Chapter 536: Space Steles
Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Compared with the vastness of space, human beings couldn't be more insignificant.
The seemingly thin rings turned out to be boundless worlds once one entered them.
Roaring stones and glimmering dust were everywhere. Invisible turbulences and radiation rays were rushing and raging like a flooding river.
Li Yao was floating on such a rampant river. Although he had experienced something similar when he cruised through the Dim Flame Belt, he still felt that his head was dizzy and the scenes were bizarre.
The stones inside the planetary ring were extremely dense. As small as the escape capsule was, he still had to calculate the angles and trajectories of the stones precisely in order to pass through the gaps.
Li Yao also discovered that, among the sweeping, nonuniform stones, there were occasionally rectangular objects that emitted a metallic glow.
These objects were not reflecting the brilliance of the star but emanating brightness by themselves.
Judging from the color of the objects, they were not natural minerals but more like man-made alloys.
These metal objects were space steles.
If one were to adjust the resolution and the observation distance of their crystal camera to the maximum, one would be able to notice that complicated runes had been carved on the steles.
Many steles were hollow. Translucent crystals were floating inside them.
After thousands of years, the crystals were still glittering and releasing spiritual energy.
Li Yao shut his eyes and extended his spiritual threads from his spiritual root, perceiving the steles with his mind.
He could feel clearly that each stele sent out almost a hundred spiritual waves, which tied up the stones nearby and formed a solid shield of stones.
Every stele was the core of such a shield. When thousands of shields of stones were combined, they constituted a planetary ring. Right now, hundreds of planetary rings were interconnected, but there was not the slightest mutual interference.
It was indeed a piece of formidable magical equipment almost bordering on the stellar level!
Li Yao breathed softly and focused his full attention. The escape capsule flew among the stones as if it were a weightless feather.
Although the magical equipment had existed for five thousand years and it had failed to resist the legendary apocalypse five thousand years ago, Li Yao was not sure that it had entirely lost its power, nor was he willing to test it with his life.
However, other people were not as prudent as he was.
Not far behind Li Yao, Squid had finally reached the edge of the planetary ring.
The stones in the area were too dense for a starship of Squid's size to enter. Otherwise, it would be attacked by countless stones.
If it were to resist all the stones, it would have to keep its spiritual shield at the maximum all the time. The spiritual energy cost would be shockingly high.
Therefore, Squid could only float in orbit along the planetary ring and release a lot of crystal suits.
Almost a hundred crystal suits leaked into the planetary ring from different angles in battle formation, trying to surround Li Yao.
"Come on. I've waited for a long time!"
Li Yao smiled and rubbed his burning hands. Then he tapped on the operation light beam.
Instantly after a cracking noise, the escape capsule became a different form again. Four sharp-edged fins made of super alloys extended out of the tail of the escape capsule and formed what seemed to be a cross.
In space, the cross-shaped fins were usually meant to cut apart the tiny stones so that they wouldn't hit the escape capsule directly.
In the middle of the cross-shaped fins, four micro units that could accelerate the spinning, turning, and small-scale movements gradually revealed themselves.
This was the ultimate form of the Wild Butterfly escape capsule after Li Yao's modification!
It was no longer an escape capsule; it was an out-and-out super shuttle, one that could fly freely within the stone belts!
The operation menu in front of Li Yao's eyes gradually changed, too. The number of buttons to control the direction, speed, and angle increased by five times. There were now five operation menus instead of three.
The small cabin was glittering in gold, as if it were the operation platform of the most professional super shuttle.
"Let the game begin!"
Running away was not Li Yao's style. Even though his opponent was a Core Formation Stage Cultivator, he was still trying to make counterattacks, however feeble they were!
This planetary ring was the graveyard that he had chosen for the space pirates!
Li Yao whistled as his hands turned into two clusters of mist on the shining light beam. Torrents suddenly erupted out of the bottom of the escape capsule. As if someone had kicked it from behind, the escape capsule continued fleeing forward in a weird curve.
The space pirates couldn't have been angrier. They didn't expect their enemy to be crazy enough to rush at such a high speed inside a planetary ring where there was nothing but a raging storm of stones!
But Fengyu Zhong had stated in his fury that the enemy must be stopped at all costs. Whoever captured the enemy alive would be granted a crystal warship immediately. Every contributor of the hunt would be given a super crystal suit crafted by the top experts on Spider Den!
Space pirates were all desperadoes in the first place. Now, they were even more motivated by the enticing reward!
Countless space pirates flooded in and sprinted among the stones fearlessly!
The planetary ring seemed still, but it was, in fact, spinning around the planet at an extremely high speed. The stones inside were also running and colliding into each other without any pattern. All the routes and angles had to be calculated on the spot. It was impossible to foresee anything!
In their urgency, more than ten space pirates were smashed by passing stones!
Although they were defended by their spiritual shields, many of them had broken bones. The less fortunate ones were even hit on the back of their head, where the crystal processor was located, or on their spine, where the crystal reactor was. They almost lost all of their combat ability and had to withdraw from the battle.
On the other hand, Li Yao was steering the escape capsule to perform unbelievable small-scale movements unhurriedly. He was like a feather near a swirl. Although he seemed to be swallowed by the stones many times, he always showed up again a moment later. The space pirates couldn't have been madder and cursed loudly.
Some of the more impatient space pirates had even launched attacks at him, triggering their flying swords and crystal cannons without caring for anything else.
Due to the long distance between the two parties and the blockade of the stones in the way, all the attacks missed their target.
Not only did they fail to hit the escape capsule, they even lead to more terrifying consequences!
Li Yao was calculating the position and route of the escape capsule carefully, when he suddenly sensed that an extremely furious spiritual tide was surging toward his back. He was greatly surprised and replayed what had happened while he dodged the spiritual tide.
He saw that, when several space pirates were attacking him wholeheartedly, a glittering stele drew close to them without them noticing. One of the space pirates was hit precisely by the stele when he was launching his flying swords!
The space pirates were immediately heavily injured. But in the meantime, the barrier of the stele seemed to be triggered. The dark green object suddenly emitted dazzling brilliance and became as eye-catching as jade!
The spiritual waves released from the center of the stele was hundreds of times more intense than before. They spread out like nerves and veins and penetrated into all the stones nearby.
The previously loose stones were then concentrated into a giant beast with more than ten tentacles made of stones, which were spinning crazily!
Caught off guard, more than ten space pirates were snatched by the tentacles and torn to shreds before they even had the chance to struggle!
Clouds of blood mist were exploding. The scraps of the space pirates' crystal suits were propelled out by the tentacles to other space pirates in various directions.
The other space pirates all ran far away with their heads in their hands while they screamed and yelled in their communication channel.
Li Yao was greatly alarmed. He felt that he was lucky not to have messed around with the steles.
It appeared that the super defense array five thousand years ago had not entirely lost its power yet and was still fulfilling its duty.
After five thousand years, under the scourge of so many meteoroids, the steles could still unleash such formidable strength. It was not hard to imagine how magnificent they had been when they had just been refined and filled with sufficient spiritual energy!
Li Yao was fascinated by the thought. He looked at the space pirates behind him and noticed that there were less than seventy of them after the outbreak of the stele.
Li Yao grinned and was meaning to accelerate again when he suddenly felt lightheaded and his heart seemed to be bitten by nine snakes at the same time. The pain was truly excruciating!
…
Inside the cockpit of Blood Rain, Fengyu Zhong's face was gloomy.
The Iron Plateau Space Zone was a battlefield of his choosing. Since the space zone was a forbidden area for Cultivators, there were no large star beacons or ports and bases of the Cultivators. Even the signal of the Spiritual Nexus was extremely weak. One could only hope to be connected to the Spiritual Nexus when they were at the edge of the space zone.
Also, the dense stone belts there would be a great help to him during his escape.
Therefore, he had gone through all the trouble and employed all possible methods to drive the Great Horn Exo Society to the Iron Plateau Space Zone before the final deadly attack.
But at that moment, he felt that he had become a victim of his own scheme.
Although his enemy was merely in an escape capsule, it would be barely possible to destroy it if it snuck into the planetary rings near Iron Plateau. The search would be long and hard and might prove futile later.
Time was what he needed most.
"General Feng, Squid has gotten in touch with the enemy, but the enemy hasn't been stopped yet," said the advisor in a low voice.
Fengyu Zhong didn't respond.
He was faced with a tough decision.
At that moment, Blood Rain was at the back of his fleet. He was covering the rear personally in order to resist the possible counterattack of the Great Horn Exo Society.
By logic, since his enemy had been heavily damaged, their starships almost entirely paralyzed, there was no reason they would catch up to him again.
However, the people of the Great Horn Exo Society were all crazy. They were anything but logical.
But if he did not act in person, his subordinates might not be able to capture the sly enemy in the stone belts at all.
Fengyu Zhong pondered for a long time.
For the whole time, the sea of stars behind him had been tranquil. There was no hint of the Great Horn Exo Society whatsoever.
"Those lunatics must've reached their limits, too. It's not likely that they will come and commit suicide."
Fengyu Zhong finally made up his mind.
Shua!
An extremely hideous crystal suit appeared around him!