Li Yao lurked in the cold ocean three hundred kilometers away from the lone island for three hours.
If a devilish warship was deployed to chase after the sky-hunting warship of the Blade of Chaos, he would sneak into it and find a chance to kill commanders such as Lu Wuxin or Swirl.
The decapitation strategy had always been his favorite.
However, there was still no sign of a devilish warship after three hours. Maybe, the uncontrollable mutants below the ground were enough a headache for Lu Wuxin.
Three hours later, Li Yao summoned Black Wing and accelerated to the highest speed, catching up to the sky-hunting warship of Blade of Chaos, which was now hiding deep inside the ocean.
However, the warship was caught in a rather weird atmosphere.
The vast hold of the warship was designed to store the biochemical beasts and the debris from the Mausoleum of Chaos. It was certainly the opposite of incommodious. Even a thousand captives should not be enough to fill it.
However, the captives on-board were not in a joyful mood after surviving a disaster. Instead, intense hostility could be felt. They were divided into three groups targeting each other. It seemed a tiny spark would be enough to blow up the entire warship.
Han Tuhu, Suo Chaolong, and Yuchi Ba were even more vigilant. Every nerve in their brains was like a tightened violin string.
Li Yao’s arrival froze the anxious atmosphere for a moment.
He was still wearing the blood-stained Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit whose stink filled up the room. The captives of the federal army were eyeing the crystal suit with such envy and admiration that fire was almost spurting out.
A crystal suit, the greatest manifestation of the modern Cultivation technology. It was now the greatest pillar for the lone army in the Blood Demon Sector!
The demon captives, on the other hand, were deeply frightened and awed.
Although the master of the crystal suit had just saved them, the sharp black feathers and the crimson crystal cameras where no emotions could be seen still made them shudder.
Sensing the subtle atmosphere, Li Yao frowned. He asked the Fire Ant King without hurrying to take off the crystal suit, “What’s going on?”
There was helplessness on the Fire Ant King’s face. “What else can it be? The three forces are in conflict. None of them likes the others. Just now, they were only teaming up in order to escape from the captive camp. Now that they are out, the tension has inevitably intensified.
“Suo Chaolong is an old acquaintance of mine. We have made a lot of deals on strengthening drugs. He gave quite a few favors and… was even made use of by me several times.
“You must know the bad temper of silver-blood demons. You know that he wasn’t talking very nicely in his shock after he discovered that I was the leader of the Blade of Chaos. He is also worried that the Blade of Chaos will do bad things to the silver-blood demons. Naturally, they are defending themselves.
“Same goes for the captives of the federal army. They are scared that they have entered another cage after they just got out of one. So, they are highly wary, too. After all, the three parties hate each other’s guts. It’s a total mess now!”
“Wait!”Li Yao raised his hand. “The silver-blood demons hate the federal soldiers and you, you hate the silver-blood demons, and the federal soldiers hate the silver-blood demons. That’s easy to understand, but is there any grudge between you and the federal soldiers?”
“Of course!” The Fire Ant King sniffed. “The federal soldiers are not distinguishing high-level demons from low-level demons. In their eyes, all demons are the same.
“In the Battle of Dawn, the low-level demons, as cannon fodder in the coalition army, led the charge and fought against the federal army. The troops purely made of silver-blood demons such as Suo Chaolong’s ‘Blood Lion Battalion’, in comparison, were never deployed until the retreat phase.
“So, technically speaking, the low-level demons and the federal soldiers are old nemeses. How can they not hate each other?”
“So complicated?” Li Yao felt that his head was aching. He found that he had been too optimistic before.
Integrating the three forces who hated and distrusted each other was ten times more difficult than rescuing them from the ‘Nether World’.
“The most critical problem is that neither the federal soldiers nor the silver-blood demons know why we are rescuing them.” The Fire Ant King looked at Li Yao. “Honestly speaking, I don’t know the reason myself, either. Who are you exactly? What are you here for?”
Li Yao sighed and pointed his fingers at his forehead, starting to take off the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit.
He had thought hard for a long time about how he should explain the complicated matter to all three forces.
In the end, he decided to tell the truth.
Truth was the most powerful weapon. Faced with such a strong and frightful enemy as the ‘Imperium of True Human Beings’, he could not keep binding everybody to his tank with continuous lies. Such a tank was destined to be feeble and likely to collapse at any moment.
“Greetings, everybody.”
His facial cover split apart and vanished into his Cosmos Rings, revealing a face that was too young for his capability. Li Yao blinked and smiled. “My name is Li Yao.”
His words detonated the freezing atmosphere in the warehouse.
The name of ‘Li Yao’ made Han Tuhu’s pupils constrict violent. He stared at the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit that was disappearing from Li Yao body in suspicion, as if he was recalling something. He then observed Li Yao’s face for a long time with an ever-changing expression that was mixed with bewilderment and ecstasy. He asked in disbelief, “Li Yao? Vulture Li Yao?”
Li Yao was the dazed one now. “Do you know me?”
As he recalled, he had never dealt with the ‘Flying Tigers Legion’ ten years ago.
Han Tuhu suddenly rose up to his feet, the calmness of a commander of the federal army gone. He stood straight and saluted at Li Yao respectfully!
As the commander of the ‘Flying Tigers Legion’, Han Tuhu had a title of colonel. But now he was saluting Li Yao, perhaps not because Li Yao had just saved his life but because his name was ‘Vulture Li Yao’!
Behind Han Tuhu, all their soldiers of the federal army stood up, including the heavily wounded ones who were supported by their comrades!
Whispers were echoing among them nonstop.
“Is—is he the Li Yao?”
“That’s right. I’ve seen his 3D picture before. He does look familiar.”
“Isn’t he dead already? How did he show up in this place? Was he captured for experimentation like us? It’s rather unlikely, isn’t it?”
“Only the experts such as Major Li deserve to wear such tough a crystal suit!”
Li Yao was confused. “Wait. What do you mean by ‘Major Li’? Am I missing something?”
He was indeed a ‘veteran’ of the Star Glory Federation, but he was just a regular soldier at best and far from a major.
Han Tuhu took a deep breath and regained the serenity of a commander. Pondering for a moment, he asked, “If I may ask, did you crash into Skeleton Dragon, a ferocious demon from forty thousand years ago, with a starship left by the Star Ocean Imperium and leave the Heaven’s Origin Sector with it through a space jump?”
Li Yao nodded. “That’s right.”
The enthusiasm in Han Tuhu and the soldiers’ eyes was even hotter. Li Yao felt that he would be melted by them.
“Your story shocked the entire federation after the exploration squad brought it back to the Heaven’s Origin Sector.
“Everybody knew that, if Skeleton Dragon had recovered and teleported itself to the Heaven’s Origin Sector in a certain way, it certainly would’ve been a catastrophe. Chances were that the federation would have been destroyed!
“Therefore, after all the details were investigated, the federal government granted you the title of ‘Ultra-Level Federal Hero’. You are the first ‘Ultra-Level Federal Hero’ of the Star Glory Federation since a hundred and thirty-eight years ago! Also, the federal army announced that you were back in service again as a major.
“Major Li, you are a hero that everybody in the Star Glory Federation knows. You are the first to march out of the Heaven’s Origin Sector into the sea of stars as a representative of the Star Glory Federation!”
Li Yao felt goosebumps rising all over his body.
As he recalled, according to the tradition of the Star Glory Federation, ‘Ultra-Level Federal Hero’ was the highest honor that was always granted to the sacrificed. Even counting the years of fierce battles when the Star Glory Federation was just established, only nine people had ever received such an honor, and all of them had been granted it after they were dead.
The federal government must have thought that he was dead and decided to boost morale by publicizing his story.
A living Ultra-Level Federal Hero walking on the street? That was too scary!
As for Suo Chaolong’s silver-blood captives, after they heard ‘Vulture Li Yao’ and ‘Boneyard’, the color drained from their faces, and they shuddered after pondering for a moment.
“It’s the fiend!”
Ten years ago, it was not just Skeleton Dragon that Li Yao had killed on Boneyard.
Before that, he had already wiped out the demon squad that Wang Ji, a prince of the Kingdom of Lion Butchers, was the leader of with an Ares Extension named ‘Dragon Scale’!
The demon squad was exclusively made of experts from the younger generation of the Blood Demon Sector. It was the most fabulous team made of descendants of noble families!
As it turned out, they had all been annihilated by Li Yao; there were no survivors!
After Li Yao’s title of ‘Ultra-Level Federal Hero’ spread, the Blood Demon Sector had naturally learned of his ‘atrocities’, too.
From then on, ‘Vulture’ was like a devastating curse that haunted countless demons.
Many demons gritted their teeth and swore to avenge their family.
But more demons were secretly shocked and awed by Li Yao’s toughness.
How tough could the man be, considering that he had finished a ferocious demon from forty thousand years ago cleanly?
Today, Suo Chaolong had witnessed Li Yao’s formidability in person. He had to admit that the guy was overwhelmingly strong!
A bewildered brilliance was flashing deep inside the Fire Ant King’s eyes, too.
Skeleton Dragon was possibly one of the ultimate weapons produced by Chaos. Naturally, the Blade of Chaos had studied the things that happened on Boneyard ten years ago, too, and he had heard the name of ‘Vulture Li Yao’.
However, according to his analysis, Li Yao at the time was merely in the Building Foundation Stage. It was with the help of a crystal warship from the Star Ocean Imperium that the guy secured his victory.
The Fire Ant King did not think that Li Yao was a real expert himself.
He did not see it coming that the guy whom he had been collaborating with was the Building Foundation Stage Cultivator from ten years ago.
Ten years ago, from the Building Foundation Stage to above the Nascent Soul Stage?
Such a speed of training was too appalling. It was even more terrifying than any genetic modification!
The Fire Ant King thought of something. “Fellow Cultivator Li, it seems you must’ve experienced incredible adventures after you vanished into the sea of stars with Skeleton Dragon, right?”
Han Tuhu’s eyes glanced between the Fire Ant King and Li Yao’s face before he asked solemnly again, “Judging from the situation here, you haven’t reached out to the federation yet, have you? So, you did not come to our rescue by the order of the federation. Then, what is going on here exactly? We are totally confused.”
Suo Chaolong and all the other silver-blood demons blinked and pricked up their ears, too, waiting for Li Yao’s answer.