Chapter 420: New Captain, Li Yao of the Heaven's Origin
Li Yao focused his full attention while he recalled the simulations inside Neltharion. He walked to the dashboard and groped below it for a panel carved with the runes. After transmitting a telepathic thought into it, Li Yao found the panel gliding open, revealing a round hollow.
Then, Li Yao inserted the red crystal-like cylinder into it.
Beep. Beep beep!
Weak noises of spiritual energy flowing around could be heard inside the dashboard. Although the lights were still off, Li Yao still sensed that a mysterious power was gradually waking up inside the mainframe crystal processor.
His fingertip suddenly ached. The end of the cylinder had released a scarlet mystic ray and pierced his fingertip, through which it absorbed a drop of his blood.
In the meantime, he felt that his brain was itching, as if a feather was sweeping past his every brain cell gently.
He knew that the mainframe crystal processor of Sparkle was identifying him and making sure that he was a human being.
A moment later, crimson mystic rays were shot out from the 108 holes on the dashboard. They formed scattered sparks in the midair. Then the sparks were connected together, constituting a large light beam that seemed to be both right in front of him and embedded on his retina and brain.
It was the operation menu of Sparkle, manifested in the way of Half-step Great Illusionary Land.
Li Yao had seen it countless times in the training sessions with Neltharion. He did not find it strange at all.
Shua!
The intimidating Red Dragon Swallowing the Sun appeared again, which immediately turned into thousands of lasers each representing an information stream and flooded into Li Yao's brain.
"Human being identified. Cultivator identified.
"Granting full permissions of Sparkle. Progress: 24%... 53%... 87%..."
"According to 'Wartime Regulations No. 17 of the Star Ocean Imperium', the military is entitled to enlist all human beings, especially Cultivators, to defend our civilization in emergencies. As per the rule, the ownership of Sparkle, 'Lone Star' level multipurpose exploration ship No. 24434552, is now temporarily transferred to you. You will be the acting captain of Sparkle, and you shall transfer the ownership of the warship to the regular army after the crisis is resolved!
"Please enter your identification information and your spiritual fingerprint!"
Li Yao hurriedly typed in his identification information with his telepathic thoughts, including several videos that recorded his battles against the demons, in order to prove his stance and strength.
However, Li Yao hesitated for a while about the field of 'Sect'.
In the Star Ocean Imperium, all the Cultivators belonged to the twenty Guilds of Provenance. There were few unaffiliated Cultivators.
But Li Yao did not belong to any sect at this moment. The Grand Desolate Institute was not a sect in a traditional sense. He was sort of an unaffiliated Cultivator.
Pondering for a moment, Li Yao finally made up his mind and inputted the sect name as:
"Heaven's Origin, Li Yao!"
The redness surged. Streams of enormous information turned into thousands of swirls with a higher and higher speed.
"Identification information saved. Cell feature saved. Spiritual fingerprint locked."
"Li Yao of the Heaven's Origin, you are now the new captain of Sparkle. Please strive forward!"
Li Yao was biting his teeth so hard that they were squeaking. His blood was seething in exultation. He almost lost control and danced in the darkness.
Captain!
This was not a training model like Neltharion but an authentic warship from the Star Ocean Imperium and one of the greatest inventions in the history of mankind!
Li Yao wasn't bothered by the fact that he was merely the acting captain of the warship. According to the mainframe crystal processor, he did not have to hand out the ownership of the warship until he met a regular troop of the Star Ocean Imperium.
But the Star Ocean Imperium had been demolished for thousands of years. Where could he possibly run into a regular troop from it?
Therefore, this warship would be his for all eternity!
As a crazy fan of magical equipment, Li Yao felt that his entire body seemed to be melding with Sparkle into one!
Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua!
The streams of information were still crowding into his brain, including the basic introductions to Sparkle.
For the warships of the Star Ocean Imperium, Sparkle was one of the smallest. But it played a very important role.
It was an instance of 'Lone Star' level multipurpose exploration warship, a model co-produced by 'Star Wolf Sect' and 'High Peak Pavilion', two of the Guilds of Provenance, with consideration of the usages of orbital assault warships, extreme exploration warships and even the science study starships.
It was designed with the exploration of unfamiliar constellations in mind. When necessary, it could also be deployed for missions behind enemy lines. Its performances in scouting, guerilla warfare, and bandit-clearing were quite satisfactory, too.
It boasted amazing self-recovery ability, survival-in-isolation ability, and research analysis ability, with a very low demand on the captain as well the crew. It could travel by itself in a foreign constellation for a long time while supplying itself with the spiritual energy and materials from other planets. Therefore, it was known as a 'Lone Star' level warship.
In short, this was a model born for adventures.
"I'm really a lucky dog!" Li Yao mumbled to himself. Sparkle was perhaps the best warship for him possible.
If it were a super warship tens of thousands of meters long, naturally, it would boast much more advanced technology and fierce firepower. But the difficult of steering would definitely soar, too. Chances were that it would require Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators or even Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators as captains to make it work normally, not to mention a large dock as a base to ensure the logistics and countless well-training Cultivators as back-up crew.
What good could such a warship do to him even if he had one?
But Sparkle was different. As a multipurpose exploration warship designed for adventures in foreign planets, it had taken into consideration the harshest, the most unfavorable environments. Not only was it ultra-solid and able to repair itself, the difficulty of steering was very low, too.
Li Yao was just a Cultivator at the Building Foundation Stage. But he was already able to get it moving after training with Neltharion for a year and a half!
More importantly, for the exploration of unknown areas, Sparkle had been installed with a space jump system made up by 64 magical equipment units that far exceeded its level.
It was almost like a super teleportation array had been set up inside the warship.
With enough spiritual energy, it could shatter the void and cruise the sea of stars at any time!
"Does that mean I can jump to the center of the universe and explore other worlds with the help of Sparkle?"
Li Yao's interest was greatly aroused.
The Heaven's Origin Sector was at the periphery of the sea of stars. It was a world that was relatively bleak and barren. The strongest Cultivators were merely at the Nascent Soul Stage. The Cultivation civilization here was still underdeveloped.
In the center of the cosmos, billions of stars were burning furiously, constituting a surging nebula of stars in which countless worlds with abundant spiritual energy and resources existed.
These worlds were the inland and the most prosperous parts of the Star Ocean Imperium and the Demon Beast Empire.
Although many worlds had been bulldozed by protracted warfare over thousands of years, the remaining worlds must have much more advanced Cultivation civilizations than the Heaven's Origin Sector had right now, with much more powerful magical equipment and Cultivation arts...
If he could reach those worlds and retrieve several treasures, the scumbags of the Blood Demon Sector would certainly be cleared in no time after he returned to the Heaven's Origin Sector.
Li Yao was in delirium. He envisioned coming back from the center of the cosmos together with an invincible interstellar fleet, leading countless top experts in supreme crystal suits, and crushing the Blood Demon Sector brutally.
Shaking his head, Li Yao bit the tip of his tongue and kicked away the alluring idea.
The picture was immaculate, if not imaginary.
Li Yao did not have a star map, or a stargazer on board, which meant he couldn't locate any star beacons. Not to mention that the space jump system had been completely wrecked. Where could he possibly jump to?
The universe was a large place, 99.99% of which was endless void and darkness.
Of thousands of the constellations that had been discovered, few had enough spiritual energy and materials that were mandatory for the survival of life and the training of Cultivators.
Most of the space in the universe was occupied by dangerous radiation, stardust storms, and spiritual energy turbulences. The safe routes were limited.
Also, many other worlds were still reigned by demons, demonic Cultivators, and other species in the sea of stars.
A reckless space jump without a star map was like voyaging through a surging, perilous ocean on a sampan without a compass or experienced sailors.
Those who tried to find an island where there was food and water without a compass on a boundless ocean were not adventurous but suicidal!
"It appears that I'll have to figure out a way to drag it back to the Heaven's Origin Sector."
"Although Sparkle is not a planetary weapon, the magical equipment and the technology that it carries are very powerful, too. If they can be fully analyzed, our trip to Boneyard won't have been a waste of time.
Li Yao sighed and held back the desire to march into the depths of the sea of stars.
"First of all, I need to overcome the crisis at hand.
"Let me examine the status of Sparkle first!"
One of Li Yao's telepathic thoughts was extended to the mainframe crystal processor, which analyzed and enhanced it to every corner of Sparkle, testing all the units available.
It was a very mysterious feeling, similar to the feeling when he put on a crystal suit for the first time.
He was added with countless extra organs, and he seemed to have become Sparkle itself. He was caught in a special 'inward-looking' state. Endless information was pouring down.
"The situation is bad.
"The spiritual energy leaking through the rock stratum is too weak, resulting to the slow repair progress of the mustard-level maintainers. The warship hasn't been fully fixed although thousands of years have passed.
"The drill of mystic rays is mostly fixed up; the power rune arrays are restored by 29%; the space jump system, 55%, only enough for one or two jumps; as for the weapon system, only a secondary cannon is ready to use."
The ecstasy of owning a warship was gone. Li Yao frowned.
The damage that Sparkle had suffered was beyond his expectations. After self-recovering for thousands of years, it was still barely functional with obvious deficiencies.
"Spiritual energy. Spiritual energy. All is because of lack of spiritual energy.
"Both the drill of mystic rays and Sparkle itself require a huge amount of spiritual energy even if they are to be triggered at the minimum level.
"Without spiritual energy, we will still be trapped in this place despite the marvelous vehicle!"