Chapter 1746: We Don’t Have Much Time Left!
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Li Yao was about to open his mouth when Luo Qisheng’s eyes suddenly turned sharp. The colonel solemnly said, “Don’t claim that you are the delegates from Firefly or the warriors of Team Red Lotus. It doesn’t make sense at all! To deal with the zombie-like monsters outside, I lost almost a hundred of my men! Yet, you broke into this place through all the monsters with only the two of you?
“Your capabilities must be far above the Nascent Soul Stage, right? Two powerful Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators could’ve annihilated us, or at least run away after paving a bloody path. But you didn’t do that. That’s why I’m willing to believe you!
“However, such capabilities do not match our understanding of Team Red Lotus. Were you hiding your capabilities before, or do you have deeper secrets that were never revealed?”
Li Yao felt that his heart was burning. He was about to unveil his real identity when Long Yangjun floated behind him and pressed his shoulder softly. “That’s right. It’s true that we are not as simple as members of Team Red Lotus from Firefly. There are definitely no experts in the middle or high level of the Nascent Soul Stage on Firefly, or they would’ve been released when the starship encountered the claw fleet ten years ago. Colonel Luo, that’s why you think that it doesn’t make sense, isn’t it?”
Luo Qisheng sniffed and said, “Yes. If you insisted that you were from Firefly, I would never believe what you said just now! It was the most perilous moment for Firefly when it encountered the claw fleet of the Black Wind Fleet ten years ago. If there were really top-tier experts at the high level and even the peak of the Nascent Soul Stage, they did not have any reason to keep hibernating at that time!”
Li Yao secretly complimented him. Although the guy Luo Qisheng looked like a common colonel, his mind was indeed quick enough for him to find such a huge loophole.
Gritting her teeth, Long Yangjun quickly said, “With everything coming to this point, there is no need to lie to you now. We are indeed not from the rightful government of the Star Ocean Republic, but we are not the spies from the Imperium of True Human Beings, either. We—we are actually from the Ancient Sages Sector!”
“Ancient…” Luo Qisheng and all the soldiers nearby were at a loss. “What is that?”
“It’s a long story. I’ll try to leave out the unimportant details. Although it may sound unbelievable and even ridiculous, I can swear that everything I’m about to say is true!” Long Yangjun coughed. With a face of frankness, she quickly said, “It all started with the battle when Firefly encountered a claw fleet of the Imperium only to be caught by Ding Lingdang of the federation. In the battle, the claw fleet of the Imperium was crushed. Most of the soldiers were either killed or captured. But one of the most critical members managed to escape…”
Long Yangjun went on and roughly explained everything in a couple of minutes, including how Heiye Lan escaped to the Ancient Sages Sector, the basic information about the Ancient Sages Sector, and how the experts of the Ancient Sages Sector were unwilling to be someone else’s cannon fodder and decided to go out in search for a better buyer.
Finally, she concluded, “The natives of the Ancient Sages Sector have been training in ignorance for years. We fight and compete for resources and territory like animals, no different from the ancient Cultivators forty thousand years ago. To be honest, we only meant to observe your military preparations and national power before we came to the federation in order to check which between you and the Imperium of True Human Beings was the more reliable one. We were only hoping to sell ourselves at a good price!
“However, after reaching the Star Glory Federation, the new training ideologies of this place, the friendly and complementary relationship between the Cultivators and ordinary people, and the courage to march to the center of the cosmos as a flickering light at the corner of the universe… Everything in the modern Cultivation civilization has deeply attracted us. We couldn’t admire you more!
“It is only natural that the underdeveloped civilizations look up to the developed civilizations. We made up my mind after we saw the treatment of the Forest Ocean Sector, the Nether World Sector, and the Water Crystal Sector after they joined the federation. We couldn’t help but think of our home, the Ancient Sages Sector. If the Ancient Sages Sector can join such a federation, won’t it be a great deal for both parties?
“Sneaking onto Firefly as Team Red Lotus was only something we were forced to do. After all, we had the future of the entire Ancient Sages Sector on our shoulders. We were not familiar with the federation, either. Naturally, we did not dare make any rash decisions.
“However, after we observed many fields of the federation, including military, politics, culture, techniques, law, etc., on our way to the Heaven’s Origin Sector, we have agreed unanimously that the federation will be the best home for us! If we have the chance to meet your supreme leader, we will tell him the truth and try to make the Ancient Sages Sector a member of the federation as quickly as possible!
“But as it happened, when we were visiting Professor Mo Xuan’s Tinder Plan in this place by chance, he noticed something and even made up his mind to kill us, perhaps because the brainwaves and mental power of the people of the Ancient Sages Sector are different from the outside world. After a series of lucky incidents, we were finally able to see through his great scheme!
“We have had enough treacheries and bloody fights in the Ancient Sages Sector. However magnificent the Imperium of True Human Beings is, it is nothing more than a strengthened, upgraded Ancient Sages Sector, which is not attractive to us. The ideologies of the extraterrestrial devils that highlight absolute peace in the virtual world sound quite tempting at the beginning, but they are full of loopholes if you think about it more carefully! The Cultivators of the Ancient Sages Sector would rather die before we abandon our bodies and swim in the world of the Spiritual Nexus as unsubstantial souls!
“Therefore, the Star Glory Federation is our only choice right now.
“We all know that new members of a gang must do something to prove their sincerity. We have come to the federation emptyhanded without a gift. Perhaps, our contribution in the operation later will be the greatest sincerity of the Ancient Sages Sector!”
Long Yangjun’s words rendered Luo Qisheng and all the soldiers of the federation dumbfounded. They did not come back to themselves until a long time later.
“Well…”
Never in their wildest dreams had they ever imagined such bizarre and unbelievable stories!
Long Yangjun smiled bitterly. “Colonel Luo, brothers of the federal army, please think about it carefully. If we were really spies of the Imperium trying to deceive you, we wouldn’t make up such a messy, absurd story, would we? Any identity that we fabricated would be more convincing than such stories!
“It’s a pity that this is exactly the truth, and the truth is often disordered!
“Right. If you still don’t believe me—”
Long Yangjun put her hands in a certain gesture and retrieved countless pills, blades, Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, and even some of her personal belongings, such as the stamp of Ghost Character, which all came from the Ancient Sages Sector, from her Cosmos Rings.
“Take a close look at them. None of the items are in the style of the Star Glory Federation. The spies of the Imperium of True Human Beings do not need to carry so many things just to sell a lie, right?”
Pondering for a moment, Luo Qisheng summoned a few technical soldiers, medics, and refiners that had come with the troop and asked them to examine the objects that Long Yangjun had presented. They were unable to tell what the objects were, but it was true that they had never been found in the federation before, and they were not the Imperium’s style. The soldiers all looked at each other in bewilderment, lost for words.
Right then, a soft voice was calling from the darkness below them. “Help me… Help me…”
It was Liu Wenshan, the unfortunate guy who had been sent to this place by his family after he was mentally deranged and ended up as a vegetative patient.
Li Yao was overjoyed!
At first, he had thought that Liu Wenshan’s broken soul had already been demolished by Lei Yuqin’ final outburst. After all, the mental attacks were so intense that even he and Long Yangjun, two Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, had almost failed to resist it.
However, from what he had seen, the mental attacks must have been directed at Li Yao and Long Yangjun. Lei Yuqin did not have time to bother about such an insignificant person like Liu Wenshan. The guy was merely affected by the ripples of the storm and luckily survived the doom. However, his color was even more lackluster than before, and his voice was feebler. He had rested in the darkness for a long time before he finally revealed himself again.
Luo Qisheng was greatly surprised. The troop that he commanded had all kinds of units. Several medics who were good at communicating with ghosts and nurturing broken souls immediately dived down to rescue him.
The new crystal processor that Liu Wenshan was hiding in was rather mysterious. The few medics were unable to move Liu Wenshan’s soul out of it, but it was possible for them to input some gentle spiritual energy to help him consolidate his soul.
Luo Qisheng bulged his eyes and demanded, “Who’s this guy?”
“He is one of the crystal processor experts locked in the Spiriters’ Realm by Professor Mo Xuan and Lei Yuqin!” Long Yangjun said in a hurry. “His name is Liu Wenshan, and he used to be quite famous in the field of crystal processor automation. He cooperated with the military before, too. Do any of you know him?”
Before Liu Wenshan fell into the coma, he had been working for the military. It was apparently not the first time that he had cooperated with them. Therefore, he had quite a lot of acquaintances within the military.
Although nobody in Luo Qisheng’s troop knew Liu Wenshan, some of them had heard his name before and knew of his accident that caused him to be mentally deranged and sent to Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital as a vegetative patient.
A few soldiers who were good at cyberspace warfare went forward to question him. He answered all the inquiries elaborately and logically. There was not the slightest loophole.
It was not until this moment that Luo Qisheng and the other officers completely believed what Li Yao and Long Yangjun had said. Their faces immediately turned terribly awful.
“According to you, the Black Wind Fleet may arrive at a certain strategic location in the federation anytime, but it is absolutely within the control of Professor Mo Xuan or the extraterrestrial devils. It is also quite possible that Professor Mo Xuan has hijacked the entire Spiritual Nexus of Hundred Flowers City and controlled all the information being sent out through the network?”
Sweats the size of beans were running out of Luo Qisheng’s forehead quickly.
“Yes. We don’t have much time left,” Li Yao replied solemnly.
At this point, there were two hours before the Black Wind Fleet arrived in the Heaven’s Origin Sector.
Jin Xinyue and the other forces who were in the Heaven’s Origin Sector were utterly unaware of the extraterrestrial devils and had already activated their plan.