Faced with the butchering sabers of the battle puppets, the blades and weapons of the Nepenthe believers were all minced apart into sticks. They could also retreat futilely until they fell to the ground, reciting the Serenity Arts of Nepenthe pretending to be calm with their eyes closed, waiting for the arrival of eternal peace.
Zi! Zi! Zi! Zi! Zi! Zi!
On the tubes of spiritual energy inside the battle puppets, daunting waves were spreading to the sharp blades at the front ends of their limbs. Under the scanning and analysis of their crystal processors, the “creatures” which were made of cells and boasted “temperature” were no different from the cold data. They did not really know the feeling of killing but were merely carrying out their orders dutifully.
“This is truly bad luck!”
The Immortal Cultivators in the fixed firing points all spat. After the fuss of Nepenthe, the operation of the Great Iron Plants would certainly be greatly affected, which meant that their bonuses and training resources in the next few months would shrink, too. There was no telling when the operation would be restored.
Everything was done by the ants who did not know what was best for themselves at all. So, it was only necessary for the Immortal Cultivators to go on a killing spree to vent their anger and to show the other ants the prices of violating the Immortal Cultivators!
“Don’t stop me. I’m going to kill a thousand of them today!”
Dozens of Immortal Cultivators chuckled creepily and all adjusted the output power of their crystal suits to the maximum. They all warmed up their joints, ready to leap out.
Outside of the fixed firing points, Xu Zhicheng’s commando team was surrounded by almost a hundred battle puppets. The shiny sabers, which were vibrating at a high frequency, were raised high, and the scanning and locking cameras on the battle puppets even drew narrow and long red lines on the vulnerable throats of the human beings.
The sabers fell!
BOOM!
The music that was as rampant as a flood, like a cannonball of soundwaves, was launched out of a forsaken mine, releasing ripples in the form of circles when it hit the hundred battle puppets brutally.
The first three or four battle puppets that took the hit were all blown back by the soundwaves before they were slowly dissected in the midair. All the components were ripped apart and spread to all directions.
The ten or so battle puppets behind them, in the meantime, were shattered by the deafening soundwave and the manipulative telepathic thoughts contained in the soundwaves. They seemed to be intact on the surface, but the joints, bearings, and gears inside were all loosening and dropping into a mess, with sparks splashing out. They were unable to take any action anymore, and they were completely paralyzed after shaking violently for a moment.
The dozens of battle puppets further behind were also affected by the soundwaves. Like puppets whose strings were cut off, they became rigid and sluggish, and all the lights on their shells were flashing crazily, half because of the interferences of the soundwaves and half because they had detected unbelievably extraordinary reactions of spiritual energy!
“What is that?”
The thunderous roars made all the Nepenthe believers tremble hard. Grand Guardian Xu Zhicheng and other people all turned around in astonishment and looked at where the soundwaves came from.
“What is that?”
The battle puppets did not have any wisdom, and they naturally did not know what fear was. They simply searched their database for the coping policies for such high-energy reactions. The result when all the crystal processors were functioning at a high speed was that all the battle puppets were briefly halted and silenced, as if they were deeply awed by Li Yao’s dominating vibe.
“What… What’s that exactly?”
The Immortal Cultivators in the fixed firing points were truly shocked. They had enough keen senses and abundant experiences for them to perceive how terrifying the fire, which was getting brighter and brighter, in the forsaken mine far away was!
It was impossible. Could… Could it be…
When everyone’s eyes were turned to the forsaken mine, a furiously burning streak of brilliance had already appeared at the center of the battlefield right above their heads through the route of the soundwaves just now!
It was a crystal suit that was glittering from head to toe. It seemed to be emanating all the brilliance in the thousand years within a moment. The nine humming sabers on its back were spurting out flames like tides, congregating into two enormous wings. Above the head, a silver disc was hovering and revolving rapidly, releasing dazzling silver arcs in all directions without stopping!
Before the Nepenthe believers, the battle puppets, and the Immortal Cultivators realized what was going on, the owner of the glittering crystal suit—Li Yao—had already raised the saber in his hand high and slashed it down, holding it so tightly that the handle was almost broken!
BOOM!
CRACK!
It was truly like a thunder tearing apart the sky. Li Yao’s saber was deeply embedded into the rocks below the ground, and the furious spiritual energy raged forward like a burning dragon in the direction of his saber and burst out, swallowing all the dozens of battle puppets.
The spiritual shields of the battle puppets were squeaking and thawing. The tempered shell made of superalloys and composite porcelain could not resist Li Yao’s fury and were falling apart. Tremendous sparks were splashing from every joint. Eventually, they all fell to the ground in sparks and noises.
BOOM!
Even Li Yao’s saber had tremendous cracks because of the thunderous slash. It was so deeply embedded into the rocks that it fell apart when it was grabbed again.
Without any hesitation, Li Yao threw the broken saber at the fixed firing point up ahead. He then stretched out his arms to the maximum and opened his hands, where two clusters of fatal light were quickly condensing and expanding, before he shot them out and hit the crystal reactors and the control crystal processors of the dozens of battle puppets precisely. Dark holes were stabbed on the skulls and the chests of the puppets, turning the most precisely-made slaughter machines into wasted garbage.
BOOM!
The broken saber pierced through the defense network outside of the fixed firing point in the most brute way, penetrating into the full-metal shell of the firing point like high-heat metal particles. Although it did not deal any direct damage, the earsplitting explosion echoed in the heart of every Immortal Cultivator like the drumming from the deepest level of hell.
They found it impossible to believe their eyes.
In the middle of the underground hominoids who were weeds, ants, and swines, an unparalleled expert who was at least in the Nascent Soul Stage had emerged!
How was it possible? Why was it happening?
The Immortal Cultivators who were willing to be hired by Li Minghui and stay in the underground world to suppress the hominoids naturally couldn’t have been top experts. They were mostly third-rate Immortal Cultivators in the Refinement Stage and the Building Foundation Stage.
Besides, the elite soldiers of the Black Iron Group had been taken away by Li Minghui to expand his territory in other towns. The guys that were left behind were the third-rate Immortal Cultivators of the third-rate Immortal Cultivators. How could they resist Li Yao who was on fire?
In the deafening, violent music, they were so shocked that their souls were falling apart.
There was no time to escape. The sabers on Li Yao’s back flew out one after another. Surrounded by the flames of spiritual energy, they were like gold falcons that were flapping the wings and flying at the pivots of the defense arrays and the main fixed firing points around.
The seemingly indestructible iron shell was soon ripped apart under Li Yao’s crazy bombardment. Devastating damage was left on the surface.
Li Yao extended his hand and snapped.
One, two, three… Thirty-six Triple-Headed Six-Barreled Vulcan Machine Cannons rushed out of the Cosmos Rings and floated above the fixed firing point that had the largest number of Immortal Cultivators. The dark turrets of the cannons stared through the cracks torn by the sabers at the Immortal Cultivators whose real faces had been revealed in their fears.
Those who enslaved other people with violence and who considered other people as pigs and ants would certainly be more despicable than pigs and ants when they were faced with violence that was stronger than themselves. It was exactly the logic of their survival.
“This Immortal Cultivator here, we would like to surrender! We would surrender!”
The Immortal Cultivators screamed in desperation.
They thought that Li Yao was an Immortal Cultivator from one of Li Minghui’s hostile forces or a survivor of the Dongfang family who came for revenge. So, they were all fleeing or begging for mercy.
Li Yao grinned and bared his sharp teeth. “That will be unnecessary. I am not an Immortal Cultivator… I’m a Cultivator!”
The thirty-six Triple-Headed Six-Barreled Vulcan Machine Cannons opened fire at the same time. Those cannons, which had been renewed and remodified by Li Yao and equipped with the most expensive cannonballs made of marrow crystals, were certainly much more powerful than the regular models. They had completely exceeded the category of single, portable magical equipment and were like an arsenal warship shooting from a close distance. The Immortal Cultivators in the fixed firing point could not resist at all. Their spiritual shields, crystal suits, and mustard-seed combat suits were all ripped apart. Their bodies were reduced into pulps of flesh and blood that looked like paste in only half a second!
The Nepenthe believers were so shocked by the scene that they were not back to themselves until a long time later. None of them, including Grand Guardian Xu Zhicheng, had any idea about what to do.
“What are you waiting for?”
Li Yao opened his helmet and shouted at Xu Zhicheng, “Launch the attack now!”
“You—”
Xu Zhicheng was still in a trance. Although Long Yangjun had briefly described Li Yao’s strength to him earlier, such overwhelming dominance was too much for him to fathom. It was not until this moment that he truly understood what great strength the insignificant body of a human being could possess.
More importantly…
Even a human, who could barely be called a human with his daunting strength, was willing to fight for them instead of enslaving and exploiting them?
Why?
Xu Zhicheng recalled his conversation with Li Yao a moment ago. At that time, he was not entirely convinced by Li Yao’s words, and deep down in his heart, he did not believe in the Cultivators. He could not imagine that a world of Cultivators could exist.
Such a world was simply too wonderful, so wonderful that it was almost a tantalizing dream or just another trap that would lead to even more miserable endings.
But right now…
Perhaps a dream could be realized after all, and their outcome couldn’t get any more miserable now, could it?
Seeing that countless Immortal Cultivators were butchered and blown apart into pieces by Li Yao as if they were chickens and dogs, and hearing the drumming of wrath, stubbornness, and excitement that sounded like from the deepest level of hell, Xu Zhicheng felt that his heart was burning. He roared at the Nepenthe believers around him, furiously and emotionally, “Let’s go and take back our Great Iron Plants!”
