Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
One versus seven, and yet he was taking the initiative to attack. While the bombs of spiritual energy were detonated, leading to an ocean of flames, the streak of golden brightness that was Xiao Xuance turned into seven different images. He had shaped his spiritual energy into different forms according to the characteristics of the seven experts!
Li Yao suddenly felt tremendous pressure. He felt that a golden needle was stabbing into every pore on his body!
Thankfully, Xiao Xuance had mistaken him for Bai Xinghe and launched a mental attack toward him. Therefore, he was able to defend himself without unleashing his real capability.
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
Their battle sabers collided brutally a thousand times within a moment, as if thousands of golden threads were drawing something in midair. Thousands of deep dents appeared on the edges of the sabers. After thousands of clashes, both of the sabers crumbled heavily!
Although the sabers were broken, they maintained their original form, bound by the surging spiritual energy of the two parties engaged in the battle. They were even more untamable and daunting while they mauled each other like two dragons that were trying to swallow one another.
Their spiritual energy continued flooding out into a dazzling blast that decimated all the metal scraps into powder. The powder was then condensed into silver pearls because of the high temperature and the high pressure, which then darted out quickly, piercing through dozens of Grand Illusionary Soldiers and multiple Cultivators!
In the meantime, a mental attack that was much sharper than the edge of the saber slashed into Li Yao’s brain.
Although Li Yao’s soul was extremely solid, he intended to mislead Xiao Xuance for a while longer. Therefore, he screamed and flew backwards, crashing into a bunch of Grand Illusionary Soldiers.
On the back of the crystal suit, Black Wing was eager to act. If Xiao Xuance followed, Black Wing would immediately trigger two enormous wings and help him bring his speed to the maximum so that he could launch the most furious counterattack with his saber.
Yet, Xiao Xuance did not go after him any further. The seven streaks of golden brightness retreated and condensed into a blinking, intimidating man again.
However, his crystal suit was now on the verge of collapse because of the brief but bloody battles.
The crystal suits of the six Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators were not any better. They were also riddled with shocking gashes and would crumble suddenly if somebody touched them lightly.
“Xiao Xuance, you are too arrogant!” Luo Xingzi struggled to laugh. “We are all in the Nascent Soul Stage. Even if you are the best exert of the Flying Star Sector, you cannot defeat all seven of us at the same time!
“You are doomed to failure in this battle!”
Xiao Xuance sneered and continued summoning his spiritual energy. The golden flames around him were burning more and more furiously, until in the end, he seemed to have completely melded into the fire of spiritual energy.
His crystal suit, muscles, bones, and internal organs seemed to have turned into translucent crystals, except for the baby-like entity in the depths of his body that was glittering clearly!
That was the Nascent Soul!
By passing through the Refinement Stage, the Building Foundation Stage, and the Core Formation Stage, the spiritual energy had shifted from a gas to a liquid and then to a solid. In terms of effectiveness, it had arrived at the peak now.
In the training that followed, the Cultivators had to combine the spiritual energy in nature with their own will and consciousness. They would polish the purest, truest, and most original ego and toss it into the spiritual energy in order to produce a self in the state of pure energy.
The self of pure energy was the ‘true self’. The purpose of Cultivation was to build up the ‘true self’!
Right now, Xiao Xuance was releasing his innermost strength. His determination that had been accumulated for hundreds of years would be let out within a moment. It was obvious that he was going to fight everybody head-on!
BOOM!
BOOM! BOOM!
The six Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators all released their strongest spiritual waves too, and their bodies were crystalized into translucent appearances, too.
A strong will that was different but equally resolute appeared in the center of their bodies in the form of babies!
“Xiao Xuance, we are from the same sect. I know exactly how many techniques you have!”
Luo Xingzi had almost gone mad. He and Xiao Xuance had both come from the Feathered Snakes Brotherhood. After Xiao Xuance’s rebellion, the Feathered Snakes Brotherhood would definitely suffer heavy losses, if it could survive the disaster at all.
It was too painful to think about for Luo Xingzi, who was an elder of the Feathered Snakes Brotherhood!
Therefore, he had made up his mind!
“You are the best in the Flying Star Sector. I’m no match for you. But today, I’m going to stall you for one minute even at the cost of my own life!
“Fellow Cultivators, leave Xiao Xuance to me. You break through the jade wall and destroy the star brain right now!”
Luo Xingzi burst into laughter. His strongest will turned into a cluster of whiteness, which consumed his body from the inside!
When the whiteness expanded to the limits, a shadow more than three meters tall surrounded by endless stars suddenly jumped out!
An Ares Extension!
Normally speaking, the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators hardly resorted to one-off magical equipment such as an Ares Extension at the beginning of a battle.
Because the speed, strength, and intensity of spiritual energy of the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators were too high, if they equipped an Ares Extension too early, it was likely that the Ares Extension would quickly become scrap metal.
When a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator put on an Ares Extension, it was often a sign that they were ready to do their best!
Xiao Xuance sneered and raised his right hand. Nine spiritual shields that looked like transparent glass immediately appeared in front of him.
Luo Xingzi, who was rushing close, slowed down as he passed through every spiritual shield.
Xiao Xuance took the opportunity to retrieve an Ares Extension from his Cosmos Ring and fixed it on his body.
His Ares Extension was unique. It was like the purest gem. When it was on the crystal suit, it seemed to be nonexistent except for the glimmering spiritual stripes.
But because of the diffraction, refraction, and reflection of the gem, the blinking crystal suit looked even more magnificent.
The two Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators who had put on their Ares Extensions and motivated their combat ability to maximum collided. However, the immense blast that everybody expected was not triggered. Instead, they were like two blackholes that had crashed, and a fatal attraction force was generated.
The scraps, debris, and Grand Illusionary Soldiers were all drawn close to them.
When they were two to three meters from the two of them, they would all be blown into smithereens because of the high-frequency vibration.
Luo Xingzi roared in the communication channel, “Hurry and attack the jade wall!”
The five Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators gritted their teeth and bypassed the two of them, focusing their attention on the jade wall.
Xiao Xuance’s shrieks were almost painful. He turned into dozens of streaks of golden brightness, darting in various directions, trying to attack the five Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, only to be blocked by Luo Xingzi each time.
Li Yao’s eyes shuddered. He felt that something was not right, but there was no time to think about it carefully in the middle of the fierce battle.
He did not join the group to attack the jade wall. Instead, he stood behind them and dealt with the endless Grand Illusionary Soldiers together with the Core Formation Stage Cultivators.
They destroyed thousands of Grand Illusionary Soldiers within a minutes, but there were countless Grand Illusionary Soldiers deployed on Heavenly Phantom.
The Grand Illusionary Soldiers crowded in through the pathways, the damage, and the fractures like an incessant tide of iron!
Under the blow of the iron tide, the vitality of many Core Formation Stage Cultivators was withering. Several Cultivators even burnt furiously into gray statues in midair before they perished silently!
“Professor, how long till you activate the virus and paralyze the star brain?” Li Yao shouted in his personal channel.
“Two minutes and thirty seconds!” Professor Mo Xuan was shouting coarsely, too.
Right then, a cracking noise echoed behind Li Yao.
Under the collective attack of the five Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, the jade wall was finally blown up!
All the Cultivators were exclaiming joyfully in the communication channel.
However, behind the crumbling and collapsing wall was not the star brain but another wall.
Thousands of broadcasting rune arrays had been installed on the wall. They looked like thousands of densely distributed swirls. In the center of every swirl, a weird bluish crystal was glittering, as thousands of deep eyes were gazing at them without blinking.
Li Yao was suddenly alarmed.
They had all been fooled!
They had thought that the jade wall was translucent and that they would see the star brain after the wall was broken.
But the fact was that the jade wall was not translucent. It was a large rune array that displayed illusions!
What exactly were—
Hum! Hum! Hum! Hum!
Before Li Yao get to sort through his messy thoughts, the thousands of broadcasting rune arrays all started shaking violently. High-frequency soundwaves indistinguishable to the human ears swept across the entire bridge like tornadoes. Countless tiny bubbles were appearing in midair like thousands of mini swirls that were crashing and combining!
What the heck!
Li Yao was greatly surprised. The abrupt changes must have been Xiao Xuance’s arrangement.
The problem was that, except for the impressive visual and sound effects, he did not feel in the least harmed. On the other hand, he felt quite refreshed and energetic!
But unceasing grunts and screams were echoing inside the communication channel. All the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, including Luo Xingzi, seemed to have suffered a critical strike. Their auras were lower than ever.
The Nascent Souls that had been glittering were now flickering like candles in the wind. They shrank in size and soon disappeared inside their bodies.
“Our Nascent Souls have been suppressed!”
“I cannot enter the Nascent Soul Stage right now!”
“What—what is this array?”
Suppressed by the ultrasounds, Xiao Xuance was not able to summon the capability of the Nascent Soul Stage, either.
Yet, he burst into laughter crazily.
“Luo Xingzi and the rest of the brainless brutes, you didn’t see this coming, did you?
“I spent decades perfecting the ‘New Era Plan’. Of course, I considered the possibility that I might be attacked by several, or even more than ten, Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators at the same time.
“Although I’m the best expert of the Flying Star Sector, I’ve never overestimated my combat ability. I was scared that I would be harassed. Very scared!
“It would be quite a nuisance if three Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators attacked me together, not to mention six!
“That’s why I devised this trap to treat you guys!
“This array is named ‘Great Empyrean Soul Stirring Array’. It has been developed by the Imperium of True Human Beings over several decades for the purpose of taming the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators!
“There are thousands of broadcasting rune arrays here. A ‘Dragon Demon Crystal’ is installed in the center of every one of them.
“I have allocated almost half of the spiritual energy of the main crystal reactor of Heavenly Phantom to stimulate them. The ultrasounds that they trigger are enough to suppress any Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators within the range of the soundwaves to below the Nascent Soul Stage!
“Before the crystals are broken, they can work for at least one minute. During that minute, none of us can enter the Nascent Soul Stage and can only stay at the peak of the Core Formation Stage at best.
“Hehe. You wanted to play the decapitation move on me because you thought that the Immortal Cultivators were short of top warriors. We had too few Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, and the regular Grand Illusionary Soldiers are not enough to stop you!
“Right now, neither side has Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, but I still have thousands of Grand Illusionary Soldiers. How are you going to fight me?”
The faces of Luo Xingzi and the other Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators paled. “…We’ve been tricked!”
Li Yao was dazed. “Huh?”
