“Has the Glorious Sunlight Group been developing fast recently?” Li Yao asked calmly.
In the space pirate’s illusion, Li Yao’s voice was as overwhelming and irresistible as thunder. He could only confess obediently. “Very fast. The Glorious Sunlight Group is already one of the strongest organizations in the Flying Star Sector, other than the six sects of Heavenly Saints City. There is a guy named Wu Mayan in the Glorious Sunlight Group. He is the best expert in the younger generation of the Flying Star Sector now. He has killed many of our people in the past five years. The Black Spider Tower organized several assassinations against him, but none of the attempts succeeded.”
Li Yao could not help but smile in his mind. The young Wu Mayan was indeed not idling around!
Having received satisfactory answers to the three most crucial questions, Li Yao was much more confident about the situation right now. He then asked the space pirate about the history of the Flying Star Sector in the past five years unhurriedly.
It was only after he asked carefully that he learned a great many events had taken place in the Flying Star Sector over the past five years.
Five years ago, during the final battle between the old king of space pirates and the new, although Fengyu Zhong and the Black King had been heavily wounded and Bai Wulei had even been executed by Bai Xinghe, Bai Xinghe’s great escape plan did not work out in the end because of Bai Kaixin’s abrupt appearance. The Temple of Immortals still controlled Spider Den.
Then, the survivors of the Temple of Immortals got out of the underground fortress in the next month and successfully subdued all the forces that were still loyal to Bai Xinghe.
Since Bai Xinghe and Bai Wulei were both dead, there was a power vacuum in the Abyss Pirate Gang. It was incorporated into the Immortal Army and the Storm Prison Pirate Gang.
After taking over the whole of Spider Den, the Temple of Immortals soared in capability. It began carrying out operations everywhere and harassing all the remote space zones.
In the first two years, they made a lot of progress. During their prime days, they even occupied two space zones and established governments according to their ideology.
But their good days did not last long.
The assaults of the Immortal Cultivators triggered the deepest sense of crisis for the Cultivators. All the sects dedicated their available resources to the production of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers without caring about the cost.
As more and more Grand Illusionary Soldiers rushed out of the assembly lines, those war machines that were tireless and fearless were deployed to the remote space zones and the dangerous sailing routes. They were like nooses that gradually tightened the necks of the Immortal Cultivators and the space pirates.
In the beginning, the Grand Illusionary Soldiers could do nothing except increase the cost and duration of the space pirate’s jobs.
Even so, the space pirates already felt very uncomfortable because they had to pay more, and their gains were fewer.
Gradually, with the technology of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers growing more and more mature and better materials being adopted, the combat ability of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers significantly increased. They were able to fight the space pirates in high-intensity combat.
The remote space zones that used to be flat plateaus turned into marshes and swamps when the tremendous Grand Illusionary Soldiers guarded them. When they were careless and got trapped by the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, they would not be able to get away unless they paid a high price.
After several large pirate gang got trapped by the Grand Illusionary Soldiers when they were plundering and were annihilated by the reinforcing Cultivators later, all the space pirates began hesitating. They often did not dare do anything until they had lurked for months and made thorough plans. Even so, the success rate of their missions was dropping fast.
Faced with such a dilemma, the Immortal Cultivators offered no good solutions. Over the years, they attempted to lure the extraterrestrial devils in several space zones. But the Grand Illusionary Soldiers were like the insecticide for the extraterrestrial devils. The hasty operations did not achieve the desired results at all. Instead, the hatred and the resolution of the entire Flying Star Sector were triggered by their boldness.
“Let’s go to Spider Den and destroy the Temple of Immortals once and for all!”
It became the unanimously agreed slogan in the Flying Star Sector for all the Cultivators and ordinary people.
The Flying Star Sector was on the move. Every magical equipment center was crafting the components of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers day and night. Every light beam was displaying the scenes where the Grand Illusionary Soldiers fought the extraterrestrial devils. Every kid’s favorite toy for their birthday was a model of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers!
Just like that, starting from the third year, the attackers and the defenders swapped their roles. The Temple of Immortals and the space pirates experienced unprecedented failures in all space zones. Not only were the Immortal Army and the pirate gangs defeated brutally many times, many Immortal Cultivators who had been lurking in the world of Cultivators were also dug out and executed with their names rotten.
By the fourth year, the Grand Illusionary Soldiers covered 70% of the space zones of the Flying Star Sector. Many sects and space towns had handed over the guardian work of the sailing routes to them.
The impregnable dragnet had wreathed all the sailing routes and the important space towns. The space pirates and the extraterrestrial devils that had savaged the Flying Star Sector in the old days were rushing toward their doom.
In the fifth year, the fully-blown counterattack of the Cultivators began.
Not only were the two space zones occupied by the Immortal Cultivator recovered, the vanguards made of the Heaven’s Origin Sector had even marched into the Spider Den Space Zone.
The Temple of Immortals was no longer as impressive as it had been five years ago. It was like a stray dog whose legs were all broken and could only manage to hold out on Spider Den.
As their doom drew closer and closer, some of them thought of surrendering.
However, the Cultivators had made announcements stating that the space pirates and the Immortal Cultivators had the blood of the innocent all over their hands, and they were unpardonable by any criterion. Therefore, their surrender would not be accepted, and they would be completely annihilated!
Right now, the troops of the Cultivators had established a defense line in space at the periphery of the Spider Den Space Zone.
They had taken over a space gate left by the Star Ocean Imperium and were busy repairing it.
The so-called ‘space gate’ was not really a gate but a super space lighthouse made of countless star beacons.
Once repaired, the ‘lighthouse’ would release immeasurable spiritual waves and broadcast its coordinates clearly in order to provide navigation for the crystal warships that were performing a space jump.
The Flying Star Sector was too large. The dozens of space zones were far away from each other. It was impossible for the troops to cruise to the Spider Den Space Zone slowly, because it would consume too much fuel and time. Chances were that it would take a fleet in the furthest space zone dozens of years to arrive in the Spider Den Space Zone.
Once the space gate was repaired, the coordinates of the Spider Den Space Zone would be highlighted unmistakably on the space map. Through space jumps, all the fleets would be able to show up in the Spider Den Space Zone instantly.
The Cultivators, the Immortal Cultivators, and the space pirates all knew that it was the final war!
Right now, the space pirates of the entire Flying Star Sector and the soldiers of the Temple of Immortals were all hiding on Spider Den, waiting for their doom.
It was also said that the leaders of the big sects of Flying Star Sector had gathered in Heavenly Saints City. A morale-building rally was about to be held.
Once the space gate was repaired, countless Cultivators, crystal warships, and Grand Illusionary Soldiers would show up around Spider Den through space jumps. They would launch a thunderous attack and crush the planet into smithereens forever!