After the professor's last murmur, Li Yao felt that he was falling heavily again, both into a bottomless abyss and floating in the sky. He suddenly shuddered, only to be enshrouded by a cluster of warm, thick, and tensile liquids.
He had returned to reality, to his fleshly body, which was still heavily protected by Little Black and the Colossus.
Such a solid, real, and clear feeling made him feel the most wonderful.
"Chi …"
From the gaps of the plate armor on the Tartarean Skeleton's shoulder, a large cluster of exhausted spiritual energy spurted out and soared into the sky like black pillars of smoke. The silver liquid metal that enshrouded the Skeleton all retreated like a tide. The strengthened plate armor in the shape of helices on the Skeleton's chest was slowly opened, and Li Yao fell out of Little Black, the black protective liquids.
Huchi! Huchi! Huchi! Huchi!
The perception of time in the Spiriters' Realm was multiple times longer than in reality. There was no telling how much time had passed in reality, but it was the most soul-stirring moment of Li Yao's life.
On one of his knees, he breathed hard and sensed the slight sting but the most comfortable feeling when the air flowed into his throat and lungs.
When he raised his head, he saw the most unbelievable and glamorous picture.
The space station of District 01 had been completely drowned by the silver liquid metal, which had even turned into hideous, terrifying figures.
But at this moment, all the tiny people were gone, and the silver ocean was melting and solidifying quickly with bubbles popping up.
From every bubble, thin, tender branches grew out, and delicate buds grew out of the branches. The buds that were about to blossom were colliding with each other nonstop, stretching the "petals" until they were as thin as the wings of cicadas. The souls that had been properly protected inside could also be seen clearly!
The space station of District 01 turned into an ocean of flowers all of a sudden.
The branches and the buds should've been silver, but the souls that were enshrouded in them were illuminated in the most glamorous colors. Billions of colors collided, dyed, and reflected each other like broken ripples and tides.
Li Yao had never seen such a splendid, magnificent, and wonderful sight.
A moment later, all the buds blossomed slowly. A series of tiny spots of light that looked like lotus seeds and pearls were condensed on the stamens. Inside every spot of light, a soul was slowly waking up and uttering the moans of waking up from a dream.
Li Yao understood.
They were the people who were sucked into the Spirit Realm by the Extraterrestrial Demons. They were the Spirit Race.
For example, Li Yao, Long Yangjun, and the twelve experts from the Ancient Sages Sector, they all had their own fleshly bodies. After the Spiriters' Realm collapsed, their souls were naturally sent back to their bodies through the same route and protected by their brains.
However, the majority of the Spirit Race, such as Wei Qingqing and the others, had long since lost their bodies.
The soul was an extremely fragile thing. If it was exposed to the air for a few minutes, it could vanish into thin air.
It was needless to say that his soul had been greatly damaged in the turbulent vortices and storms after the collapse of the Spiriters' Realm.
If he rashly released them into the real world, only death would await him.
Therefore …
With the toughness of Professor Mo Xuan's soul and his weird life form, he might have been able to live forever.
However, he had burnt all his soul willingly, unleashed his computational ability beyond his limits, and manipulated the enormous ocean of liquid metal with the last drop of his life, preserving tens of thousands of Spirit Race beings in such an amazing form.
Until enough suitable artificial bodies were found, they would be able to live safely and stably inside the flowers!
Other than the space station of District 01, every space station in Hundred Flowers City had silver liquid metal that spread out in the form of vines.
Countless branches were growing out of every vine, and colorful buds were growing out of them. Countless souls that had been trapped in the Spiriters' Realm for a long time woke up from their long dreams and blossomed in the most splendid way.
Those space stations were originally in a state of extreme hypoxia, extreme heat, or extreme cold. Many people were so suffocated that their eyes were rolling back. Many people were shivering in the frost. Many old people and children had blue faces and purple lips because of the lack of oxygen. They were scratching their necks and chests crazily.
The hundred space stations were about to turn into hell on earth. As the flowers of souls blossomed, the air circulation system and the temperature adjustment rune arrays hummed and were activated again!
The first warm and moist breeze blew into the lifeless space stations again, melting the frost on the cabin wall and blowing away the purple desperation on people's faces.
All the people who knew or did not know each other, who had survived the disaster, wept in joy and hugged each other. Then, they looked over each other's shoulders at the blossoming flowers in the sky in confusion!
At this moment, Hundred Flowers City was truly in full bloom!
"Professor …"
Inside the space station of District 01, Li Yao had mixed feelings and was almost choking with sobs.
The silver liquid metal that covered the skyscrapers all retreated. The 'silver statues' were melted, too, revealing the people who were sealed inside.
Colonel Luo Qisheng, commander of the 414th troop of the Union Army, and his members of the daring team looked at each other in bewilderment. The liquid metal that covered their legs was not entirely gone yet, and they could not help but touch their heads. Everybody felt that they had just had a dream. No, they had had a hundred or a thousand dreams.
At the last moment, countless pieces of souls were flying randomly in the dark void. Everybody boosted their life to their heart's content, and they were also attracted, influenced, and astounded by the life flashes of other people!
The staff of the grand-unified Spiritual Nexus Interaction and Control Center slowly woke up, too.
Many people's eyes were still filled with intense confusion, as well as … the light of their united hearts, their spirits, and their willpower, as they sang aloud and ignited their souls to their heart's content!
The way everyone looked at each other became different. It was as if there was an invisible barrier between them, and there was something more … that couldn't be explained.
In front of Li Yao, a cluster of liquid metal that was condensed into the appearance of Professor Mo Xuan was melting like a candle that was burning quickly into the silver ocean that was flowing on the ground and becoming weaker and weaker.
Professor Mo Xuan was already unable to speak. He could not even maintain the basic facial organs anymore.
He could only extend his arm high with all his strength, as if he were grabbing something at the sky, the sea of stars, and the universe, and leaving something that had been condensed inside his palm to the world.
Professor Mo Xuan was slowly melted into the silver mud. His legs, his torso, and his head were all gone, until the arm that was raised high was the only thing left.
The arm slowly sank, but his open hand was slowly clenched into a fist that was giving a thumbs-up to Li Yao.
Good luck, Li Yao. Good luck, Federation. Good luck, human beings!
Professor Mo Xuan was completely swallowed by the silver mud, drawing a complicated and indescribable conclusion for his life.
There was no telling when Long Yangjun crawled out of the Colossus "Yin Yang". She came behind Li Yao and observed everything in silence.
"There is no meaning of life without regrets in death. Every journey has an end. Perhaps for Professor Mo Xuan, this is the best ending."
She paused for a moment, and inhuman confusion beamed out of her eyes again. She said softly, "Human beings are truly … complicated!"
"There's no time. Pack up everything and jump to the Tian Yuan Realm!"
With his eyes red, Li Yao stared at the place where Professor Mo Xuan disappeared. Taking a deep breath, he said, "We cannot let Professor Mo Xuan's sacrifice be in vain. The last stop is waiting for us!"
Professor Mo Xuan had done his best to protect all the Spiriters and restore thirty percent of the functions of Hundred Flowers City as the hub of the Spiritual Nexus and transportation of the Federation.
However, Hundred Flowers City had suffered too heavy a blow in the previous corruption and sabotage. Right now, most of the communication lines had been cut off, and the space jump routes between the seven Sectors were a mess. Most of the citizens had just struggled out of the environment of extreme heat, cold, lack of oxygen, and zero gravity, or had just experienced a soul-stirring battle on the Spiritual Nexus. Their souls were extremely weak, and it was difficult for them to start work immediately.
Under such circumstances, in order to deliver a dozen super experts above the Yuanying Sector to the Tian Yuan Realm, every second had to be seized!
"Hang in there!"
Staring at the bare cabin wall, Li Yao seemed to have seen through dozens of lightyears and saw Jin Xinyue, Ding Ling Dong, Guo Chunfeng, Bai Kaixin, and many other family and friends who were gritting their teeth and fighting in the Tian Yuan Realm. He waved his hands in his heart and said to himself, "Hang in there. Hang in there for a while longer. I'll be back very soon with the strongest reinforcements at the edge of the cosmos!"
…
While Li Yao and the rest of them were mired in the depths of the Spiritual Nexus, the highest command center of the Defense Counsel of the Federation was in chaos in the Tian Yuan Realm, too.
Before the longsword that was slowly making a knot appeared, everything had been under the control of the leadership of the Federation, or more specifically, Jin Xinyue, Guo Chunfeng, Bai Kaixin, and the rest of them.
Including Black Swirl, the flagship, the most elite forces of the Black Wind Fleet had been successfully lured to the Tian Yuan Realm, but their reinforcements had not completed the space jump yet and were still behind the brown dwarf. The entire fleet had been divided into two parts, which were dozens of lightyears away from each other. It was in the most awkward situation!
In the meantime, Jin Xinyue's so-called 'rebellious demon troop' had completely torn off the mask of 'armed rebellion' and participated in the harassment of the Black Wind Fleet together with the Heaven's Origin Fleet.
Thanks to their delay, the first space jump of the Burning Prairie Fleet, the trump card of the Federation, was successfully completed. The new main-force warships, including Burning Prairie, all appeared between the No. 2 space gate and the No. 3 space gate!
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