Chapter 705: Death of Sand Scorpion
One month passed after the battle in the tenth space ring.
Heavenly Saints City was the center of the world of Cultivators after all. When large batches of Cultivators crowded into the tenth space ring and slaughtered the devils together with the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, the only thing awaiting the extraterrestrial devils was doom.
One altar was destroyed after another, and the devils vanished into black smoke following each other.
However, since the environment of the tenth space ring was too complicated and too many citizens had been possessed by the devils, it took three days and three nights to finish off the remaining devils that were hiding among the broken walls and sewer systems, and it took another ten days before the last devil was finally killed.
During that time, most Immortal Cultivators retreated from the tenth space ring successfully and ran to space with the help of space pirates, before vanishing into thin air through space jumps.
The aftershock of the arrival of the extraterrestrial devils still echoed in the dozens of space zones of the Flying Star Sector one month later.
During the unprecedented catastrophe, not only had the ordinary citizens living in the tenth space ring suffered heavy casualties, the Cultivators who went to reinforce them had also witnessed a huge loss. Almost a hundred experts in the Core Formation Stage were injured or even killed. As for those below the Core Formation Stage, there were too many to count.
Many Cultivators had gone missing during the chaos. It was very likely that they self-detonated and died together with their enemy.
Sand Scorpion, the best warrior of the six tribes of Iron Plateau, was one of them.
After more than half month of extensive searches, there was still no trace of him.
Cultivation was a dangerous profession. Every Cultivator had a habit of buying a huge amount of insurance and leaving a will.
The will not only applied to the cases where the Cultivators died, but also took effect when the Cultivators went missing, became mentally deranged, or secluded themselves for a long time.
When the Cultivators returned, recovered from their mental derangement, or broke their seclusion, the testament would expire immediately.
It was based on the special circumstances of Cultivators. After all, even the strongest expert was not certain that they would be perfectly safe during their daily training and that they could maintain their rationality forever.
Li Yao had managed to survive several attempted assassinations by the Temple of Immortals while he was in Flying Star University. One of the assassinations had even been conducted by an expert in the Core Formation Stage.
Therefore, he had made detailed arrangements to make sure that the Glorious Sunlight Group would not be affected when something happened to him.
In the central area of Heavenly Saints City, in the corridor outside the main meeting room, Xie Anan was pacing back and forth anxiously until she saw a grave young man. She hurried to run to him, almost tripping herself over.
"What about it? They said that they'd found traces of master. Is it true?"
Wu Mayan was much more solemn than a month ago and much more mature for his age.
He bit his lips hard, and his eyes were slightly red. He breathed heavily for a moment and nodded, but then he shook it after thinking for a moment.
Xie Anan bulged her eyes. "What happened? Say something?"
"The Rescue Committee found master's crystal suit." Wu Mayan took a long breath before he continued. "It was not the Gold Wolf Battlesuit but the debris of a 'Fire Tyrant Battlesuit', a crystal suit that is ten times more advanced than the Gold Wolf Battlesuit!"
Xie Anan almost jumped to her feet when she heard the first half of the sentence, but she felt her head go dizzy when she heard the latter half. "Debris? How bad is the debris?"
"Very bad." Wu Mayan gnashed his teeth. "More exactly, it is not debris but some tiny pieces."
Xie Anan stumbled a few steps back. Her face lost all color, and she asked, her voice shivering, "How did they know that it was master's crystal suit?"
Wu Mayan replied gravely, "Master Xue Yuanxin and Master Huangpu Bo ran detailed analysis on the scraps of the crystal suit and found traces of a special manual forging method from them. Such a method was of master's own invention. He was the only one in the entire Flying Star Sector who knew it. You should be clearer about that than I am."
Xie Anan's face was even paler. She mumbled, "But—but they didn't find master's body, did they?"
"Of course, there was no body." Wu Mayan smiled bitterly. "Experts of the Rescue Committee found master's Gold Wolf Battlesuit ten kilometers away from where the scraps were found. They came to a conclusion after preliminary investigation and analysis.
"The Gold Wolf Battlesuit that master showed in front of everyone was not his real trump card. His real trump card was the Fire Tyrant Battlesuit, which was ten times stronger!
"The Gold Wolf Battlesuit was modified by master and Master Xue Yuanxin together. But master also hid a Fire Tyrant Battlesuit in secret and strengthened its key parts with his special technique. Maybe he even lowered the difficulty of operation. Nobody knew anything about it!
"It was not a spur-of-the-moment thing that master went to the central area of the tenth space ring. He made thorough plans, hoping to catch a big fish with himself as the bait and slay the fish with the 'Fire Tyrant Battlesuit'!
"But as it turned out...
"He indeed caught a big fish, but the fish was so big that it was essentially a whale!"
"What!" Xie Anan exclaimed.
Wu Mayan continued he story. "Master and the big fish fought hard for a while and found that he was no match for the enemy. It was also possible that he was heavily wounded by the big fish and about to be killed.
"Having no other options, master had to activate the self-detonation system of the 'Fire Tyrant Battlesuit' and turned the super-compressed crystal reactor into a giant bomb, dying together with the enemy!"
Xie Anan was about to cry out. As a refiner, she knew the terrible outcome when the crystal reactor of such a high-level crystal suit like the 'Fire Tyrant Battlesuit' was detonated better than anybody else.
Not the slightest flesh and blood would be left. Everything would be obliterated!
Biting her lips hard, Xie Anan asked, "How was it possible? Who could have pushed master to that far?"
"According to the traces on the spot and the pictures captured by the crystal cameras," Wu Mayan explained solemnly, "the one who forced master to reveal all his trump cards and even detonate himself was most likely 'Hellsword' Zhuang Ziyou, a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator!"
Xie Anan was immediately dumbfounded!
Admiration beamed out of Wu Mayan's eyes as he remarked, "Master truly deserved to be the best warrior of the six tribes of Iron Plateau. To think that he fought a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator for such a long time! Although we don't know whether or not Hellsword was killed in the end, he must at least have been heavily wounded.
"The Immortal Cultivators' quick retreat had a lot to do with Hellsword's accident, too!
"Master is a great hero. As his true disciples, we must not be looked down upon by other people and dishonor him!
"Regardless of whether master is missing or dead, we must train ourselves hard and disseminate his knowledge!"
Xie Anan nodded her head in a daze. Tears were running on her cheeks.
Wu Mayan sighed and said, "A lot of experts are still running the analysis right now. If master's opponent was really 'Hellsword' Zhuang Ziyou, he will be the greatest hero of the entire Flying Star Sector! A detailed report will be published after the investigation. I believe that all our questions will be answered in the report.
"Now, let's go back to the meeting!"
...
In the hall of the Millennium Meeting, tens of thousands of people were seated in the super large room established by the Half-step Grand Illusionary Land like a deep well.
Other than Cultivators, a lot of ordinary people attended the meeting, too. They were either the representatives from other space zones or the survivors of the tenth space ring.
Right now, a memorial for the deceased during the catastrophe of extraterrestrial devils was being held.
The memorial was the end of a disaster but the beginning of their revenge!
Xiao Xuance, CEO of the Grand Illusionary Group, was floating in the middle of the vague smoke in the center of the Grand Illusionary Land.
He seemed to be a hundred years older than one months ago. His face and skin that was not covered by his ivory robe were covered in wrinkles and aged-marks, as if he could not withstand the loss of his son. With a heartbroken face, he was making a speech.
"...During the disaster, I lost my dear son.
"But my grief is not just for him.
"I was not the only one who lost a son. Thousands of fathers and mothers lost their dear sons and daughters, thousands of wives and husbands lost the one they were supposed to grow old with, and thousands of innocent kids lost their parents, who loved them most and who sheltered them from the wind and storm. Thousands of families will not laugh as much in the future!
"I'm not just grieving. I feel ashamed, too, so ashamed that it is beyond description!
"I am guilty. All Cultivators are guilty!
"We underestimated the Immortal Cultivators, or the demons who call themselves Immortal Cultivators. We did not know that they would be insane and inhuman enough to attract extraterrestrial devils to such a populated metropolis as Heavenly Saints City and cause such a tragedy!
"If we had realized the brutality of the Immortal Cultivators sooner, if we had activated the planetary-level magical equipment projects earlier and entered a war state earlier, and if we had refined the strongest Grand Illusionary Soldiers with real Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures instead of common metals when we initiated the 'Grand Illusionary Soldier Project', the catastrophe might not have happened at all, and even if it did, we would have been able to save more people!
"How I wish I knew a technique that could alter the flow of time, even at the cost of all my techniques and the last bit of my soul power!
"But it is a pity that history cannot be changed, and the deceased cannot be revived. Our regrets are entirely useless. Useless!
"The one thing we can do right now is not regret, not grieve, not devastate, but take revenge!
"Revenge! Revenge! Revenge!
"Nobody shall be unpunished after slaughtering so many ordinary people! The fear and destruction they imposed on ordinary people will be paid back ten times and a hundred times more fiercely tomorrow!
"Let's take action, Cultivators of the Flying Star Sector!"
Xiao Xuance opened his arms. An intimidating aura flowed out of his body and boiled all the spectators' blood, although none of them were watching him in person. He declared, "I beg everyone to join me and summon all the resources available to destroy the Temple of Immortals whatever the cost!"