Chapter 816: Portent of the Imperium
Li Yao had woken up!
The news spread to every corner of the Flying Star Sector. The entire world was ignited. Everybody was overjoyed.
Apart from reversing the situation purely on his own and rescuing the Flying Star Sector at the most perilous moment, the fact that he had slain Xiao Xuance, who was known to be the best expert of the Flying Star Sector, alone was enough to make Li Yao a superstar admired by countless people!
Right now, the gloom of war had not dispersed yet, and the Imperium of True Human Beings might be coming back at any time. The waking of a super expert was a major boost for the morale of the Flying Star Sector.
The financial markets were the first to respond. For a moment, all the stock prices were rising.
The news industry was the second the respond. The hospital that Li Yao was in was quickly surrounded by hundreds of reporters.
"The hero who saved the Flying Star Sector has finally woken up!"
"The Glorious Sunlight Group under his name has become a super organization on par with the six sects of Heavenly Saints City and the Star Fighters' Alliance!"
"It is estimated that the Glorious Sunlight Group will be the most important bridge in the communication between the Heaven's Origin Sector and the Flying Star Sector. Its capability will only rise higher!"
"Li Yao, as the biggest shareholder of the conglomerate, might not be the strongest Cultivator in the Flying Star Sector, but he is definitely the wealthiest one!"
To pacify the people and to boost the morale, Li Yao accepted the interview of two influential media groups even though he was in a hurry. Then, he left for Spider Den on a crystal warship.
...
One day later, in the sky of Capital Nest on Spider Den, the cabin door of a crystal warship was slowly opened, revealing three blinking shuttles, which flew to the center of the city in a triangle formation.
Looking down at Spider Den, which had been reborn, Li Yao had complicated feelings.
The abandoned resource plant had been revived after it returned to the embrace of the Cultivators and ordinary people.
On the horizon, countless giant ivory pillars stood tall. They pierced into the clouds and formed ivory umbrellas in the sky, with mysterious mist spreading on the edge.
They also looked like enormous mushrooms that were spurting spores to various directions.
They were the super-large atmosphere-stabilizing rune arrays.
Through the rune arrays, a steady man-made atmosphere would be created. Then, the environment of the planet would be gradually reformed. In the end, Spider Den would be suitable for living again and could potentially accommodate billions of people.
The air on the ground had not been cleaned yet and was still corrupted by venomous gas. The workers were all wearing engineering crystal suits, working hard to transform the planet bit by bit.
Wu Mayan told Li Yao that, after Spider Den was taken back, the temporary committee had ruled that half of the resources on Spider Den would be used to compensate the families of all the victims of the space pirates and the Immortal Cultivators over the years.
As long as they had evidence, they would be granted with the exploitation right of certain resources on Spider Den.
In such a case, building Spider Den meant building their own home. All the forces were devoted to the transformation of Spider Den. Many people even moved their entire family to Spider Den and considered it a new beginning.
"Right now, Spider Den and Iron Plateau are both going through large-scale modifications. Although the two planets are both congenitally deficient and much less habitable than the planet of the Heaven's Origin Sector, they are still much better than the narrow starships and the unstable world fragments," Wu Mayan said confidently.
"The two habitable planets will be two enormous war bases. In less than a hundred years, the population of the Flying Star Sector will definitely be multiplied. When the population is larger, the number of Cultivators will grow, too. Our war potential will significantly increase!
"If the Imperium of True Human Beings really dares to come, they will pay a good price!"
Li Yao smiled. After six years, Wu Mayan had indeed grown a lot. He was no longer the boy he used to be!
The shuttle sped up to the depths of Capital Nest
...
Three hours later, they reached the Star Prier's House in the underground fortress.
The ancient observatory was glowing with glamorous colors after several months of serious maintenance.
Flying Star University and Heavenly Saints Institute had both established offices there. The best astronomers and astrologists of the Flying Star Sector had gathered in this place, too.
The five star spirits considered the Star Prier's House their new base, too.
The reason was simple. The hundreds of super crystal processors passed on from the Star Ocean Imperium were invaluable meals for the star spirits, who feasted upon computational ability. What else would they want to do before all the super crystal processors were cracked?
"Li Yao!"
Seeing Li Yao, Professor Mo Xuan gave him a bearhug in the artificial body.
"Li Yao!"
Luo Xingzi and Si Koulie were quite excited, too.
Although they were from two different Sectors, they had the same title—Cultivators. In the battle of Heavenly Saints City, they had been through life and death together. In the battles to come, they would also fight side by side!
Other than Luo Xingzi, Si Koulie, Mo Xuan, and a few leaders of the six sects of Heavenly Saints City, there was an unexpected person who made Li Yao overjoyed.
"Chief Xiong!"
Xiong Wuji, the previous best warrior of the six tribes of Iron Plateau, greeted him.
"Good lad, you've finally woken up!"
Xiong Wuji patted Li Yao's shoulder with a smile and said, "Ever since you passed the test of the Truth Cabinet, I'd been wondering how you did it. I didn't know that the answer was so simple. You are of course not a space resident. You are a resident of the Heaven's Origin Sector. Hahahaha!"
Li Yao blushed, somewhat embarrassed.
It was not decent of him to have kept it a secret for such a long time, but after all those years, and with the great enemy named the Imperium of True Human Beings drawing near, the little misunderstand years ago were not worth mentioning.
"It appears that you have indeed made important discoveries!"
Li Yao was so anxious that he quickly asked for the progress after the small talk.
Xiong Wuji had suffered heavy wounds in the battle against Yan Xibei and had not recovered much in the past five years. However, he enjoyed unparalleled prestige in the six tribes of Iron Plateau, and he was the soul of Iron Plateau.
Now that he had arrived, it was evident that the meeting was of paramount importance.
Li Yao thought of something and asked excitedly, "Have you located the precise coordinates of the Heaven's Origin Sector? Are we able to return to the Heaven's Origin Sector now?"
The room was caught in a weird vibe after his words. Everybody looked at each other in silence.
Professor Mo Xuan patted his shoulder and explained, "Li Yao, don't be hasty. We have indeed located the coordinates of the Heaven's Origin Sector, but... it is rather complicated."
"Complicated?"
Li Yao was dazed. He could tell that Professor Mo Xuan was not delighted but worried about the situation.
Professor Mo Xuan coughed and said, "It's a long story. Let me explain it to you slowly. First thing's first. Here are the discoveries we made in the past half year."
Professor Mo Xuan waved his hands. The room was gradually dimmed, but the arced dome was shining and packed with dense stars again.
"Firstly, we evaluated the Imperium of True Human Beings by the information left by the star child and the observation of the prosperous areas of the Star Ocean Imperium through the Star Prier's House.
"The Imperium of True Human Beings does exist, and its comprehensive ability is very high!
"Although it is not strong enough to conquer every human Sector as the star child claimed, the imperium has seized control of the vast area around the capital space zone of the Star Ocean Imperium.
"Also, judging from the information left by the star child, the imperium has experts at least in the Divinity Transformation Stage!
"That was the information a hundred and twenty years ago when the star child left for the mission.
"There is no telling how much progress the Imperium of True Human Beings has made after such a long time."
The star map in the dome was enlarged, highlighting an area where the stars were particularly dense. It looked like a nest of billions of fireflies.
Li Yao slightly frowned, but he was not very surprised.
The formidability of the Imperium of True Human Beings was within his expectations. There was no need to panic.
In the war against the Imperium of True Human Beings, they had the most marvelous weapon in the world, which was distance.
Both the Heaven's Origin Sector and the Flying Star Sector were millions of lightyears away from the prosperous area of the Star Ocean Imperium. They were even further from the Empyrean Terminus Sector and the planet of Empyreal Terminus.
Long expeditions were the least sensible choices in the military. It was true that the Imperium of True Human Beings was strong, but how many soldiers the imperium could project to millions of lightyears away was a whole different matter.
Throughout history, many empires that dominated the world for the time had sent magnificent armies to attack the enemies that seemed to be insignificant, only to be defeated after the enemies stalled them with the advantages in terrain for years. Not only were the expedition armies destroyed, the empires also collapsed and fell into the abyss of destruction.
"Compared with the Imperium of True Human Beings," Professor Mo Xuan said, "we do not have many advantages, but the 'Star Prier's House' is our greatest advantage!
"Normal means of observation cannot be faster than light. When we see a world that is millions of lightyears away, we are in fact seeing the scenes in the world millions of years ago.
"But the observation magical equipment in the Star Prier's House can observe the spiritual waves in the fourth dimension through the basic particles below the ground and then infer the real-time status of a certain world even though the world is millions of lightyears away!
"It was through the Star Prier's House that we discovered the expedition fleet of the imperium."
Li Yao raised his eyebrow. "The Imperium of True Human Beings has sent out an expedition fleet?"
"Strictly speaking, we suddenly found very unusual spiritual waves in the prosperous areas of the Star Ocean Imperium that were jumping to the edge of the cosmos through incessant short-distance space jumps," Professor Mo Xuan said. "If the spiritual waves maintained their current trajectory, the Flying Star Sector was right ahead of them!
"Therefore, we concluded that they were the expedition fleet of the Imperium of True Human Beings.
"It was first detected two months ago. The timing is reasonable, too.
"The star child sent most of our coordinates to the Imperium of True Human Beings through the space gate, and the Immortal Cultivators of the imperium established a fleet in ten months and started an expedition!
"According to numerous calculations and estimations, judging from the current speed, the fleet will arrive in the Flying Star Sector in two hundred years.
"However, there are too many unpredictable factors in the universe. It will not be surprising if the fleet comes a hundred years early or late."
Li Yao scratched his chin and mumbled, "So, in a hundred to three hundred years, the army of the Imperium of True Human Beings will be upon us?
"But there is something that I don't understand. Why are they so slow? Can't they appear right in the Flying Star Sector with a super long-distance space jump? Won't they catch us off guard if so?"