Gao Kangda still remembered that time when the entire mining area was in a state of panic, and the atmosphere was extremely low.
Sensational rumors were flying everywhere, claiming that they were no longer of any use and that their superiors were going to send them to the frontline as cannon fodder, or that they were going to be given some ragged starships that did not even have the ability of space jump and could only cruise in the regular way before they were kicked out.
It must be noted that, in the boundless universe where resources were scarce, it was impossible to perform a four-dimensional space jump and to find a habitable planet with an atmosphere and an ecosphere. It was definitely a dead end.
The ragged starships, which could only perform regular navigation, cruised at the speed of 0.5% of the speed of light. They might not be able to fly out of a galaxy even after flying for decades.
They were going to hound the human miners with flesh and blood to death with the cold spiritual puppets!
The higher-ups spent a lot of effort to suppress the "rumors" and appease the restless miners, but the final solution was almost the same as the "rumors."
The sect that Gao Kangda and the other miners belonged to decided to 'gift' them a batch of outdated, small mining starships and the resources that could only sustain them for three to five years as the compensation for their lifelong dedication. They were asked to explore and mine in the chaotic space zones that were more dangerous and full of radiation, storms, and unexpected variables, but they would not be given any technical support or logistical supplies.
In name, they were responsible for their own profits and losses, but in reality, they were left to fend for themselves.
No one could bear such an outcome.
The miners, as well as their wives and children, had been living on the super enormous mining starships for generations.
The super enormous mining starships that were more than ten kilometers long were not only their workplaces but also the homes of their grandfathers' grandfathers and their grandsons' grandsons' grandsons.
They were born in this place listening to the rumbling sound of ores being crushed, grew up in the boiling hot power furnace and the chilly cooling room, met the opposite sex in the dust-filled sieving room, and created the next generation in the cold and narrow cabin that was as small as an iron coffin. When they intertwined their fingers tightly, the iron coffin became the warmest home!
Right now, their superiors were banishing them and their families from their home, stuffing them into small mining starships that were not even the size of a can, sending them into the dark, cold universe, where they would die bit by bit at the speed of a snail. Having no other choice, they could only launch resistance with the brawny muscles and bones that they had developed through hundreds of years of crazy training and natural elimination!
On the day when the manufacturing starships of the 'puppet factories', which carried the entire most advanced assembly line of the fully-automatic mining puppets, slowly sailed into the Unsettled Space Zone, the millions of miners and their families on the forty-two super-enormous mining starships that were distributed in the major mining areas of the Unsettled Space Zone could not hold it any longer and launched an overwhelming uprising together, which was known as the 'Unsettled Riot'.
The price paid for the uprising was very heavy.
Over the past hundreds of years, in order to maximize their work efficiency and compete with the machines, the miners had no choice but to crazily cultivate all kinds of divine abilities, almost turning their bodies of flesh and blood into steel machines.
Also, they had the assistance of all kinds of half-armed magical equipment such as "power pickaxes", "drills of mystic rays", and "Mining Crystal Suit". The power pickaxes that could smash the hardest ores naturally had a chance to dig holes in the armor.
Although they had an absolute advantage in number, and they were more determined to die than ever, their morale was higher than ever.
However, the mobsters were mobsters after all. Faced with the highly-armed Immortal Cultivators who had been practicing the skills of slaughter since they were born, they were still collapsing one wave after another like a wheat field that was being reaped.
In the end, they did destroy the "manufacturing starship of the puppet factory" and almost killed all the managers of the Immortal Cultivators in the mines at that time.
However, the siege of the regular army soon followed. Of the forty-two super-enormous mining starships, three of them escaped in the end. The rest of the super-enormous mining starships all turned into brilliant fireballs. Including Gao Kangda's blood brother, almost ten million miners and their families were killed in the sea of stars with their blood, dying without a proper burial!
At that time, everybody was frightened by the magnificent combat ability of the regular army. Three mining starships launched space jumps in panic. Gao Kangda did not know where the other two starships went. Perhaps they were completely torn apart by the cosmic storms in the four-dimensional space, or perhaps they were blown to an unknown place at the edge of the cosmos by the four-dimensional wind. All in all, his own starship performed nine space jumps in a row, and the main structure of the starship was almost completely torn apart before it luckily escaped.
After that, Gao Kangda and his remaining brothers wandered in the sea of stars for a long time, living a homeless, homeless life. They were almost reduced to space pirates who abandoned all boundaries for survival. It was not until they met Starlight that they finally lived a peaceful life for two years.
However, Starlight itself had been living a rather difficult life in recent years, too.
After he became the captain of "Great Mountain", in order to better command the largest starship of Starlight, Gao Kangda had read a lot of books and learned a lot of theories that he did not understand before. His Cultivation also soared quickly as if he had been enlightened all of a sudden. After only twenty years, he had advanced from the Refinement Stage to the Core Formation Stage right now from the Refinement Stage at the end of the great uprising. He had learned a lot of theories, too.
Of course, he knew that a long, long time ago, there used to be a mysterious and awe-inspiring Starlight.
But he also knew that the "real" Starlight had been destroyed a long, long time ago, and the Starlight that he had joined right now was just a bunch of mobsters who pretended to be powerful under the guise of their predecessors. They were not even the first Starlight to do that. Before them, dozens of Starlight organizations had already been annihilated by the Imperium!
The members of the Starlight organization right now were very complicated. Some of them were miners who were forced to desperation in the competition of the automatic mining puppets, some were farmers who lost their farmland after the planets were highly developed, and some were even Immortal Cultivators who failed in competitions with their families and were hunted by their families and had to flee to the sea of stars. They were out-and-out mobsters.
Everybody had different backgrounds, beliefs, and desires. Many of them could not even tell what they wanted at all. However, when they gathered together for warmth and fun, they were no different from the bandits in ancient times who gathered in the forests to feast on meat and wine.
They did not have a clear ideology, a common belief, or a foundation that they could count on. They had been operating based on the idea of "doing something big and vigorous". Even Gao Kangda himself was rather surprised that the new-generation Starlight had survived for decades.
However, as long as it was a dream, it would be shattered one day.
In the previous years, the Imperium had focused all its attention on the war against the Holy League in the frontline. It had never had the time to spare troops to clean up the annoying fleas.
However, as the Imperium won more and more battles in the frontline and entered the phase of consolidating the interests of the war, the shackles on the neck of Starlight were getting closer and closer. Their space of activity was narrower and suffocating, and their days were getting harder and harder.
Like cockroaches and rats who had instinctive premonitions about their doom, the resistance warriors of Starlight including Gao Kangda vaguely felt that a great catastrophe was coming and that they could not escape from it!
However, there was nothing they could do about it. They could not find any countermeasures at all.
There was no way that they could defeat the enemy in a fight. Most of the starships of Starlight were modified from half-armed carriers, mining starships, and comprehensive refinement starships like Gao Kangda's "Great Mountain". No matter how many of them there were and how intimidating they seemed, they were nothing more than a clean plate of vegetables in front of the elite fleet of the Imperium.
Surrendering was out of the question, too. They had all committed unpardonable crimes. Many of the "former Immortal Cultivators" were thorns in the flesh of their families or sects. If they fell into the hands of their old enemies, their life would definitely be more miserable than death.
After thinking for a long time, there was only one option left, which was to "do something big and vigorous". Even if they were to die, they might as well die a quick death.
Therefore, when the "underground branch of Starlight" deep below the Land of Sins in the Martial Meritocrats Sector, the world of origin of Starlight at the very beginning, tried to reach out to them and proposed a plan to attack "Manjusaka, the City in the Sky" together, they were both surprised and overjoyed. They were almost relieved that they were finally free.
They were not scared of death, but the days where they could never see hope and where they had to hide in fear in the dark sea of stars for the rest of their lives were truly insufferable!
Instead of dragging out an ignoble existence, they might as well throw caution to the wind and fight the Immortal Cultivators. Even if they were killed, the name of "Starlight" would at least be established!
As the captain of "Great Mountain", Gao Kangda had a say in the decision-making leadership of Starlight. He was in favor of a vigorous battle against the Immortal Cultivators, too. It was not a big deal even if his head was cut off. The worst-case scenario was death. He should have been killed in the "Indefinite Riot" twenty years ago. To this day, he had never forgotten the feeling of smashing the power pickaxe into the skull of the Immortal Cultivators and being splashed with blood and brains all over his face. That was a real uprising. What kind of life had he been living during the twenty years of his escape? Every night, he dreamed of his brothers and sisters who had died miserably and stared at him without blinking their eyes!
"Let's do it!"
Gao Kangda mumbled to himself. "Don't be hasty, everybody. Old Gao will come down to accompany you tomorrow. But before I come down, I'm going to do a great and splendid job to avenge so many brothers and sisters in the Indefinite Space Zone and show those Immortal Cultivators the strength of the Cultivators!
"Tomorrow, tomorrow …"
Looking at the flickering starlight, Gao Kangda was caught in the furious fire that swept across the entire Indefinite Space Zone again.
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