Chapter 2058 Beginning of the Epic Quest!
On the surface, the Immortal Cultivators did not seem to be going easy on him at all. Instead, the battle was rather fierce.
Few resistance warriors were hanging on in the forsaken mine at this moment, but Wei Longtao was definitely the most ruthless and dazzling one of them. He attracted almost half of the Immortal Cultivators’ firepower. All kinds of bullets and colorful mystic rays were coming at him, triggering the most glamorous sound and visual effects around him. His Ares Extension that looked like a bronze chimpanzee were riddled with holes and bordering on collapse. The pieces and components erupted, flying into the air crazily.
Wei Longtao seemed determined to die together with his enemy, too. Without caring about his seemingly devastating wounds at all, he threw himself into the Immortal Cultivators like a cannonball time and time again, and he did take down a few opponents.
When the resistance warriors who fell back to the tunnels under his cover looked back, they happened to see him mired in the ocean of Immortal Cultivators but still fighting relentlessly without backing off at all. They could not help but feel moved, their nostrils and chests burning.
“Commander!” the resistance warriors roared desperately.
“Leave me. Just go!” Wei Longtao’s voice turned extremely hoarse, as if his throat had been stuffed with frozen blood. “I will break out of the siege. I promise!”
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A number of fireballs enshrouded Wei Longtao and blocked his voice. The last image that he left to all the resistance warriors was him waving his axes in the flames on a killing spree like a god incarnate!
However…
Such sound and visual effects and such a gory battle could only deceive the common Cultivators but not the senses of a Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivator.
Li Yao focused his attention on analyzing the endless data that he had collected, building new models deep inside his soul until the whole battlefield was reconstructed virtually.
Firstly, he analyzed the spiritual puppets on the Immortal Cultivators’ side in terms of speed, ballistic trajectories and firepower, thereby reaching a value of standard battle performance for the spiritual puppets.
Then, based on the squad tactics of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers in the Star Glory Federation, he estimated the comprehensive combat ability when the hundred spiritual puppets were teamed up.
In the end, he compared the result of his deduction to the performance of the Immortal Cultivators when they were besieging Wei Longtao. He immediately noticed that something was wrong.
Assuming that the value of the combat ability of the battle puppets is one hundred when they are dealing with the regular resistance warriors, it has dropped to eighty-two when they are fighting Wei Longtao.
To put it more simply, they are slower, more sluggish, and weaker in firepower. Even the accuracy of their shooting has plummeted by at least thirty percent.
In the meantime, they are wasting more spiritual energy on sound and visual effects that are utterly unnecessary. The shocking mystic rays, electric arcs, and fireballs they trigger indeed look cool, but it’s not like they’re in the middle of a play.
Even with the squads of Grand Illusionary Soldiers in the Star Glory Federation, I could’ve heavily wounded or even killed Wei Longtao in the virtual battlefield. It is even possible to capture him alive.
The Grand Illusionary Soldiers of the Star Glory Federation originated from the star child who came from the Imperium of True Human Beings. In other words, in terms of the production and organization of spiritual puppets, the Imperium can’t be any worse than the federation, even though it might not be too advanced.
There’s no reason the Imperium can’t achieve what the federation can.
Same goes for the living Immortal Cultivators. The soldiers of the regular army who have an eye carved on their crystal suits are ruthless, merciless, and pitiless when they deal with the common resistance warriors, but they become clumsy and hesitant when their opponent is Wei Longtao.
Also, in order to cover their clumsiness, they are also triggering dazzling airwaves, fireballs, spiritual flames, and blasts, interfering with the eyesight and the senses of the witnesses as much as possible.
Not just the common resistance warriors, even the experts in the Core Formation Stage or even the Nascent Soul Stage couldn’t have discovered it at all if they were not suspicious of it beforehand.
Only those ‘live streamers’ are charging forward like idiots. Naturally, they are no match for Wei Longtao, and they only make the play vivid and lifelike!
Li Yao’s soul grew colder and colder. It was almost frozen into a block of ice.
After analyzing everything, he and the mental devil were both absolutely certain that the Immortal Cultivators were going easy on Wei Longtao.
Wei Longtao’s crystal suit seemed broken, filled with the traces of bullets and tears. He was heavily wounded, too, with blood leaking out of the gaps of his crystal suit. He was like a bloodstained iron statue.
However, when Li Yao analyzed his every wound, he discovered that the devastating explosions did not hurt him very much.
Or rather, because of the interference on the ballistic trajectories from some insignificant attacks, Wei Longtao was even able to evade a lot of fatal attacks.
It was not because Wei Longtao could predict the enemy’s attacks and present the glamorous performance in the storm of bullets unhurriedly but the very contrary. The Immortal Cultivators’ attacks were guiding Wei Longtao to perform the dazzling, complicated dodging movements, as if he were a marionette.
Due to Wei Longtao’s ‘valiant fighting’, most of the resistance warriors had fallen back safely.
A hundred balls of lightning suddenly burst out in midair, illuminating the underground world as if it were day, followed by thunderous explosions.
Wei Longtao is about to break out of the siege!
Li Yao’s soul was naturally not affected by the sound and visual effects but kept locking onto Wei Longtao.
Or rather, he is going to ‘act’ to break the siege!
As he expected, boosted by the might of the lightning, Wei Longtao’s flames of spiritual energy were ten times more overwhelming than before. His ravaged Ares Extension turned into pieces that were exploding nonstop when he threw them in all directions.
The next moment, he turned into a streak of green brilliance and dashed to the depths of the forsaken mine not far away from Li Yao.
Quite a few Immortal Cultivators were following him closely. They seemed unstoppable and determined to catch the enemy, but with the senses of the Divinity Transformation Stage, Li Yao could vaguely tell that they did not really mean to accomplish that.
The few live streamers and trial-takers among them were the only ones who were roaring crazily and really wanted Wei Longtao dead.
However, under the intentional or unintentional blockage and interference of the regular army, their fatal attacks all missed the target and only caused tremendous scorching fireballs around Wei Longtao, making the scene even more soul-stirring than before.
Shua!
One of the live streamers or trial-takers was extremely fast and approached Wei Longtao before anybody else did.
But Wei Longtao simply turned around and slashed him in half from the waist. His internal organs had been burnt into ash by the heated axes before they were spurted out.
The gruesome scene made all the Immortal Cultivators dazed for a moment, or at the very least, the regular army appeared to be dazed.
The regular army became sluggish and panicked, and they ‘happened’ to stand before the trial-takers and live streamers, delaying them for half a second.
Wei Longtao took the opportunity to accelerate and sprint into an inconspicuous tunnel at the bottom level of the forsaken mine. Then, explosions echoed from the tunnel, and it completely collapsed!
The Immortal Cultivators rushed over, only to see that flames were soaring from the collapsed tunnel. They gnashed their teeth and whined in fury, but it never occurred to them than an enemy ten thousand times more dangerous than Wei Longtao was lurking right next to them.
The brief but ghastly battle in the underground world was finally over.
The bodies of the resistance warriors and the burning turrets were melted into burning garbage, rolling down from the top and crashing at the bottom of the mine, turning the place into an anonymous graveyard.
The Immortal Cultivators had controlled the entire forsaken mine. They seemed to be rebuilding the place into a temporary command center. All kinds of engineering facilities and materials were shipped, and many renovation projects were already underway up above.
As for the earthly dragons that had fled into the depths of the underground world, they did not seem to be chasing after them. Or rather, there was even no sign that they were preparing to chase after the enemy.
It was almost like… they were already certain where they could wait for the resistance warriors to step into the trap on their own. They were not in a hurry to chase after the enemy at all.
Li Yao locked onto the few trial-takers and live streamers who had tried hard to kill and capture Wei Longtao just now.
He vaguely had a feeling that he could gather critical information from those guys.
As he expected, the young and arrogant Immortal Cultivators thought that all the resistance warriors in the forsaken mine had been hunted. They took off their helmets and breathed in the air that was filled with the stink of blood while they looked at the messy battlefield, not without regret.
“Is this the legendary epic quest?” One of the Immortal Cultivators who was handsome and looked rather young licked his bloodstained lips and smiled. “It does not seem to be much an improvement compared to the platinum quest in Liberty City. This is just another Whac-A-Mole game.”
“Why are you so impatient?” A female Immortal Cultivator, who had a blood mole at the center of her forehead, eyed him and said, “The first level is just an appetizer. Isn’t there still the Battle of the Temple later? Even that is not the final level. I’m told that a splendid and thrilling battle in space has been arranged at the end. That will be the real great meal. There will be a time that you will enjoy enough killing!”
“It makes sense.” The first Immortal Cultivator rubbed his hands. “Come to think of it, you can kill as many people of the Covenant Alliance who are emotionless and as cold as wood as possible today, but the naïve and idiotic creatures like Cultivators are harder to come by than three-legged toads. They are definitely state-level endangered animals.
“Killing endangered animals feels different from butchering chicken and dogs. Did you see their looks before they were killed? They could cry, burst into fury, or roar out gallant words. Hahaha. How soul-stirring and poignant. Killing them is much more thrilling than killing the people of the Covenant Alliance who are like dead fish. In short, this feels much better!”
“Indeed.” When she thought of the picture just now, the frost on the female Immortal Cultivator’s face melted. She could not help but chuckle. “Long live the Cultivators? Tsk, tsk, tsk. It’s been years since I last heard such an outdated and ridiculous line. My hands were shaking so hard that I could barely aim just now because of those bumpkins. I almost laughed aloud.”
“Hey!” Another fat Immortal Cultivator joined him in delight. “There’s a rather interesting branch quest, which is to catch the wandering earthly dragons. Did any of you not have enough fun just now and want to have more?”
“Great. Let’s go together. The Battle of the Temple will not start for a few days. We have nothing to do anyway.”
The many Immortal Cultivators talked and laughed and flew skyward, leaving Li Yao below their feet alone in the darkness.