Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“I say it’s a bad idea.”

After carefully observing the configuration of troops and the defense system of the underground space, Long Yangjun rejected Li Yao’s impulsive offer.

First of all, the underground space was guarded by at least one strengthened legion. Also, crystal cannons and fixed fortresses had been established on all the platforms from top to bottom, constituting an impenetrable web of the crossfire. The place was ten times better defended than the Great Iron Plants.

Even they could charge forward and go on a killing spree with their Colossi, they would certainly be absorbed by the web of the crossfire. Their fuel and ammunitions would be greatly consumed, and the Colossi would be riddled with holes too.

Of course, assuming that the enemy was not supervised by leaders who were above the Nascent Soul Stage and also equipped with a Colossus, it would be possible for them to crush the whole legion. The Imperial Guards were not the most determined warriors. It was possible that they would completely collapse the moment they saw that two Colossi showed up.

Then, so what?

To some extent, both the Imperial Guards and the shield tunneling machines were “consumable”. Even if they were to annihilate all the Imperial Guards in this place and destroyed all the shield tunneling machines, Wuying Qi and Li Linghai, having occupied 99% of the resources of the Empyreal Terminus Sector, could easily devote more “consumables” to the place.

Even though the production and maintenance of the ultra-huge shield tunneling machines could be tricky, the regular shield tunneling machines could certainly be shipped in incessantly.

Their reckless attack would be entirely pointless except for slightly delaying Wuying Qi’s excavation progress. Instead, it would only alarm the enemy, inform Wuying Qi and Li Linghai of where they were, and let the enemy know that their trump card had been exposed.

Once Wuying Qi discovered that his trump card had been exposed, he would certainly change the way of playing it. Under the stimulation, he might even sacrifice millions of people just in order to accelerate the excavation without bothering the consequences.

Right now, the greatest advantage of Li Yao and his team was that they were in the dark while the enemy was in the light. Wuying Qi and Li Linghai did not know the first thing about their latest action. Naturally, they would not jump to the enemy’s face easily.

Unless, of course, they could destroy the underground space entirely.

But it was certainly not an easy task!

The underground space had been an empty cave in the first place. How exactly could it be destroyed? Even if they could blow up the rocks around and fill the space, the loose soil could easily be dug through by the shield tunneling machines and the excavators again.

What was even more critical was that this underground space was probably on an extremely vulnerable seismic belt. The exploration of the Supreme Emperor and the Blood God ten thousand years ago had already resulted in the drastic changes in the crust of the entire planet, leaving thousands of gorges on the vast continent. There was no telling how many people were killed in the catastrophe.

The capital today had multiple times more population than it did in the age of the Star Ocean Imperium. Even the giant gorges torn apart in the disaster were now full of underground towns where billions of people and even more were residing.

If they insisted on destroying the underground space, the catastrophe ten thousand years ago might be repeated. Countless towns would be swallowed by rocks, and too many people would fall into darkness forever. Billions of residents might be affected.

Blackstar the Great perhaps did not care about that. Billions of people were but a number for him.

But Li Yao certainly could not do that.

“Be careful. This area has been frequented by earthquakes for quite a few days.”

Long Yangjun said in a low voice, “Do you still remember how I mediated in the war among the three wildling tribes, namely the Ning Wings, the Black Armors, and the Red Rings? The reason why the wildlings were fighting each other was that their habitats were destroyed in the consecutive minor earthquakes. Those earthquakes happened a lot over the past half year but were never heard of several years ago.

“I suspect that it was what Blackstar the Great did here that triggered the series of chain reactions in the thousand square kilometers around.

“He can be blatant and pay no attention to the prices, but can you?”

After a long silence, Li Yao mumbled, “What is Blackstar the Great trying to do exactly? Doing such crazy things on a highly-sensitive seismic belt can really lead to the collapse of the entire capital planet!

“Although ‘blowing up a planet’ might be an exaggeration, the possibilities that the plate movements become highly active, the continent sinks into the ocean, mountains rise from the ocean, and the whole ecological circle and even the atmosphere fall apart, turning the habitable planet into a desolate planet that’s no longer habitable… are quite high!

“Is he crazy enough to abandon his own capital?”

“Don’t forget Blackstar the Great’s most remarkable battle on his rise.”

Long Yangjun said, “When he was still a general of the border defense troops of the Star Ocean Republic, faced with the fleets of the Covenant Alliance, he had once abandoned ‘Karan’, where his command center was located, and installed powerful crystal bombs that could raise a chain reaction below the ground of the planet, alluring the Covenant Alliance to occupy Karan so that the planet would be blown up together with the enemy’s fleets!

“So, this is apparently not the first time that he has destroyed a planet. Today, the four Kurfürst families are obviously stronger than him when combined. Who knows whether or not he will play the same trick if he wants to win quickly?”

Taking a deep breath, Li Yao said in a low voice, “In order to excavate the primeval treasures buried deep below the ground and to defeat the four Kurfürst families, Blackstar the Great has already made up his mind to sacrifice the hundred billion residents on the capital planet for the purpose? It’s truly as expected of the ancestor of Immortal Cultivators!

“Right now, the Imperium has been controlled by him. We have to bring everything we’ve seen out of the capital and let anyone who objects to Blackstar the Great know. Only in such a way can we reveal his insanity!”

Long Yangjun said, “We have captured all the pictures.”

Li Yao shook his head and said, “Shooting pictures from far away is not convincing enough. Such 3D videos can easily be fabricated. Besides, spying from such a long distance away can barely prove anything.

“We have to retrieve a working log of one of the ultra-huge shield tunneling machines. Let’s see what we should do… Hey, if your ‘clones’ can approach the ultra-huge shield tunneling machines, how long will it take to copy the machine’s log?”

Li Yao turned around and asked the kids.

“It depends on how long the log is and if it is encrypted and defended.”

Li Wenwen said, “But I don’t think it will take too long. After all, it is just a piece of clumsy, crude civil magical equipment. Blackstar the Great couldn’t have installed the most advanced super crystal processors on every shield tunneling machine, right?”

“Ten seconds!”

Li Xiaoming, on the other hand, bashed his chest and guaranteed, “Ten seconds will be enough for us to copy a complete working log!”

“Very well. Then…”

Li Yao narrowed his eyes and observed for a while longer before he said, “Considering the erosion and the cooldown time, the No. 2 ultra-huge shield tunneling machine on the left side must’ve been used for the longest time, so its log must have the most abundant content!”

The team observed in silence for a long time to determine what the few ultra-huge shield tunneling machines were going to do next. Then, Li Yao activated Neltharion again and bypassed it from the flank before he planted a super-tiny crystal bomb on the most vulnerable point in the rocks that the No.2 ultra-huge shield tunneling machine was going to excavate.

When the No.2 ultra-huge shield tunneling machine’s working surface was revolving at the highest speed and all the vibration sawtooth and blast drills were letting out deafening noises, Li Yao remotely controlled the tiny crystal bomb to explode, which raised a chain reaction in the rocks, collapsing the cave that the No.2 ultra-huge shield tunneling machine just dug out!

The explosion of the crystal bomb was completely dwarfed by the noises when the machine was working.

Also, during the excavation of the shield tunneling machines, such minor collapses were anything but unusual and could not hurt the machines at all.

All kinds of ambulances and spiritual puppets immediately ran close and injected liquid metals and buffer foams into the collapsed rocks to strengthen the structure, while more than ten heavy tractors dragged out the shield tunneling machine that had been buried in rocks.

Such accidents were almost happening on a daily basis. No Immortal Cultivators felt that it was strange at all.

The metal scraps left by the tiny crystal bomb after it exploded had also been mixed in the collapsed rocks, never to be found again.

In the meantime, during the several minutes when the ultra-huge shield tunneling machine was buried in the pebbles, countless tiny “ants” crawled into the gaps of the ultra-huge shield tunneling machine through the cracks of the rocks, hacking its mainframe crystal processor and scanning and copying tremendous information.

Before the heavy tractors were in position, all of Xiaoming and Wenwen’s clones had retreated safely without leaving any traces behind.

The working log had been retrieved!

“Let’s go!”

Li Yao raised his thumb at the two kids, who immediately smiled as brilliantly as blossoming flowers.

They were about to retreat when deafening noises echoed from the other side of the tunnel, and the whole ground began to shake. Another engineering team that was full of assets, tractors, and shield tunneling machines had come to support the project.

The team was so overwhelming that it took them half an hour before they all reached the base.

The crazy excavation in the underground space was even more heated than before.

Everybody looked at each other, all feeling that time was burning quickly like the fuse on a powder keg.

Li Yao thought of something and suddenly asked, “Where do you say is the start point of this tunnel? We are now twenty thousand meters below the surface of the planet. This tunnel can’t possibly be extended upward for twenty thousand meters all the way to the ground, right?”

It did make sense.

If the tunnel had been extended upward for twenty thousand meters, considering the slant, the total length of the tunnel could’ve been more than a hundred thousand meters, which would’ve been too heavy a load for the project.

Li Yao and the team simply went back and searched for the start point of the tunnel.

Instead of a hundred thousand meters, they explored forward for only some ten kilometers before they reached the start point of the tunnel, which was another huge camp and advance base.

Standing at the center of the advance base, which was carved with complicated rune arrays and glamorous spiritual stripes that were glowing incessantly, was a massive portal.