Chapter 821: New Strength

In the Heaven's Origin Sector...

The city was an expanding corpse.

The rebars of the hollow skyscrapers were like twisted bones, the broken roads and bridges seemed to be damaged limbs, and the shuttles that were on fire resembled rotting organs. Illuminated by the setting sun, everything looked as if it had been soaked in stinky blood. There was nothing but silence in the air, except for the cackles of the crows in midair that had just finished a satisfactory meal.

More than twenty mushrooms were blossoming in the horizon far away. The crazily growing fungi had enshrouded half of the sky with the cold, hard colors.

Li Yao was lurking in a collapsed building. The rebars and cement had completely buried him and blended him into the debris.

In the scope of his sniper, an Immortal Cultivator in the Nascent Soul Stage 1,730 meters away was scolding his subordinates. The battle emblem of the burning planet that belonged to the Imperium of True Human Beings was emitting a bloody brilliance on his uniform. It was perhaps the only thing that could be called 'fresh' in the gray world.

It had been five years since Li Yao returned to the Heaven's Origin Sector.

After the Ice God Project was restarted, the refinement of the 'cosmic slingshot' had gone very well. It had only taken them a year and a half to finish the modification of Ice King. Then, they had returned to the Heaven's Origin Sector through the vehicle.

However, they had been too late.

The Star Glory Federation had suffered heavy losses in the war against the Blood Demon Sector and had been on the brink of destruction. The arrival of the minor apocalypse had been an even huger catastrophe.

Bewildered by the Immortal Cultivators, many people of the Heaven's Origin Sector had given up the path of the Cultivators. They believed that only by embarking on the path of the Immortal Cultivators could they resist the Blood Demon Sector and save their home.

As a result, a space gate that was even more enormous in size than the one in the Flying Star Sector had been established in the orbit of Heaven's Origin very soon.

When the expedition army of the Imperium of True Human Beings appeared in the sky of Heaven's Origin, many people had realized that they had been fooled, but there had been no time for regret.

To this day, under the two threats of the Imperium of True Human Beings and the Blood Demon Sector, the Heaven's Origin Sector had been shattered into smithereens. 90% of the cities had been ruined, and 70% of the population had been consumed in the fire. The survivors were either catching their last breath deep down in the underground fortresses or launching futile resistances among the collapsed buildings like moths charging at the fire, leaving the last mark of the civilization of the Heaven's Origin Sector.

Nine glittering stars were swirling on the scope. As Li Yao's breath turned more and more stable, the nine stars gradually flew to the temples of the Immortal Cultivator in the Nascent Soul Stage.

Five... Six... Seven...

When all the nine stars were focused on the head of the Immortal Cultivator, the 'Seven-star Soul Stealing Nails' would be able to attack the brain and soul of the Immortal Cultivator directly. The man would have to pay a high price, if he was not killed immediately!

However—

Experts in the Nascent Soul Stage had keen senses. When six stars were locked onto his head, the temples of the Immortal Cultivator suddenly collapsed. Then, his body blurred as he lunged directly in Li Yao's direction!

The full-speed sprinting of an expert in the Nascent Soul Stage was definitely faster than a bullet. Two thousand meters was merely a footstep for them!

In the blink of an eye, the Immortal Cultivator dashed over to Li Yao. The intimidating aura around him split the cement on Li Yao's body into power. Even the rebars were screeching as if they were breaking apart!

Li Yao, on the other hand, burst into laughter. The capability of the superlative height of the Core Formation Stage fully burst out, and the unstoppable aura of the Feathered Dragon Saber slashed at the Immortal Cultivator's neck!

It was Li Yao's trap in the first place.

Long-distance shooting was not his specialty. He had intentionally let the opponent discover the gun so that the man would think that it was a sniper who was lurking in this place.

Generally speaking, the melee combat ability of a sniper was always weaker.

The Feathered Dragon Saber was Li Yao's real killing move.

Pu!

A large head soared into the sky, and a flower of blood blossomed. The headless corpse continued rushing forward until it crashed into the debris after a boom!

But Li Yao felt greatly alarmed. There was a voice in his head that told him everything was just a dream. His opponent had not been killed by him. Instead, he was a victim of his opponent's mental attack and had been trapped in illusions!

Shua!

Li Yao tried his best to move leftwards for more than three hundred meters, narrowly avoiding the bombardment of a crystal cannon, but the overwhelming airwaves still blew him away.

While he was in midair, he heard shouting from various directions.

"That is Li Yao!"

"Don't let him get away!"

"Kill him! Kill him!"

Li Yao's heart seemed to have fallen into a bottomless hole. He finally understood that it was a neatly concocted trap meant to capture him!

At least five Immortal Cultivators in the Nascent Soul Stage were lurking nearby. There was even a monster in the Divinity Transformation Stage.

"Leave me alone. Just go away!" Li Yao bellowed at the debris, but a streak of brightness soared up into the sky stubbornly and flew toward him.

It was Ding Lingdang!

Her crystal suit was riddled with holes, and her hair had become frizzy because of the burning fire. Her face was partly red and partly black, but her eyes were as brilliant and resolute as before.

"Let's go together!" Ding Lingdang shouted loudly. She held Li Yao's hands, and the two of them broke out of the siege together.

At the same moment, the debris nearby suddenly exploded, revealing more than ten small crystal warships, which rose to the sky. Their crystal cannons formed an impregnable net and blocked Li Yao and Ding Lingdang's path of escape!

BOOM!

One cannonball rushed toward them. Threatened by the hundreds of streaks of auras near him, Li Yao could not dodge the attack.

But Ding Lingdang pushed him away heavily!

Ding Lingdang took the blow of the crystal cannon in his place. Under the thousands of surging electric arcs, her crystal suit was battered into pieces, flying in the air like butterflies!

"Ahhh!" Li Yao roared. Spiritual energy mixed with blood spurted out of every pore all over his body. He slashed his saber and forced away three Immortal Cultivators. Then, having no time to bother about the two flying swords which had stabbed into his stomach, he was going to run to Ding Lingdang, but a fickle, unpredictable flying sword just appeared out of thin air within a breath and pierced into his left eye brutally!

Hiss!

Li Yao's left eyeball exploded. Excruciating pain grabbed his entire head like an octopus, making him suffer and unable to think.

Blood and tears flowed out of his left eye, where the flying sword remained. Before his soul fell into nothingness, the picture of Ding Lingdang being tied up by thousands of electric arcs had been etched into his heart and gave him the greatest fright.

In a voice not humanly possible, Li Yao roared, "I cannot accept such a future!

"I... am too weak!

"Stronger. I must continue training and get stronger! The superlative height of the Core Formation Stage is far from enough to compete with the Imperium of True Human Beings!

"Hehehehe. Strength. I need more strength! Whatever the methods are, and no matter how high the price is, I must get... new strength!"

...

Li Yao suddenly woke up from his dream.

He jerked up from his bed like a lobster that had been tossed into a burning pan alive.

His left eye was still hurting badly, and his clothes had been soaked in sweat. His heart was beating so fast that he could almost see it through his chest.

His mouth was dry, and he could not utter a word for a long time.

His left eye hurt more and more badly, and the world in it was bloody, too. He touched it with his hand and noticed that there were blood and tears in his palm.

Li Yao was dazed for a long time. He activated the selfie function of his crystal processor.

Himself on the light beam looked both familiar and strange. His face was pale and covered in sweat. There was barely any color in his right eye, but eerie, bloody streaks were rippling in his left eye. They were flowing slowly like ghosts and flames as if they were alive.

It was more than ten seconds later when the bloody streaks in his left eye gradually faded away. He recovered and slowly recalled where he was.

"Hu..." Li Yao took a long breath in relief and wiped off his cold sweat exhaustedly.

The Ice God Project had been underway for only three months. They had not returned to the Heaven's Origin Sector yet. He was in his special training room in Flying Star University.

Everything that had happened was just a nightmare.

Maybe because he was too concerned about the Heaven's Origin Sector, maybe because he was too worried about the capability of the Blood Demon Sector and the Imperium of True Human Beings, and maybe because his soul had not recovered from the self-detonation of the star child, he had been having uncanny dreams even since he woke up from the coma.

Li Yao was no stranger to uncanny dreams. Ever since he remembered things, he had often dreamed that he was in a place named 'Earth'. After he absorbed Ou Yezi's memory pieces, he had often learned the ancient refining skills from forty thousand years ago in his dreams, too.

But those two kinds of dreams were totally different from the bloody dreams that he had been having recently.

The new dreams were crueler, bloodier, and darker. They were almost exclusively pictures where the Heaven's Origin Sector was destroyed, his family and friends in the Heaven's Origin Sector were killed, and the entire universe was conquered by the Imperium of True Human Beings.

With Li Yao's Cultivation today, he had the ability to control his braincells and influence his dream to some degree.

However, the new dreams were like parasites. He simply could not get rid of them. If anything, they were only getting worse.

In the beginning, he would only have the dreams when he was in the deep sleep state.

Later, he was having the dreams even when he was sleeping normally for an hour or two.

To this day, even though he was not sleeping but merely taking a nap because of the fatigue after crazy training, he could not help but find himself in the uncanny dreams experiencing the horrifying doom of the Heaven's Origin Sector.

Just now, he had just finished a set of deep squats in an environment of fifty times the standard gravity. He had been taking a break but somehow fell asleep without him knowing.

"Maybe my soul has indeed not recovered yet, and I was too exhausted."

Li Yao rubbed his left eye softly and mumbled to himself.

However, determination suddenly beamed out of his left eye, as he gritted his teeth and said, "Nothing can be achieved without exhaustion. Just because they are dreams doesn't mean that they will not come true one day!

"No. My training speed is too low. When can I ever form the Nascent Soul if things go on like this?

"I have to find new strength one way or another..."