Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Hiu! Hiu Hiu Hiu Hiu!
The air between the two of them seemed to have turned into visible sabers, swords, and halberds that were shrieking and colliding.
The blurred shadows in the air rippled out and spread out, too.
In the blink of an eye, the two of them had dodged, moved, and switched their positions and postures hundreds of times, but they did not seem to have moved at all.
But if somebody were standing between them, they would’ve been cut into thousands of pieces of meat the size of fingernails.
Chu Zhixiao’s fingertips, which seemed to be dangling beside his legs casually, dripped a few drops of blood. Earsplitting noises echoed in the silence.
‘A deep wound appeared on Yun Haixin’s cheek, but it was soon blocked by the wriggling black fog, making her even more hideous.
“Stop, Black Dream. I don’t want to fight you. We have no reason to fight at all!”
Looking at the drop of blood on his fingertip, Chu Zhixiao narrowed his eyes and said solemnly.
“Reason to fight?”
Yun Haixin smiled. “Then, Major, what was the reason for your continuous fighting and killing over the past decades? Was the lie of the Great Sage your reason for fighting?
“Admit it. We are just existences of a higher level. It doesn’t matter if we are called ‘devils’, ‘fate’, or ‘heavens’. The toys that we manipulate, the continuous fighting, is the sole meaning of our existence. It doesn’t matter if we have a reason or not. Other than fighting, what should we do? Where can we find
a way out?
“Therefore, needless to say, let’s fight, let’s kill, let’s dance like a fully-wired puppet!”
With desperate laughter, Yun Haixin rushed close again with weird steps.
His steps were like those of a broken puppet. They were neither fast nor fierce.
But Li Yao sensed that thick ripples were spreading out of his brain and turning the space nearby into a swamp that was interfering with his soul.
‘Black Dream’ Yun Haixin was an experienced Meditation Healer and an expert in mental attacks. He was best at creating illusions and illusionary attacks just like the puppet king.
Besides, with the enhancement of the puppet king, his ability to build illusions was ten times higher than before. Even Chu Zhixiao had to be prepared for it.
In front of the dance moves that he seemed to be able to dodge easily, there was confusion and confusion on Chu Zhixiao’s face. There was no telling whether it was because his words hit the wall of his mind or because he was entangled by the illusions again.
Hiu! Hiu Hiu Hiu Hiu!
‘The two of them turned into streaks of brightness and exchanged positions dozens of times. The airwaves between them were so sharp that they could tear apart a crystal suit. This time, not just Chu Zhixiao, even Yun Haixin’s fingertips were stained with blood.
Of course, it was Chu Zhixiao’s blood.
Chu Zhixiao sniffed. Another dagger appeared in his palm.
“That’s right. That’s right, my Major!”
Yun Haixin was laughing crazily as if she were drunk. “I’ve been meaning to fight you for a long time without any interference. Let’s fight to our heart’s content and see how strong ‘Slaughter Goddess’, one of the ultimate weapons of the Sanctuary, is! It seems to be a good ending even if I die under your
saber. Haha. Come on, Major. Kill me!”
The two members of the yaksha squad tumed into two streaks of brightness again.
The soul waves that they sent out were enough to collapse the entire building.
The furious roars outside were getting louder and louder. There were also earthshaking explosions. The cabin walls around ‘Glorious City’ seemed to have been broken through by the furious citizens, who flooded out of the cabin like a broken dam and marched toward the bridge.
Li Yao cursed almost a hundred times.
If every curse was a bullet, Lu Qingchen, the puppet king, would’ve been riddled with holes by now.
“calm down, calm down. We must find a way to stop the riot. No matter how evil those bastards are, at least the residents of Bright City are innocent. We must try our best to minimize the losses!
“Yun Haixin… Forget about the Immortal Cultivator Yun Haixin. His wife and children are innocent, too. I don’t know whether or not they are still alive. Maybe we can save them and help them create a completely different future from the one in the tank of the puppet king!
“Those super experts are all pigs. They were fooled by the puppet king, Lu Qingchen, into setting up such a big scheme, and now they are asking me, a Cultivator from the remote area of the sea of stars, to clean up their mess? I’m so f*cking great!”
Li Yao’s soul was in a mess.
He didn’t know how to stop the fierce battle between Chu Zhixiao and Yun Haixin, either.
However, on second thought, a bolt of lightning exploded in the sky of his soul, illuminating his train of thought.
“Wait. Of course, the purpose of the puppet king is not to kill Chu Zhixiao and Yun Haixin, but to make them consume each other’s souls and break through each other’s mental defenses so that their brains can be opened up so that the puppet king can further corrupt and analyze them.
“It means that the puppet king’s mental power, soul tentacles, telepathic thoughts, and other similar things must be lurking nearby, ready to take advantage of the situation.
“As long as we follow the clues, isn’t it very likely that we will find his true self through the tentacles?
“Yes. The puppet king—Lu Qingchen doesn’t have a real body, but his soul must be attached to a certain super crystal processor in order to trigger enough strength. As long as the super crystal processor is destroyed, more than 90% of the power of the puppet king will be diminished. With any luck, he
might even be sealed in the remains of the crystal processor!
“Now that the source of the puppet king has been cut off, it is only natural that Yun Haixin is not so easy to control. The chaos in Light City has been resolved, too. At least we have a temporary peace now. Let’s buy more time for the reinforcements of the imperium and the federation to arrive!”
Having figured everything out, Li Yao was refreshed. He expanded the range of his soul scanning, not missing any ripples in the air.
The spider tank, on the other hand, pretended that the mainframe crystal processor had been seriously damaged and was gradually losing control. Its six limbs were cramping nonstop while it retreated.
‘This was an out-and-out case of ‘the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind’.
It never occurred to Lu Qingchen that Li Yao’s soul was so close to him.
His soul power locked onto Chu Zhixiao and Yun Haixin, preparing to corrupt their brains when the battle was at its most intense.
Such devotion inevitably left a loophole in the eyes of the bystanders, Li Yao.
“Gotcha!”
Very soon, under Li Yao’s scanning, two sets of highly-hidden abnormal data popped up in the ever-changing digital world.
‘They were like two giant snakes that were lurking in a swamp. In the spreading and changing ripples, hideous traces were revealed.
Li Yao observed the situation of the battle again.
Chu Zhixiao’s capability was slightly higher than Yun Haixin’s, but she did not seem to have much fighting will. She did not even put on her crystal suit and simply dealt with Yun Haixin’s crazy attacks with a dull face.
Yun Haixin, on the other hand, was not so much trying to complete the mission of the puppet king as he was trying to kill himself with Chu Zhixiao’s dagger.
It seemed that, as long as Chu Zhixiao did not kill them, the two experts who were destined to be experimental subjects could still fight for a while.
That was enough!
Li Yao made up his mind. He crawled backwards and snuck out of the abandoned building.
He could vaguely ‘see’ that the two lines of abnormal data were like two faint black streaks that zigzagged in the air all the way to the depths of the Bright City.
“After hiding for so long, I’m finally going to show up. Let’s see where you can run to this time!”
Muttering to himself, Li Yao spread out his six limbs, turned the sliding wheel to maximum, and rushed toward the source of the black spot.
‘There were not many furious citizens on the streets.
It was because most of the citizens had rushed to the hole on the wall, trying to escape from the man-made paradise.
However, the blood and bodies on the ground were still a testament to the brutality of the riot.
There were also some people who could not bear the ‘truth’ any longer and had a mental breakdown even under the stimulation of the ‘Furious Virus’. They were crying like children and turning Bright City into a burning mental hospital.
Li Yao did not know who to vent his anger on.
Who was the one who had caused such a tragedy? Who should be blamed? Was it the Great Master or the puppet king? Or was it the existence behind the Great Master and the puppet king that was hidden by Yun Haixin named ‘demons’, ‘fate’, and ‘heavens’?
Li Yao had no idea.
He only wanted to capture the puppet king and stop the tragedy in front of him from escalating!
“Calm down. Don’t be rash.”
‘The mental devil’s cold voice washed over Li Yao’s soul again. “Even if you can capture the puppet king, how are you going to stop the tragedy from happening? You must know that the same tragedy is not only happening to Eternal Brightness but also happening to all the experiment starships, all the
starships of the Sanctuary Alliance, and even the Star Ocean Imperium!
“Maybe, the puppet king, Lu Qingchen, was right. Since the real world is so evil and ugly, what’s wrong with creating an illusion of eternal peace and happiness?
“As for Yun Haixin’s question, how should I choose between a false heaven and a real hell? I don’t think the answer is difficult, is it?”
“Areal hell and an illusionary heaven?”
Li Yao sniffed. “The question is like ‘which one should I choose between poop that tastes like chocolate and chocolate that tastes like poop? The question is, why do I have to make such a choice? I won’t choose any of them.. I only want the real heaven! Whoever forces me to choose, I will stuff the poop
that smells like chocolate and the chocolate that smells like poop into their mouth!”