Deep inside Yan Xibei's pupils, the drill of mystic rays was burning up the last bit of his soul like a bouncing fire.
The former best warrior of the six tribes of Iron Plateau took a long breath. With an indescribable expression on his face, he gradually stiffened, withered, and died.
Li Yao did not know what to say. He scratched his helmet for a long time before he asked, "Why are you here?"
"We came to Iron Plateau to look for you. It was not until we arrived that we realized how weird the planet was. We did not have any precise information about you and could only wander around randomly."
Mo Xuan said, "Later, we discovered that an Exo Society had landed on Iron Plateau. We followed them all the way in secret, but we lost them half a day ago.
"We found that the spiritual waves in this area were particularly intense. Therefore, we approached slowly from below the ground.
"But we did not expect that many weird demon beasts were lurking below the ground. In order to avoid the demon beasts, we increased the speed of the drilling. But in our panic, we dug into a cluster of weird mucus." Li Yao smiled.
"The cluster of mucus seemed to be alive. It attacked us and tried to infiltrate Sparkle!
"But as you know, there were only five spectral Cultivators on Sparkle. Our bodies were made of nano alloys. How could the mucus corrode them? Of course, we counterattacked mercilessly!
"Hardly had we destroyed the central nerves of the cluster of mucus when we sensed your telepathic thoughts. Then, we crawled out!"
Li Yao secretly felt that he was lucky. Although the Blood Stripe Virus could corrode living creatures and even non-living creatures such as rocks, the bodies of Mo Xuan and the other spectral Cultivators were the best treasures of the Star Ocean Imperium. Liquid metal was definitely not something that the Blood Stripe Virus could infiltrate easily!
Mo Xuan and the other spectral Cultivators were the natural nemesis of the Blood Stripe Virus!
"What's the situation now?" Mo Xuan asked.
Li Yao pondered for a moment and replied quickly, "The situation is complicated. You'd better lurk below the ground for now. Remember to set the communication channel to No. 9. I'll reach out to you through my portable crystal processor!"
Now that they were on the same planet, it would be much easier. Things would be much easier then. Although there was no Spiritual Nexus on Iron Plateau, Li Yao could enhance his telepathic thoughts with his portable crystal processor and reach out to Sparkle at a fixed frequency. It was equivalent to forming a point-to-point micro-network.
The electromagnetic environment on Iron Plateau was very complicated, but Li Yao was much stronger than before. His soul was more than ten times stronger than before. Therefore, it was still possible for them to communicate with each other when they were hundreds of kilometers apart.
Li Yao looked at Yan Xibei's body again. He sighed, feeling very complicated.
Yan Xibei was indeed the most dreadful enemy that he had ever met on his path of Cultivation. Even Skeleton Dragon, the unparalleled deadly demon from forty thousand years ago in the underground residence on Boneyard, was only stronger than Yan Xibei in terms of absolute strength, but not as good as him in terms of planning, calculation, and adaptability.
He manipulated Iron Plateau, the Flying Star Sector, and the Temple of Immortals on his own, hoping to change the future of a planet or even a Sector for thousands of years. Tens of thousands of years of progress!
What kind of ambition was this? What kind of tyranny was this?!
But in the end, he had been so close to success.
Even if it was Yan Xibei who was dead right now, Li Yao did not feel that he had defeated him. Maybe he was just a bit unlucky.
"If Yan Xibei is not possessed by the Blood Demon, and everything he said is very likely to be true, then …"
Li Yao shook his head hard and threw the unfathomable question to the back of his head. He could not bring himself to hate Yan Xibei.
"Righteous or evil, Yan Xibei deserves to be the best warrior of the six tribes of Iron Plateau!"
Li Yao remarked with mixed feelings. He retrieved the crystal bomb that he had just dismantled from the chassis of the tank from his Cosmos Ring and placed it on Yan Xibei's body.
Mo Xuan was dazed. "What are you doing?"
Li Yao replied, "The grass and the trees in this place are all mysterious. Even if it was a tiny bug, it could contain a strange power. Of course, he had to blow everything up! As it happens, the bomb contains a very powerful nerve poison. I don't know if it will work on the foreign blood, but it's better than nothing!
"I'll set the bomb to explode in half a minute. Go back the way you came. I'll send the map of this place to the Furious Bears Tribe to you later. We'll meet near the Furious Bears Tribe! "
"Alright!"
Mo Xuan knew that Li Yao must've had a lot of adventures on Iron Plateau, too. But now was not the time to talk. He maneuvered Sparkle back into the hole that he had just dug out.
Li Yao looked at Yan Xibei's body one last time. Spiritual gas spurted out of the gaps of the Sky Scorpion Armor and flew to the ground slowly.
Right when he was floating, a weird, bloody aura suddenly leaped out of Yan Xibei's body and darted toward Li Yao's back like a bolt of lightning!
"Something is indeed wrong!"
It was exactly what Li Yao had been waiting for. Dozens of purple and gold electric arcs had been gathered in his right palm. He opened his fingers and activated the Purple Electric Blue Hell Claw Art to the maximum. Dozens of electric arcs darted out and hit the blood ray instantly!
"Hiss! Hiss! Hiss! "
The electric arcs locked the bloody aura like a cage. The bloody aura screamed miserably and dashed left and right, only to be electrocuted into stinky black smoke. After almost ten seconds, its struggle became weaker and weaker, until it was reduced to ashes in the end!
"Hu …"
Li Yao took a long breath in relief. Blood streaks flashed deep inside his left eye. He dashed to the ground without looking back.
It was still raining heavily on the ground.
The weird gray fog that was flowing out of the cave made nobody dare approach it. They could only hold their breath and stare at the entrance of the cave without blinking.
Xiong Wuji managed to sit up with the help of Wu Mayan and Sha Yulan, too. He gritted his teeth and stared at the entrance expectantly.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! "
Thunderous noises were echoing from below the ground, as if a world-shaking earthquake had just taken place.
Before anyone had the time to exclaim, a shadow soared to the sky. It was Li Yao!
Immediately, exclamations were echoing inside and outside the valley, which completely drowned out the torrential rain!
…
Outside of Iron Plateau, on the planetary ring, the fleets from the six sects of Heavenly Saints City had gathered. Countless Exos and armed shuttles had been released for directional explosions.
Although they were unable to destroy the entire quasi-Stellar level defensive formation, they were still able to drill a hole in it.
On the bridge of Proud Sun, the flagship, Captain Wan Liyun observed the space steles being detonated one after another coldly.
By controlling the direction, the angle, and the intensity of the explosions precisely, together with a lot of magnetic control magical equipment, a channel was gradually opened in the dense meteoroid array.
"In twenty-four hours. We will be able to open a small channel for the assault starships to pass through first! "
On the light beam, a Cultivator wearing the emblem of the Burning Sun Alliance reported loudly.
"Very good. This is the last twenty-four hours. If we don't receive any news from the Great Horn Exo Society in twenty-four hours, we will send a large troop down there!
"Remember, Iron Plateau has probably become the base of the Temple of Immortals. All the qi-trainers are possible enemies. So, don't consider this operation as a common rescue mission.
"This is war. A real war! "
Wan Liyun smashed the control panel and gnashed his teeth. "If the rescue fails, or the hostages are confirmed to be dead, retaliate immediately and turn Iron Plateau into an ocean of fire!"
Next to Wan Liyun, a Cultivator wearing the emblem of the Furious Bears Union said solemnly, "Captain Wan, we've always felt that the whole thing is not as simple as it seems. Until we have solid proof that the Iron Plateau natives are involved in the incident, should we … be more prudent? "
"Prudent?"
Wan Liyun took a deep breath and said coldly, "Brother Su, you must think that the Burning Sun Alliance is blinded by fury because our disciples were captured or even killed, don't you?
"This is the latest intelligence from the Heavenly Saints Space Zone, Brother Su. You can take a look at it too.
"As of now, the Heavenly Saints Composite Index has dropped by forty percent compared to three months ago. The average share price of the major groups under the six sects of Heavenly Saints City has dropped by fifty percent. Some sectors related to transportation have suffered heavy losses, too. Sixty to seventy percent of the stock prices have dropped.
"This is an out-and-out stock market catastrophe!
"Right now, the entire financial market is in chaos. A lot of transportation groups have been threatened by space pirates and are on the verge of death. The throughput of Heavenly Saints City this month is only sixty percent of last year's, and Heavenly Saints City is still heavily guarded. It is the best space town in Heavenly Saints City!
"Some space towns cannot communicate with the outside world because of fear of the space pirates. The throughput of goods has dropped to twenty to thirty percent of last year's!
"Do you still think that the space pirates and the Temple of Immortals are harmless scabies?
"Absolutely not!
"Everything about the civilization of the Flying Star Sector is based on unimpeded, absolutely safe transportation lines!
"The reason why the six sects of Heavenly Saints City are acknowledged by most ordinary people is because we can guarantee the transportation lines, the transportation of ordinary people, and the transportation of goods in the cold, dark universe!
"Transportation lines are the foundation of our survival. Without transportation lines, we will be nothing but lone islands scattered in the sea of stars. It won't be long before our civilization collapses!
"After several months of rioting by space pirates, everybody in the Flying Star Sector is hiding in their towns and star fortresses in panic. They have almost lost their confidence in the six sects of Heavenly Saints City!
"If another scandal breaks out, we won't even be able to protect our family and children. They will all be brutally murdered by the Immortal Cultivators, and we won't be able to catch any of the murderers!
"How can we convince the ordinary people that we are capable of protecting them?
"If we can't protect the ordinary people, why should the ordinary people support us, buy our stocks, receive the education we provide, board our transport ships, and be tied to our ship?"
"Do you understand now? This is not about the twenty hostages at all. This is about whether or not everybody in the Flying Star Sector can keep their confidence in the six sects of Heavenly Saints City!
"It will be best if the hostages can be rescued. But if the rescue fails, we will have no choice but to launch a thunderous strike on Iron Plateau with our strongest combat ability and rebuild people's confidence in the six sects of Heavenly Saints City with the destruction of the enemy!
"Do you agree, everybody?"
There was a long silence on the bridge.
The Cultivator wearing the emblem of the Furious Bears Tribe nodded slowly. "Agreed."
The Cultivator wearing the emblem of the Feathered Snakes Tribe twitched his eyelids. "Agreed."
The Heavenly Wolves Fortress, the Giant Axe Hall, the Silver Moon Clan … All the Cultivators sighed and nodded. "Agreed!"
His face red, Wan Liyun waved his hands tiredly. "Let's take a rest on the last day. In twenty-four hours, the 'Thunder Operation' will be fully activated!"
Right then, weird vibrations suddenly echoed on the light beam. The reporter took a deep breath, his voice shivering. "Captain — captain, we've received a message from the Great Horn Exo Society!
"The rescue operation has succeeded!"
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