The central area of Heavenly Saints City was the focus of the Immortal Cultivators. The majority of their crystal warships and Grand Illusionary Soldiers had been gathered in this place.
Most of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers there were larger, faster, and protected by brighter spiritual shields. The flying swords and mystic rays that they triggered were more agile and destructive, too!
Li Yao even saw dozens of Grand Illusionary Soldiers shoot out almost eight hundred flying swords, which riddled a crystal warship with holes immediately and made it lose all its combat ability!
“They are all the masterpieces crafted by the Grand Illusionary Group themselves without bothering about the cost. They are far better than the inhomogeneous products that other sects refined!”
The Grand Illusionary Soldiers in the central area was not only better in quality but also larger in quantity. Instead of thin tornadoes, they formed wriggling black clouds that consumed the sky.
Some of the smaller crystal warships were completely wreathed by the Grand Illusionary Soldiers. When the Grand Illusionary Soldiers dispersed, the glamorous-looking starships turned into broken, lackluster debris!
The scene was both like a shoal of piranhas biting the prey that had fallen into the water crazily and an ant army marching on the ground, turning all the creatures in their way into bones!
Protected by the millions of Grand Illusionary Soldiers, Heavenly Phantom was like a majestic king in silver armor, aweing the entire space zone!
“The main gun of Heavenly Phantom was developed by the Star Fighters’ Alliance, the Grand Illusionary Group, and almost twenty other sects that are famous for their crystal cannons,” Si Koulie said in an almost desperate tone. “It is known as ‘Heavenly Might Artillery’!
“The Heavenly Might Artillery has ninety-nine ball-like turrets. However, the turrets are not fixed on the surface of Heavenly Phantom but floating around Heavenly Phantom, connected by the electromagnetic force. They can move along any trajectory, like ninety-nine satellites that surround Heavenly Phantom!
“The ninety-nine turrets can either be evenly distributed around Heavenly Phantom and attack individually or move to the same location and constitute a super cannon whose damage is unimaginable.
“One shot is enough to vaporize an entire crystal warship!
“The Heavenly Might Artillery is the strongest aggressive magical equipment in the Flying Star Sector. No cannons are a match for it!”
Li Yao observed from afar and, thanks to his amazing eyesight, indeed found almost a hundred light spots that were circling around the body of Heavenly Phantom.
Every turret of the Heavenly Might Artillery was around one hundred meters in diameter. They were round, translucent, and looked like glittering pearls from a distance.
The glamorous brilliance they shot out, however, boasted unbelievable damage. It was as powerful as the main gun of regular crystal warships. Moreover, the cooldown of the turrets was extremely short. They were shooting almost consecutively without a break!
Pulled by the electromagnetic force, the ninety-nine floating turrets moved around Heavenly Phantom quickly. There was not a blind spot at all!
No break, no blind spot, and extremely powerful. According to the defense of the target, one, two, or even more turrets could be gathered together in order to increase the intensity of the attack. This was the Heavenly Might Artillery, a super weapon that the refiners of the entire Flying Star Sector had worked hard on for a long time!
In the most crucial battlefield that was supervised by Xiao Xuance in person, every crystal warship had been locked onto by the Grand Illusionary Soldiers. Even if they had become empty shells and lost all momentum, they would not be let go of until they were completely ripped apart!
Sparkle could not fake its way forward now.
“We can only break in by force now!” Bloody flames were flowing crazily inside Li Yao’s eyes. His lips curled in excitement as he said, “Leader Si, please give a command to the starships in the battlefield that are still under the control of Cultivators. Ask them to stall the enemy no matter what the cost is. We are about to launch the final charge!
“Professor Mo, Leader Si has sent the structural design of Heavenly Phantom to the mainframe crystal processor of Sparkle. Now, let’s march forward at full speed with the bridge of Heavenly Phantom as our target!”
Si Koulie lost his cool. “Bridge? The bridge is the heart of Heavenly Phantom. Besides, the star brain is right behind the bridge! When we devised Heavenly Phantom, the defense of the bridge was the highest priority! We are definitely going to suffer the most brutal attack from Heavenly Phantom if we choose that place as our destination!”
Professor Mo Xuan smiled. “Then, please sit in the buffer rune arrays, everybody, because the remaining part of our journey might be a bit… bumpy.”
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The souls of Professor Mo Xuan and the other spirits completely melded into the mainframe crystal processor of Sparkle.
All the disguises outside Sparkle was taken off during the acceleration.
The rusted and dented plate was gone, replaced by a splendid, translucent body that was immaculate!
Hiss!
When the Cultivators saw Sparkle’s real form through the light beam, they all gasped in shock.
Si Koulie was so thrilled that he found it hard to breathe.
The starship in front of their eyes was less than nine hundred meters long. Faced with the super starships that could easily be more than ten kilometers long, it seemed to be insignificant.
However, the neat and delicate starship was like a brilliant diamond emitting dazzling brilliance that immediately attracted everyone’s attention!
Although they were merely observing the starship on the light beam, every Cultivator could feel the untamable urges of Sparkle, as if it was not a crystal warship but a ferocious animal that had travelled from the primordial era to the present day!
Si Koulie could not help but compare Sparkle to Heavenly Phantom, which he refined in person.
Although the sizes of the two starships were vastly different, one of which looked like an elephant and the other a mouse, the aura and brilliance of Sparkle were as daunting as Heavenly Phantom, if not more!
It was like a firefly suddenly emitting endless flames and trying to burn the sun up!
“Please sit down, everybody. We will now distribute most of the spiritual energy and the computational ability to the power rune arrays and the defense rune arrays. We won’t be able to ensure the stability of the starship!”
Professor Mo Xuan’s voice, which was generated by the vibrating metal patches, sounded quite excited. “Sparkle, move forward. Target: Heavenly Phantom, the flagship!”
Hiu!
In the next moment, all the Cultivators seemed to be bashed hard right in their faces. Even the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators fell into the buffer rune arrays all of a sudden and did not adapted themselves to the high speed for a staggeringly long time.
The shining starship was immediately noticed by Xiao Xuance.
After analyzing the speed, agility, and the spiritual waves it released, the star brain determined Sparkle to be the most dangerous enemy!
“Block it!” Xiao Xuance bellowed.
Within a breath, commanded by the star brain, whose computational ability was as vast as an ocean, countless Grand Illusionary Soldiers and crystal warships under the control of the Immortal Cultivators crowded toward Sparkle.
In the meantime, forty-one out of the ninety-nine turrets on Heavenly Phantom locked onto Sparkle!
Zi! Zi! Zi! Zi!
Deep purple brilliance flashed on the forty-one turrets at the same time. Then, forty-one bolts of lightning flashed across space and split into a storm of lightning!
Many Cultivators and crystal warships that were standing in the way of the lightning were torn apart ruthlessly.
Some of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers were unfortunate enough to be captured by the lightning storm, too. They all turned into broken, empty shells after spluttering sparks.
However, defense shields that looked like golden scales appeared around Sparkle, turning it into a dragon that had soared into the sky. It rushed forward in the dazzling lightning, completely undamaged. Even its speed was not affected at all. The starship turned into a streak of brightness and moved forward!
Two crystal warships controlled by the Immortal Cultivators blocked Sparkle’s way, one on the left and the other on the right. They planned to force Sparkle to change its direction, only to be crushed immediately like a dark cloud that was torn apart by sunlight!
Sparkle leapt out of the cloud and split the darkness of the universe like a golden sword!
There was no need to mention the Grand Illusionary Soldiers. In front of Sparkle, which had accelerated to the highest speed, they were like thousands of ants trying to stop a sprinting crystal train. The only possible outcome for them was to be crushed into smithereens instantly!
Standing on the bridge and looking at Sparkle, which was charging close, Xiao Xuance was lost for a moment.
The thousands of light beams on the bridge were displaying bad news on the ground incessantly.
It had been three hours since the New Era Plan was initiated. However, the Immortal Cultivators had not taken over the hall of the Meeting of the Next Millennium and the few important warehouses of magical equipment in the first space ring.
The qi-trainers who jumped out of nowhere and the elites of Flying Star University and Heavenly Saints Institute, who had organized themselves much faster than he had expected, had all caught him unprepared.
But so far, those difficulties were all conquerable.
Although the battle was stagnant right now, the Cultivators would be tired and wounded, and they needed rest. After all, their bodies were made of flesh and blood.
After two hours of high-intensity combat, the spiritual energy of most Cultivators was already running dry.
With the help of Heavenly Phantom, he had basically suppressed all the crystal warships above the central area of Heavenly Saints City.
Most of the crystal warships had either been taken over by the Immortal Cultivators or utterly broken apart!
In half an hour, the battle would be completely under his control. He would be able to spare his hands and suppress the central area with Heavenly Phantom.
If it was necessary, he could aim the Heavenly Might Artillery at the hall of the Meeting of the Next Millennium and bombard it directly. He would be glad to find out how many strikes that defense rune array of the great hall could resist exactly.
Despite all the unfavorable circumstances, Xiao Xuance had thought that the balance of victory was slowly leaning toward him.
However, at the most crucial moment, an unbelievably cutting-edge starship jumped out of nowhere. According to the calculation of the star brain, the starship did not hide its target at all. It was darting directly toward the heart and the head of Heavenly Phantom!
“Deploy three times, no, five times more Grand Illusionary Soldiers to defend the bridge. I want the bridge and the chamber where the star brain is placed filled with Grand Illusionary Soldiers until nothing can pass through!
“Turn all the turrets to the left side of Heavenly Phantom and aim them at the target together!”