Forty Millenniums of Cultivation
chapter-700

Hellsword's facial expression remained absolutely unchanged. He asked his subordinate, "Where did he show up? Is it a trap? Are there any Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators near him?"

"It doesn't seem like a trap," his subordinate replied. "We have basically locked onto all the hostile Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators that have entered the battlefield. The summoning of extraterrestrial devils in the West Lake District is the largest one in our plan. Most of the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators' have directed their attention to it.

"Meanwhile, Sand Scorpion is going in the opposite way of all the hostile Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators. He seems to have burst into fury and is on a killing spree without a destination!

"The key information has been transmitted to your crystal processor via the 'dark net'!"

Communication was of paramount importance for space pirates during a hunt. In order to not be monitored by the Spiritual Nexus of the Cultivators, they had gradually developed certain technology to establish a temporary network on a battlefield during their thousands of years of struggle.

The temporary networks were unpredictable and hard to capture. They boasted strong anti-jamming abilities, too, and were also known as the dark net.

The light beam in front of Hellsword's eyes was changing its content at a frequency of ten slides per second. His eyeballs were flickering up and down nonstop as if a vibration rune array had been installed in them.

Five seconds later, Hellsword narrowed his eyes and issued his command.

"Ghost Sting, Grey Fox ,and Thorny Shadow, stop your assassination immediately."

Hellsword then gave his orders to those three members of the Eight Blades of Black Spider. "Sand Scorpion has shown up. He is an important target who is of the highest value relative to his capability.

"Before, he was hiding in Flying Star University where there are a lot of experts. It was quite difficult to deal with him. Our previous assassinations all failed. Even a Core Formation Stage Cultivator on our side was compromised.

"It will be best if we take the guy down before our retreat!

"Ghost Sting and Grey Fox, your task is not to assassinate him but to cruise and stay on alert in the ten square kilometers around him. As long as there are signs that the hostile Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators are going toward Sand Scorpion—remember, so much as signs—abandon the assassination immediately and retreat in separate directions.

"Thorny Shadow, you will do the job!

"Although Sand Scorpion is not weak, he is still wearing a beginner-level crystal suit. There's no evidence that he is an expert in crystal suits. Therefore, his capability must have declined a lot!"

On the light beam, a man whose face was covered in black fog nodded. "Understood, Master Zhuang!"

Pausing for a moment, he asked again, somewhat in hesitation, "Sand Scorpion slew the Mountain King. Do you not want to take him down in person?"

Hellsword coughed for a moment. Then he smiled and said, "I'm seriously wounded right now, and I need to take a rest in the base. You can claim the credit."

Hellsword cut off the communication. On the light beam, he saw the three assassins of the Eight Blades of Black Spider in the Core Formation Stage rush at Sand Scorpion's location.

Hellsword smiled and walked out of the darkness, too.

He did not move toward the secret base but snuck toward the direction of Sand Scorpion.

…

Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho!

On a blood-drenched street, amid the burning debris of the city, Li Yao, wearing the Gold Wolf Battlesuit, was on a rampage with one super anti-ship saber more than two meters long in each hand.

Such a terrifying weapon was designed for super muscular Cultivators. It was said that it could chop the plate of small starships in half, which said volumes of its formidability!

That was not all of it. Around Li Yao, sixteen Floating Six-barrel Vulcan Machine Guns were moving everywhere, unleashing a storm of burning bullets!

Two sabers and sixteen guns drove almost a thousand squeaking devils away.

Li Yao's crazy laughter leaked out of the gaps of the Gold Wolf Battlesuit. The flames of spiritual energy around him were fluctuating wildly, not steady at all.

All signs suggested that he was delirious!

From the dark windows on the high buildings nearby, three sniper rifles secretly protruded out and locked onto him.

When the bullets of the sixteen Floating Six-barrel Vulcan Machine Guns ran out, the last devil was ripped apart, and Li Yao was the most relaxed, the three sniper rifles were triggered at the same time!

Two black bullets and a rushing electric arc dashed to his front from three different angles instantly!

Li Yao seemed to have grown eyes on the back of his head. He was long prepared for the attack. His body blinked weirdly, and two bullets passed through his shadows, collided, and exploded!

The electric arc hit precisely on Li Yao's breastplate.

Li Yao did not shake at all even though the electric arcs were covering his body. He stowed the sixteen guns into his Cosmos Ring as quickly as a lightning, while he turned into a streak of brightness and leapt forward in zigzags to avoid the snipers, sprinting for the turn of the street.

Huala!

When he reached the corner of the street, four melee-combat crystal suits suddenly appeared from the debris, the collapsed buildings, and the wells.

Two heavy crystal suits that looked like shields lunged close and tried to stall him without worrying about the damage sustained while the other two light crystal suits stabbed two sharp daggers at the gaps below the abdomen of the Gold Wolf Battlesuit, one from the left and one from the right.

Li Yao roared. The wolf head embedded on the breastplate of the Gold Wolf Battlesuit suddenly opened its mouth. A cluster of spiritual energy, which had been stored for a long time, rushed out and left a shocking giant hole in the chest of the first heavy crystal suit!

Meanwhile, he shook his left hand. The lengthy saber broke into pieces and rained upon the assassin on the left side.

There was a short sword about half a meter long in Li Yao's hand!

A sword in a saber. As it turned out, the anti-ship saber was merely a sheath that contained a deadly weapon!

The shorter the distance of a battle was, the more dangerous it would be. The assassin had drawn close to Li Yao, and it was difficult to wield the anti-ship saber at such a distance.

However, it was the perfect range of attack for a short sword.

The attention of the assassin was distracted by the pieces of the broken saber. When he was back to himself, he felt his chest turn cold. The short sword pierced deep into his heart and exploded brutally after a 'beep' sound!

Crystal bombs were planted inside the short sword that would be triggered as soon as it entered a body. Although it could only be used once, it was definitely a sordid and deadly weapon!

The entire stomach of the assassin together with the left side of his chest were blown to smithereens!

Within a breath, both assassins had been killed.

The remaining two assassins were dazed for a moment, not knowing what to do.

Li Yao sneered and leapt forward, preparing to execute the two of them.

However, from the shadows of the two assassins, the two dead bodies, and even Li Yao himself, weird phantoms suddenly dashed out.

It seemed that their shadows were all alive. They formed sharp venomous stings and pierced at the vital parts on Li Yao's body!

Li Yao was caught unprepared by the attack. He dodged three stings, but the other two still stabbed into his flesh. He grunted miserably.

The five phantoms condensed in midair into a crystal suit that was almost pure black.

The crystal suit was made of special light-absorption materials. Everybody's vision was blurred and could not see the details of the crystal suit. It looked like a black sketch.

The two stings that stabbed into the gaps of the Gold Wolf Battlesuit were thin daggers that extended out of the arms of the black crystal suit.

That was the performance of 'Thorny Shadow', a top assassin of Black Spider Tower and one of the Eight Blades of Black Spider!

Li Yao seemed to be in agony. The wolf head in front of his breastplate opened its bloody mouth again and launched a dazzling cannonball of spiritual energy. Simultaneously, he waved the other saber of his, raising a tornado.

However, before the aura of the blade passed through the black crystal suit, it had split into almost ten shadows and dispersed.

The shadow blades were retreated, and two arrows of blood immediately jetted out of the wounds!

Li Yao changed from attack to defense very quickly. Seeing that he had missed the target, he turned around and ran away without hesitating.

He did not flee to the street but crashed through the wall of a building.

Against the surging spiritual energy, the walls made of bricks, stones, and rebars were no better than toilet paper.

Five shadows converged into one again. Thorny Shadow sneered and chased after him.

The Gold Wolf Battlesuit destroyed one wall after another as Li Yao fled hastily in the labyrinth-like buildings.

The black crystal suit blinked about, sometimes appearing in midair, sometimes appearing in the darkness. It ran after the prey neither fast nor slowly, like a haunting ghost.

The distance between the two parties was gradually reduced.

Huala!

Suddenly, there was nothing but brightness in front of the Gold Wolf Battlesuit. Li Yao had crashed out of the building from the other side and entered a new street!

Thorny Shadow was overjoyed and accelerated to his maximum speed!

Within that moment—

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

In the building behind Li Yao, countless oriented crystal bombs that he had planted in advance were detonated. Hundreds of furious flames burst out and wreathed Thorny Shadow.

The crystal bombs naturally dealt little damage to the assassin, who was in the Core Formation Stage. However, they exposed his location and jammed his crystal cameras and crystal processor.

Caught unprepared, his speed and reaction were both slower than they should have been.

In the chaos, Thorny Shadow felt that an undersea volcano was erupting violently. Countless hot streams and magma were spurted out and raised a hurricane on the surface of the ocean!

The alarms that his crystal processor sent almost deafened him.

The speed, agility, and strength of his target improved exponentially!

In 0.5 seconds, his crystal camera captured what the enemy's crystal suit looked like.

The enormous size, the cold weapons, and the intimidating aura. Everything indicated that it was not the Gold Wolf Battlesuit!

Air change!

Thorny Shadow was shocked.

He did not expect that the Iron Plateau native who was in no way well trained in the arts of crystal suit, according to his intelligence, was actually an expert who had grasped such a remarkable skill as 'air change'. His opponent had put on a faster, stronger, more fearsome crystal suit in the blink of an eye.

In that moment, Thorny Shadow realized that it was a trap, a fatal trap specially prepared for the Eight Blades of Black Spider!

It was a pity that his epiphany came too late.

Shua!

The twisted, unpredictable aura of Li Yao's saber stabbed into the breastplate and the facial cover of the black crystal suit like a butcher's cleaver. The blood hesitated for half a second before it spurted out, forming a giant red tree in midair!

However, one other thing flew up into the sky together with Thorny Shadow's head.

Li Yao's right arm!

While Li Yao launched a fatal attack toward Thorny Shadow, a mysterious shadow suddenly lunged out from his back and darted at Li Yao's heart!

Li Yao had summoned all his strength, and there was no time for him to do anything. In his haste, he could only block the incoming attack and protect his heart with his left arm.

However, the enemy's attack was unbelievably brutal. While he chopped off Thorny Shadow's head, his left arm, which was protected by the crystal suit, was cut off from the elbow together with the thick, heavy crystal suit!