Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Li Yao did not have much time because somebody was definitely going to be suspicious if the guy was in the toilet for too long. He quickly logged in the Heaven’s Origin News Network, the biggest news site in the Star Glory Federation, and browsed through the important news over the past three months.

The first thing that he paid attention to was, naturally, how much damage the batch of troops of the coalition army of demons that was teleported to the capital city three months ago caused and what kind of chain reaction it triggered.

Dozens of news reports popped up on the light beam. Li Yao held his breath and skimmed through them. The more he read, the more furrowed his eyebrows were.

Three months ago, when he destroyed the Eye of Blood Demon, a batch of troops had already been teleported to the sky of the capital city, which, according to the news reported, included at least one demon emperor and quite a few demon kings.

Before the reinforcing Cultivators arrived and annihilated them, the demons caused great damage to the capital city. Almost twenty skyscrapers were demolished. The civilians suffered heavy casualties, too.

Other than the materialistic damage, what was more serious was the trauma to everyone’s heart, especially when Heavenly Sword Plaza, one of the landmarks of the capital city, was ruined by the coalition army of demons. It was a devastating shock to the residents of the heartland of the federation who had not witnessed a large-scale war personally for more than a hundred years.

“As it turns out, there has been a sharp saber hanging above our head all the time, and it may fall down at any point!”

The deep sense of insecurity was haunting every federal citizen even a hundred days after the assault.

For the Cultivators and the federal army, the assault both humiliated them and infuriated them.

They had gathered along the eastern coastline of the federation, ready to surround and slaughter the coalition army of demons, which was supposed to have marched out from the sea. However, after quite a few days of stupidly waiting, not a damn thing had crept out of the ocean, and their home thousands of kilometers away had been attacked without them being able to do anything.

The shame of being tricked embarrassed all the Cultivators and the soldiers of the federal army, who did not know how they should face the citizens of the capital city.

As a result, everybody in the federation—including the ordinary people, the troops of the federal army, and the Cultivators—became much more radical than before.

“Blood for blood!”

“Expedition! Expedition!”

“March into the Blood Demon Sector and avenge the innocent victims!”

The comments sections of most of the articles were occupied by outrage. Fury of the public had congregated into a vast, unstoppable river!

As the latest intelligence from the Secret Sword Bureau was publicized, the river of fury surged even more violently than before.

According to the evaluation of the Secret Sword Bureau and the federal army, the assault on the capital city, which was intimidating enough in the beginning but got disrupted half way through, was because something happened to the large-scale teleportation array of the Blood Demon Sector leading to the complete collapse of the giant wormholes.

Such a collapse very likely meant the loss of tremendous elite troops!

Also, every sign indicated that, because of the failed assault, a series internal strife had broken out in the Blood Demon Sector!

“This is the Blood Demon Sector’s feeblest moment. It is now or never. If we miss out this chance, we will have to wait decades for our battle of revenge!”

This was the opinion of almost every ‘amateur politician’ on the street.

On the half-professional military forums, aggressive rants were everywhere. Their conclusion was more or less the same.

As it turned out, one month after the assault to the capital city, the federal army began to take action by conducting quite a few magnificent drills on the Grand Desolate Plateau, showing that it was prepared to completely abandon ‘strategical defense’ for ‘active attack’ and to march into the Blood Demon Sector.

The federal troops stationed all over the nation were pleading for war. The representatives in parliament who had a military background proposed expedition plans, too. The Association of Veterans were organizing the retired and disabled soldiers to demonstrate almost on a daily basis. The soul-stirring anthem of the army was echoing in the sky of every city day and night. Motivated by the music, more people had been applying to join the federal army in the past month than ever before.

The entire federation was shouting for revenge!

The expedition motion was endorsed by more than half of the representatives. Zhou Hengdao, the Iron Commander, declared in the public that the federal army had made all the necessary preparations and was absolutely confident that it could defend the honor of the federation, ensure the safety of all the federal citizens, and shatter any enemy in any place at any time!

In the moment of turmoil, it was Jiang Hailiu, the Speaker of the Parliaments, remained calm.

Jiang Hailiu used to be the firmest hawk, but when the entire federation was on fire, he changed his usual attitude and suggested that the policy of ‘strategical defense’ should not be changed. The federation must not be affected by the assault. It should stick to the original plan according to its own pace and continue developing itself by communicating with the Flying Star Sector actively so that the comprehensive capability of the nation would rise rapidly and the gap between the federation and the Blood Demon Sector would be further enlarged.

“A leader must not wage a war because of fury!” Jiang Hai quoted a saying from the era of the ancient Cultivators in a speech to the parliament.

It was about the situation in the parliaments. Iron Commander Zhou Hengdao, Director Lu Zui, and more than half of the representatives wanted to attack instead of defend.

The minorities, including Speaker Jiang Hailiu, hoped to wait for more intelligence from the Blood Demon Sector before any decision was made.

Although few representatives supported Jiang Hailiu, he was the Speaker of Parliament and had the highest power after all. The two parties had been in an impasse.

However, according to the few special meetings held recently, most of the media were not optimistic about the Speaker’s side. They believed that Jiang Hailiu would concede very soon.

There was no need to mention the civilians, who were all yelling like super hawks whose blood was boiling right now.

This doesn’t look right . Li Yao found the news a bit strange.

Iron Commander Zhou Hengdao was indeed a stubborn, short-tempered old man, but he had been in service in the federal army for more than two hundred years, and he must have seen more bullets than grains of rice. He should have known that a general should not be affected by their emotions in war.

Getting to the bottom of it, the comprehensive capability of the Blood Demon Sector had still been much higher than the Heaven’s Origin Sector three months ago, and the coalition army of demons overwhelmed the federal army.

Besides, the environment of the Blood Demon Sector was extremely harsh, with venomous fog everywhere. If the ordinary soldiers of the federation were exposed in the air for too long, they might have gotten poisoned.

Such disadvantages were not likely to be changed by the death of several demon emperors and a batch of elite troops.

What was it that emboldened the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, who were nothing but wise, such as Zhou Hengdao and Lu Zui to launch the expedition immediately?

The situation was in the federation’s favor right now. There was no need to take a risky gamble at all.

But very soon, a piece of important news from two months ago made Li Yao understand everything.

Iron Commander Zhou Hengdao’s confidence had been given by a warship from the Flying Star Sector!

Since Professor Mo Xuan and the rest of them had returned to the Heaven’s Origin Sector more than half a year ago, the communication between the Heaven’s Origin Sector and the Flying Star Sector had been proceeding very well. The depth and breadth of the communication were beyond Li Yao’s expectation.

Professor Mo Xuan and the other Star Spirits, after devouring the enormous computational ability of the star brain, had an explosive development in the scale of their calculation. It took them only several months to modify the original star beacons of the Heaven’s Origin Sector and produce a super long-distance star beacon system in the orbit of the Heaven’s Origin Planet, thereby guiding the way for the Flying Star Sector, which was millions of lightyears away!

The warships and war assets from the Flying Star Sector were shipped to the Heaven’s Origin Sector incessantly. The communication of their complementary technologies made the technology level of the Heaven’s Origin Sector soar exponentially!

Just like that, two months ago, the communication between the two parties finally took a giant leap!

A super warship that the Heaven’s Origin Sector had never seen was launched over by the universal slingshot!

It was Heavenly Phantom—the flagship of the Grand Illusionary Group in the past, the nest of Xiao Xuance the leader of the Immortal Cultivators, and the most advanced warship of the Flying Star Sector!

The super huge warship had been made by countless specialists in warships of the Flying Star Sector after arduous effort. In the riot of the Immortal Cultivators instigated by Xiao Xuance, it had caused great trouble for the Cultivators.

It was safe to say that Heavenly Phantom alone had been enough to defeat dozens of starships under the control of the Cultivators easily during the riot.

Li Yao still had a deep impression of the Heavenly Might Cannons, the main guns of Heavenly Phantom, whose damage was absolutely appalling when they were fully activated!

Heavenly Phantom had never completely destroyed even to the end. It had only been temporarily paralyzed because the star brain, its mainframe crystal processor, was hacked by Li Yao and the Star Spirits including Professor Mo Xuan.

After the riot of the Immortal Cultivators, Heavenly Phantom had been repaired in the Flying Star Sector. Six super crystal processors had been moved from the Star Prier’s House to Heavenly Phantom and converted into the new mainframe crystal processor system in replacement of the original star brain. The combat ability of Heavenly Phantom was restored, and it was renamed Burning Prairie.

A tiny spark could set the entire prairie ablaze. The super warship was destined to bring the sparks of the civilization of mankind to every corner of the deep, dark universe!

The starship technology of the Flying Star Sector was much more advanced than that of the Heaven’s Origin Sector. The newborn Burning Prairie was an incredible dream warship even for the regular citizens of the Flying Star Sector. It was needless to say what a shock it was for people of the Heaven’s Origin Sector who were like bumpkins in that regard.

Compared to Burning Prairie, the heavy crystal warships of the Star Glory Federation were nothing but canoes!

Li Yao could totally imagine the dizziness, ecstasy, and untamable ambitions that followed when Iron Commander Zhou Hengdao saw Burning Prairie.

When one had the sharpest blade, one would inevitably want to kill someone. Moreover, Burning Prairie had accommodated more than two hundred thousand Grand Illusionary Soldiers!

After the riot of the Immortal Cultivators, all the Grand Illusionary Soldiers had lost effect as the star child perished.

There had never been a good way to deal with the Grand Illusionary Soldiers.

They had been produced at the consumption of great resources after all. It was too much of a waste to declare them to be total losses.

As a specialist of crystal suits, Li Yao had come up with an idea before he returned to the Heaven’s Origin Sector. He had proposed to separate the Grand Illusionary Soldiers from the mainframe crystal processor and change them to be under the control of the brainwaves.

One Exo with five Grand Illusionary Soldiers would be a small local area network. After being installed with the fundamental combat telepathic thoughts, the Grand Illusionary Soldiers would be under the control of the Exo’s brainwaves, and they would be able to manipulate them easily.

As a result, even if anything went wrong, the only things that could be affected were simply five Grand Illusionary Soldiers. No ambitious schemers would be able to make use of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers anymore.

It was just Li Yao’s immature proposal in the beginning. He did not expect that it would come true so quickly in the communication between the Flying Star Sector and the Heaven’s Origin Sector!

How many levels would the combat ability of the federal army be improved when the two hundred thousand Grand Illusionary Soldiers were distributed?