The entrance to the neighboring District 108 from District 109 was an enormous gate more than twenty meters in diameter that was as impenetrable as a dam.
Once it was locked from the outside by the mainframe crystal processor of Hundred Flowers City, and all the barrier rune arrays were activated, it was almost impossible to open the gate by brute force.
By "almost", it meant that, theoretically speaking, it was impossible to open the gate unless it was run into a super refiner who was adept at rune arrays and the internal structure of magical equipment and capable of destroying it with brute force above the high level of the Yuanying Stage.
Unfortunately, Li Yao happened to be such a super refiner who boasted brute force above the high level of the Yuanying Stage!
Chi!
Under the coordination of Li Yao, the hundred Exos exerted their strength in two directions at the same time. The carotid arteries of every soldier were bulging to the point that they almost exploded. Finally, a tiny gap was opened on the airtight gate.
After passing through the long pathway, they did the same to the gate leading to District 108. District 108, or rather, the few districts that they opened after all the trouble, displayed the chaotic scene of doomsday.
The entire Hundred Flowers City was in the highest alert state.
Among the hundred ball-shaped space stations that made up Hundred Flowers City, all the rails and channels were shut down. The connection between every space station and the space stations nearby was locked with enormous gates that weighed thousands of kilograms, turning them into independent individuals.
It was a design similar to the airtight cabin of a starship, in case all the districts were exposed to the vacuum when a space station was destroyed in the scourge of intense firepower.
As a result, the economic activities of the entire Hundred Flowers City came to a halt, which greatly affected the daily life of the residents, too. It was needless to say that the gravity control in several districts was unsteady. Now and then, residents, shuttles, and miscellaneous objects that were not fixed to the ground were floating up and flying to the center of the ball-shaped towns. Now and then, the artificial gravity was increased to more than twice the standard gravity. Most of the people were breathing hard because of their own weight, unable to stand on the ground.
Chaos, chaos, the entire Hundred Flowers City was in chaos!
The 3D light beams that had constructed the elegant environment of blue sky and white clouds all turned into twisted snowflakes. In the end, the cold, silver cabin walls and the rusted tubes were simply exposed. The virtual signs and arrows on the main roads were either gone or jumping crazily. Many shuttles almost crashed into each other. Thankfully, automatic emergency brakes and spiritual energy buffer rune arrays were the basic components of the shuttles nowadays. No serious traffic accidents happened when the shuttles were driving at a low speed in the downtown area. However, unprecedented traffic jams were still happening in all the downtown areas!
It was needless to mention the oxygen supply and the automatic heating system. If anything went wrong, the cold wind would blow out or the heat insulation rune arrays would be turned off, and the district of Hundred Flowers City that was not facing the sun would be transformed into a frigid hell, and the district that was facing the sun would be a steamer with a temperature of more than fifty degrees.
Getting to the bottom of it, the seemingly splendid metropolis in space was nothing more than a thin iron shell soaked in the harsh universe.
Compared to the life-and-death problems above, the massive outage of the network in the entire Hundred Flowers City seemed to be a trivial matter that was not worth mentioning at all.
All that was left was the blabbering of the broadcast that came from nowhere, barely supporting the existence of the government. "… All citizens, please do not panic. If you have the means, please head to the nearest shelter or stay indoors. Fix yourself to a soft object. Do not stay outdoors. I repeat, war has broken out. This is not a drill. All citizens, please head to the nearest shelter in an orderly manner!"
The voice was rather high-pitched at the beginning, but it was soon twisted and feeble, replaced by alarms that were each louder than the last. Everybody was panicking when they were tearing their eardrums with sharp claws.
Li Yao, Long Yangjun, and Luo Qisheng looked at each other and saw the solemnity in each other's eyes.
They were not sure if a war had really broken out.
However, according to Li Yao and Long Yangjun's deduction in advance, Jin Xinyue had reached the point where she had to launch an attack. Professor Mo Xuan did not mean to hide his plan anymore.
Then, the war was destined to break out today. It did not matter whether it started a few hours earlier or later.
What mattered was not how the war broke out but whose flag was still waving at the edge of the cosmos when the complicated war that involved so many forces was over!
"Professor Mo Xuan's rhythm has been disrupted. He knew that we would charge out without bothering anything. That was why he caused such a huge mess and tried to stop us from moving forward!"
Li Yao analyzed the situation calmly. "Just like I said before, he could have seized the information processing center of the grand-unified Spiritual Nexus without alarming anyone and lurked in the darkness, waiting for the Xing Yao Federation and the Black Wind Fleet to reach the climax before he jumped out and claimed the benefits.
"But our unexpected action forced him to 'show up' in advance and expose his existence.
"As a result, he will certainly summon more computational ability and fake the information streams that Hundred Flowers City sends to the outside world, creating the illusion that everything is peaceful here!
"Computational ability. For the virtual lives living on the Spiritual Nexus, computational ability is everything. If he wastes tremendous computational ability on that, it will certainly be a hindrance to his real plan.
"What we need to do is to force him to consume a little more computational ability. A little more!"
Li Yao, Long Yangjun, and the 414 troop accelerated toward the central area of Hundred Flowers City.
However, the closer they were to the center of the city, the more citizens and shuttles that were jammed in midair. The more chaotic the situation was, the slower they were moving.
In the meantime, they ran into some Union Army troops that were stationed in various districts.
Those Union Army troops did not start a fight the moment they saw them. After all, no matter how Professor Mo Xuan fabricated orders through the Spiritual Nexus, it was impossible for him to make up such a ridiculous story as' a thousand spies of the Imperium snuck into Hundred Flowers City disguised as an organized troop of the Federation '.
Also, Luo Qisheng had been stationed in Hundred Flowers City for more than twenty years. Even his family had moved here. He had some comrades in the bottom-level troops.
His old face alone was enough to make some of the bottom-level commanders suspicious of Li Yao and Long Yangjun's story.
The problem was that the last order that those troops received before the communication was completely cut off was to maintain order, comfort, and guide all the citizens to the shelters as much as possible.
It was a messy and extremely complicated task.
Most of the Union Army troops were deep in the middle of the panicked citizens. It was impossible for them to regroup quickly!
Li Yao and the rest of them finally understood why Professor Mo Xuan turned the entire Hundred Flowers City into chaos. It was not just to stop them from moving forward. More importantly, it was also to consume the bottom-level soldiers that might interfere with his plan!
"We can't go on like this!"
Li Yao gritted his teeth. "Where is the nearest double airtight exit? It's time to split up. We'll approach Area 01 from the outside first. Colonel Luo, you'd better gather more people here as soon as possible!"
"Alright!"
Luo Qisheng swallowed hard, as if he wanted to say something, but he did not say anything in the end. He simply closed his legs and saluted Li Yao and Long Yangjun in a textbook Union Army salute.
For the convenience of shell maintenance, emergency transportation, and evacuation, there were quite a few exits leading to space on the cabin wall of every ball-shaped space station.
Naturally, such exits would be locked with double or even triple airtight doors and would never be opened under normal circumstances.
"Chi …"
When the last airtight door in front of Li Yao and Long Yangjun was slowly opened, the darkness of the entire universe flooded in like cold seawater.
Without the blockage of the atmosphere, when the first ray of sunlight crashed in blatantly, it immediately turned the cold seawater into scorching magma.
Li Yao and Long Yangjun looked at each other and jumped to the stars!
Right now, they were floating in the middle of almost a hundred enormous silver ball-shaped space stations. Like two tiny ants, they were walking among the glittering silver balls.
Stepping on the shell of the ball-shaped space station below their feet softly, the power rune arrays on the surface of their Crystal Suits spurted out colorful ripples. The two of them dashed toward Area 01 at the center of the space station agilely, leaving broken streaks of light behind them!
Behind them, more warriors of the 414 troop crawled out and formed their solid shield!
In such a way, they reached the airspace near the enormous ball-shaped space station where Area 01 was located without any trouble.
However …
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
Crack! Crack! Infinite runes had been carved on the shell of the ball-shaped space station densely. Thousands of thick electric arcs were triggered and danced among the few ball-shaped space stations at the center, interweaving into a daunting forbidden zone of death!
Sounds should not have been heard in the vacuum of space.
However, everybody who saw the deadly electric arcs would have heard the cracking sounds of the nerves in their brains being broken out of fear!
In the middle of the deadly electric arcs, hundreds of lifeless Exos were standing quietly. They had been motionless like clay idols at the beginning, allowing the electric arcs to dance around them. But when they noticed the arrival of Li Yao and other 'intruders', they seemed to have been activated at the same time. The cold crystal cameras on the facial cover of their Crystal Suits were even releasing destructive heat!
It was Professor Mo Xuan's' army of ghosts'!
With the fleshly bodies of the high-level battle-type Cultivators modified into 'battle shells' and poured in the 'Fighting Spirit' -type intelligent telepathic thoughts amalgamation of the battle experience of countless experts, they would be a terrifying army that was ten times stronger, more agile, and more capable of independent combat than the Grand Illusionary Soldiers in the past!
However …
Li Yao was more than ten times stronger than when he encountered the Grand Illusionary Soldiers in the past, too!
Hu!
Li Yao narrowed his eyes, but he could not hide the excitement inside them. His fiery eyes tore apart the cold universe and glanced at the army of ghosts on his opposite side, almost beaming with joy.
"Now that I think about it, it's been a hundred years since I fully unleashed my strongest strength!"
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