Li Yao was slightly dazed. "What are you thanking me for?"
"Thank you for sticking to your belief and offering a different opinion in the meeting half a year ago when the eleven of us did not object to surrendering to the Imperium of True Human Beings," Ba Xiaoyu said with a bitter smile.
"Otherwise, it would've been possible that we would've sent a message to the Black Wind Fleet about the Ancient Sages Sector half a year ago. The Ancient Sages Sector would've been reduced to the base of the Black Wind Fleet a long time ago, and I would've had to leave my hometown and wander in the stars as an unaffiliated Cultivator without any support!"
Li Yao thought of something and asked in a low voice, "Do you dislike the Imperium of True Human Beings so much, Fellow Cultivator Ba?"
"I do dislike it."
Ba Xiaoyu looked at Heiye Lan, somewhat at a loss, and mumbled, "In the past half a year, I've studied Heiye Lan's confession and talked to her in private many times, asking her about the Imperium of True Human Beings' attitude toward the ordinary people and the toiling masses.
"The path that the Imperium of True Human Beings has walked on does not satisfy me at all. We are all the same. We are all born and raised by our parents. We are all made of flesh and blood, and we all have feelings. Why should we be divided into 'true human beings' and 'hominoids'? The so-called 'hominoids' are not even human beings because they do not have a spiritual root? This, this is simply preposterous! "
After a long sigh, Ba Xiaoyu said, "When I was young, I was born in a noble family of Cultivators. I used to live a luxurious life, too. However, such 'enjoyment' was entangled with the 'torment' of the world of Cultivators. It is impossible to separate them."
"Suddenly, one day, pirates attacked and burned my family's island to the ground. My family fell from grace, and I was severely injured. I wandered to the people of the southeast coast and mingled with the poor people, healing my wounds in seclusion. For the first time, I experienced the life of ordinary people. Although it was simple and plain, it came from the bottom of my heart. I didn't need to hide, be on guard, or rack my brains to calculate!"
"It was not until I tasted such a life that I realized that the Cultivators were not necessarily noble, and the common folks were not necessarily lowly, either. In the hundred years that followed, I had been living among the common folks in the market sloppily. People like Qi Changsheng and Wan Mingzhu thought that I was fishing for fame, but they did not know that I was truly enjoying myself!
"I've lived such a life for a hundred years. I'm already used to it. The life in the Imperium of True Human Beings, where the people are divided into 'true human beings' and 'hominoids', is not something that a beggar can tolerate!"
Li Yao asked, "Then why didn't Fellow Daoist Ba object?"
"Object?"
Ba Xiaoyu smiled bitterly. "What's the use of objecting? The Imperium of True Human Beings is very strong, which can be seen from the tiny assault warship. Even if I was unwilling to surrender to the Imperium, how could I drag so many people of the Ancient Sages Sector into the fiery hell of blood?
"I was caught in a dilemma and did not know what to do. I was thinking that I could only run away. What the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve me.
"Thankfully, Fellow Cultivator Spiritual Vulture turned the tides at the last moment and pointed out the pros and cons of the decision. Wang Xi's' Star Picking Plan 'was also triggered. That was the only reason why the decision could be delayed for at least a year and a half!
"The Xing Yao Federation, the Xing Yao Federation. I wonder what kind of country it is. Can it bring hope to the Ancient Sages Sector that is completely different from the Imperium of True Human Beings?"
Li Yao felt that his heart was warm. He could not help but clench his fists and try to be as calm as possible. "Maybe. I'm looking forward to seeing … a completely different Xing Yao Federation, too!
"Please, Fellow Cultivator Ba. Let's open our eyes and see the universe clearly!"
"All the crew members have been loaded!"
"All the cabin doors are closed. All the airlocks are closed. The internal oxygen circulation system is activated!"
"The auxiliary jet rune arrays on the ground have been activated. They are ready to be activated at any moment!"
The twelve experts from the Ancient Sages Sector, as well as Heiye Lan, a female warrior of the Imperium of True Human Beings, all boarded Weary Tooth, the Bloody Blade -level assault warship of the Imperium!
On the ground, the subordinates who were loyal to Han Baling and Long Yangjun had finished the preparations for the launch, too.
The so-called 'assault warship', as its name suggested, was an attack warship that was small in size, fast in sprinting, adapted to various terrains and spaces, and could break into the atmosphere of an enemy warship or an enemy planet quickly for a forced assault.
Such warships often had to break into the orbit or even the atmosphere for battles before retreating at a high speed.
Therefore, they boasted high anti-gravity abilities and could get rid of the restraint of the gravity of a planet more than easily.
With Long Yangjun's cooperation, Li Yao also dismantled four ancillary power units that could slightly adjust the direction of the engine compartment at the rear of the Nuwa warship and connected them to the rear of Weary Tooth, replacing the seriously damaged power rune arrays. The basic performance parameters were more or less recovered to 70% of the initial state, and the warship was ready for liftoff!
Inside Weary Tooth, the other ten experts all hid themselves in the buffer gel tightly. Only Long Yangjun and Heiye Lan, who were the pilot, copilot, and navigators, and Li Yao, who was the chief controller of the magical equipment on the warship, were fixed in the messy, zigzagging cabins with the magnetic hooks.
"Lord Wang, shall we —"
Li Yao was more or less nervous, too.
The mainframe crystal processor of Weary Tooth had not been damaged in the fierce battle almost ten years ago, and the warship had been adjusted to the 'minimalist operation mode', which was specially designed for situations where most of the crew members had been killed in battle. At the cost of reducing most of the combat performance, the requirement on the number of operators was minimized.
In such a mode, Heiye Lan had managed to bring the assault warship to the Ancient Sages Sector on her own.
However, the warship had crashed in the Ancient Sages Sector for quite a few years after all. Also, they had adopted too many 'primitive' approaches during the maintenance. Almost all the maintainers were not modern refiners who had received professional training but ancient sword forgers of varying backgrounds.
Under such circumstances, whether or not the units of the warship of the Imperium and the Nuwa warship could function in harmony, whether or not the creaking warship that had been barely repaired could perform a long space jump, and whether or not the four-dimensional storm when the void was broken would invade the body of the warship and rip them apart … Even Li Yao, as the 'director of magical equipment', was not confident about the questions himself.
Long Yangjun, however, smiled at his call. Then —
She smashed the activation rune array hard!
BOOM!
Weary Tooth was immediately enshrouded in flames and brilliance.
Everybody felt that they were in the middle of a burning furnace that was rotating at a high speed. They could not even let out a grunt before they were all choked back into their intestines through their throats and stomachs!
By the time they came back to themselves from the deafening noises and the spiritual waves that were so hot that they were burning, they were already in the middle of a dark, pure, lonely, and vast universe.
Their hometown, the planet of the Ancient Sages Sector, was floating behind them quietly like a tiny apple.
In front of them was the sun that was a million and a half times larger than the planet of the Ancient Sages Sector and brought light, heat, life, and energy to the Ancient Sages Sector.
Under the control of Long Yangjun, Weary Tooth sailed toward the sun unhurriedly, like a moth that was lunging at a furious flame.
"Fellow Cultivators, we have successfully left the planet of the Ancient Sages Sector and embarked on the first step of our journey to the deities' realm!"
Long Yangjun's voice was so excited that it was somewhat frivolous. She said with a smile, "As the pilot and navigator of 'Weary Tooth', I would like to repeat our journey one last time.
"In the next moment, we will perform a long-distance space jump and teleport ourselves to somewhere near the Xing Yao Federation. More specifically, we will be teleported to this place — the Shimmering Light Space Zone!"
"Why here?"
"First of all, this place is still a long distance away from the destination of the signal sent out by the Nuwa warship, which is also the mother port of the Nuwa warship and the heartland of the Xing Yao Federation by our estimation. There are no habitable planets here, either. It is unlikely that we will be in the territory of the Xing Yao Federation.
"Even if we are in the territory of the Xing Yao Federation, we will probably be in a desolate, unpopulated frontier. It is unlikely that we will run into the magnificent military forces of the Federation. We will have enough room for both of us to catch our breath.
"Secondly, there are a few resource planets here that can provide emergency maintenance and strengthening for our ragged starship after a long-distance space jump.
"That is to say, as long as we are lucky enough to teleport to the Shimmering Light Space Zone with the ragged starship that is riddled with holes and everybody is still alive, there will not be much of a problem later. The destination will be somewhere near or at the edge of the Xing Yao Federation. After the emergency maintenance, we will be able to sneak into the place more precisely through short-distance space jumps according to the star map!
"Thirdly, and most importantly, for a space jump, other than knowing the coordinates of the destination on the star map, the most important thing is the guidance of the star beacons.
"We do not know the parameters and locations of the star beacons of the Xing Yao Federation. Naturally, we cannot jump randomly at the risk of being completely lost.
"But according to the star map on the Nuwa warship, there was a red giant in the Shimmering Light Space Zone more than a hundred thousand years ago. Also, the parameters and spectral features of the red giant are clearly marked on the star map!
"Heiye Lan told us that the red giant is a form of a star, or rather, a sun after it ages. Its size can be a billion times larger than it was in the prime of its life!
"A billion times! Fellow Cultivators! It is a billion times larger than the 'sun of the Ancient Sages Sector' in front of us!
"Now that we know its parameters and spectral features, we can totally consider the 'sun a billion times larger' as an enormous, special star beacon. Jumping to its vicinity will be a hundred times safer than jumping to the heartland of the Federation randomly!
"Compared to the stable sun in the prime of its life, the red giant has a lifespan of millions of years despite its short duration. The star map that we have is from more than two hundred thousand years ago. During such a short period of time, the red giant should still be around and should not have collapsed into a white dwarf. It is perfect for us to guide the Ancient Sages Sector forward!
"Sit tight, fellow Cultivators. The gate of immortality is about to open. In order to be teleported to the space zone where the red giant is located instantly, we will have to —
"Infuriate our own sun first!"
[Forty Thousand Years of Cultivation, Volume Four, Ancient Sages Part Completed]
-----
Huhu. I've been updating twice over the past few days. Finally, the fourth volume was completed. The fifth volume, which was the chapter of returning to the Federation that was even more marvelous, had been drafted, too. Tomorrow, I will speed up the progress and continue to present the marvelous chapters!
Today was the 18th. Counting this chapter, I have updated almost two hundred thousand words this month. That's not too slow, is it?
I'll post a sentimental note at the end of the volume later to share my thoughts with you. Those who are interested can subscribe to it!
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