Chapter 546: Rough Iron Plateau
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Ten minutes later, the five spectral Cultivators from the Heaven's Origin Sector finished analyzing the information that Li Yao had transmitted to them.
Sparkle fell into a brief silence.
Mo Xuan said, "According to Li Yao's message, and the information we collected from the Spiritual Nexus recently, we have two options right now.
"Firstly, we can stand by and watch because it's none of our business. We can continue hiding in the periphery of the sea of stars and let the Cultivators and Immortal Cultivators of the Flying Star Sector fight each other. We won't do anything about it even if the Flying Star Sector might be occupied by the Immortal Cultivators.
"Secondly, we can get us involved and fight against the Immortal Cultivators together with the Cultivators of the Flying Star Sector in some way!"
The 'Four Kings' slightly shivered. The liquid metal was shrinking and expanding, as they began talking enthusiastically,
"It appears that the Temple of Immortals is a very large organization that has been hiding its capability in the shadow for a thousand years. Now that it has decided to act, it definitely has backup plans. This is not the end of everything yet!"
"We have nothing but a tiny Sparkle. The odds of success when fighting against such a giant are not very high. We might be destroyed if we are reckless for a moment!"
"The Heaven's Origin Sector is still waiting for us. We cannot afford to die in this place."
"But Li Yao has already become a sworn enemy of the Temple of Immortals. If the Immortal Cultivators really take over the Flying Star Sector, they will absolutely try everything they can to dig us out!"
"Then we should run. To a different world!"
"Which world? We were already unbelievably lucky to have jumped into a world with abundant resources. Who knows whether or not we can find a similar world in our next jump?"
"Even if we find a new world, who can be certain that it will be a peaceful one? For all we know, it might be even more chaotic than the Flying Star Sector!"
"Fight! We should stay and fight! These so-called Immortal Cultivators are in fact demonic Cultivators, who are our sworn enemies! Don't forget that the demon race that savages the Heaven's Origin Sector nowadays was on the same boat as the demonic Cultivators before!"
Mo Xuan listened to everyone's opinions quietly. In the end, he remarked, "Everybody has made good points. Allow me to make a conclusion.
"Firstly, the Flying Star Sector is a world with bountiful resources and spiritual energy. Besides, the remnants of all kinds of starships can be found in this place, which makes it the best place for us to build up ourselves at this moment. It's highly unlikely that we find a similar world again after another super-long space jump. It's more likely that we will be lost in the four-dimensional space and torn into pieces.
"Therefore, before we find our way home, we can only stay in the Flying Star Sector.
"Secondly, we cannot count on the remnants to strengthen ourselves forever. As Sparkle grows stronger and more advanced, cutting-edge technology and magical equipment will have to be applied to it one day.
"Such things are not available in the ancient battlefield at the periphery of the sea of stars. We can only expect to find them in the central part of the Flying Star Sector.
"The central part of the Flying Star Sector is definitely the place that Cultivators and Immortal Cultivators are going to fight over.
"It means that we will have to get in touch with one of the two sides someday if we keep building up ourselves. We will communicate with them, learn their techniques, receive their assistance, and even form an alliance with them.
"The only question remains, which of the two sides are we going to get in touch with? Cultivators or Immortal Cultivators?
"I think the answer to the question is obvious.
"I said just now that we had two options. But in fact, we have only one. If the Flying Star Sector really turns into a great swirl of war, we will definitely be involved. The only thing we can choose is how to be involved. Do we accept whatever happens to us, or strike our way forward?
"Yes. The Heaven's Origin Sector is waiting for us. But how do you envision our return? Are we coming home alone, with nothing but Sparkle, or with countless allies and thousands of starships?
"I believe that, if the Cultivators of the Heaven's Origin Sector resist the Immortal Cultivators together with the Cultivators of the Flying Star Sector today, the Cultivators of the Flying Star Sector will stand side by side with the Cultivators of the Heaven's Origin Sector and demolish the Blood Demon Sector tomorrow!"
The 'Four Kings' were silent for a moment. Then, they each extended a small metal sprout from the center of the metal balls and shook.
It was a gesture of consent among them.
"Alright. It's decided then. We will cruise slowly toward the Iron Plateau Space Zone now while we explore more ancient battlegrounds on the way in order to further modify Sparkle so that it will boast a higher combat ability within the atmosphere.
"In the meantime, we can disguise ourselves as a business starship and continue hunting space pirates in order to accumulate more battle experience!
"According to the messages from various sources, Li Yao has probably been forced to land on Iron Plateau. When the moment comes, we might have to break into Iron Plateau to rescue him!
"Let's just hope that he is not dead by then!"
…
"I'm going to die!" Li Yao shouted and leaned backwards, his arms waving.
He stomped on the ground and dashed back weirdly like a leaf that was being swept away by furious wind.
The moment he jumped back, a cluster of black, stinky air hit where he had been standing brutally. Countless iron ores were mixed in with the stinky air and blew hundreds of holes in the ground from which blue smoke was popping up.
"HOOO!"
A gargantuan worm that looked like an earthworm, only billions of times larger, was roaring scarily. It was more than ten meters long and one meter in diameter. The front end of its body was a bloody mouthpart where countless sharp, circular teeth were spinning rapidly.
Li Yao turned back and slashed his saber. The aura of his blade spurted out, only to leave a shallow trace on the skin of the bizarre worm, which was emitting a metallic glow, as if the worm was made of super alloys.
Li Yao's attack further infuriated the bizarre worm. The front end of its body blossomed, expanding its mouthpart to more than three meters in diameter. A cluster of even more vicious, venomous gas was being condensed rapidly inside its body!
When the cluster of black gas was compressed to the bare minimum, Li Yao snapped his fingers.
Four Floating Six-barreled Machine Guns appeared weirdly deep inside the bizarre worm's throat and opened fire!
In an instant, more than ten burning lines of bullets barraged and triggered the high-pressure gas inside the bizarre worm's body.
The surface of the bizarre worm was as tough as steel, but the interior of its body was extremely soft and stored a huge amount of water. It was blown into smithereens immediately. The worm was split in two, and yet it was not killed, still struggling crazily, driven by natural instincts, stirring the environment nearby into chaos.
Li Yao fled with his face hidden in his palms.
He did not return until half an hour later, by which time the bizarre worm had turned completely rigid. Then, he dissected the worm prudently and collected the materials that he needed.
"My bullets are running out."
Li Yao sighed and eyed his surroundings helplessly. He finally understood why the residents of the Flying Star Sector would rather live on cold, shallow starships than return to the planets.
Iron Plateau was not a place for human beings at all!
There was nothing but a desert the color of rust all the way to the horizon. Weirdly-shaped plants could be found occasionally, but they were all withered and half-dead.
The environment there was similar to that of the Grand Desolate Plateau in the Heaven's Origin Sector.
However, the Grand Desolate Plateau was a boundless plateau that could be reconstructed manually after all.
But on the surface of Iron Plateau, huge mountains, hundreds and even thousands of meters high, were standing next to each other!
The mountains defied the tectonic laws. They were separate from each other and simply protruded from the ground. Multi-colored and bumpy, they were similar to the commonly-seen meteoroids in the space.
In some places, mountains were replaced by giant pits, hundreds of meters in diameter. Many such pits were enveloped by black fog all the time. If one were to look at them from afar, they were the darkest abysses.
The altitude gap between the mountains and the abysses was extremely large, which made the climate on Iron Plateau disjointed and without any patterns. It was not unusual for a furious thunderstorm to be succeeded by scorching weather just a moment later.
Such an environment was definitely not natural.
Li Yao speculated that an enormous meteor shower had assaulted Iron Plateau thousands of years ago.
The bigger meteorites had landed on the surface of Iron Plateau and turned into the uncanny peaks of stones.
The meteorites that were smaller, on the other hand, were directly vaporized due to the intense impact, the blast of which swept across everything, leaving the bottomless craters on the ground.
The meteorites looked very odd and unnatural. Li Yao had seen many interconnected spiritual stripes on many meteorite mountains that constituted what seemed to be rune arrays.
Li Yao had never seen such circuits before. But he was sure that it was a model that could absorb and utilize spiritual energy.
The meteorites must have been made by certain intellectual creatures on purpose. They were some sort of 'magical equipment'!
The meteorites seemed to boast a strange power that had completely reshaped the environment of Iron Plateau. Not only was the land desolate, the demon beasts there had undergone unbelievable mutations, too.
The giant sand worm that had assaulted Li Yao a while ago was a frequently-seen low-level demon beast that was often used by high-level demon beasts as vehicles.
But on Iron Plateau, it had mutated in a terrifying way. Its skin was thick and weapon-proof, and it could absorb metals and pulverize them into ores inside its body. During a battle, it could spurt out the ores with high-pressure air like a storm of bullets!
However, this giant worm was one of the most 'docile' demon beasts that Li Yao had seen during his one-month stay on Iron Plateau.
"What kind of place is this? It is even rougher than the Dark Desolate Domain in the depths of the Grand Desolate Plateau!"
Looking at the ragged Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit on his body, the Boiled Blood Wind Slashing Saber, which was riddled with cracks, and the crystals inside his Cosmos Ring, which were about to run dry, Li Yao cursed loudly.