In the last seventeen seconds, faced with Li Yao, who was in the superlative height of the Core Formation Stage, Xiao Xuance chose to run away without any hesitation.
Other than the Heavenly Lord Battlesuit, he also had multiple Ares Extensions and endless Grand Illusionary Soldiers to cover his retreat.
Even though your capability is higher than mine at the moment, it is unlikely that you can kill me in less than twenty seconds! In the meantime, the overwhelming Grand Illusionary Soldiers on my side can seriously wound the six Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators on your side!
In another twenty seconds, the Great Empyrean Soul Stirring Array will collapse, and I will be able to trigger the combat ability of the high level of the Nascent Soul Stage again. My chance of winning is not slim!
Those thoughts quickly flashed in Xiao Xuance’s brain. His body disappeared among the countless Grand Illusionary Soldiers like ice melting in water!
Sixteen seconds remained.
Dozens of streaks of blackness gathered from various directions and formed the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit again.
While Li Yao’s spiritual energy surged out, silver brilliance was beaming out of the blackness, which covered the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit and condensed a glamorous shell!
At first glance, the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit seemed to have doubled in size and painted with a silver camouflage. The silver lacquer looked like the clearest lake in which ripples were spreading out peacefully.
It was the Unparalleled Extension, an Ares Extension tailor-made for the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit that Li Yao had refined himself!
BOOM!
The air surrounding Li Yao was entirely shattered and covered in a white fog.
In one second, he slightly altered his direction sixty-six times at a supersonic speed.
The ‘white fog’ was actually the combination of the dozens of sonic booms!
Now that Li Yao had locked onto Xiao Xuance, there was no way that he could run off easily.
Fifteen seconds remained.
The two super crystal suits that were both equipped with the Ares Extensions crashed into each other quietly.
For experts in the level of Li Yao and Xiao Xuance, they could have launched hundreds of sharp attacks within one second, but they simply stuck to each other like two of the softest feathers.
However, the air around them was twisted, as if it had turned into dirty seawater.
The ‘ball of seawater’ that appeared out of nowhere continued expanding. All the Grand Illusionary Soldiers swallowed by the ball would be crushed into pancakes by the super pressure, as if they had really been placed in a deep ocean tens of thousands of meters deep!
The head-on clash lasted three seconds.
Cracks finally appeared on the surface of Xiao Xuance’s Ares Extension. Then, scraps the size of fingernails burst out!
Eleven seconds remained.
Dozens of Grand Illusionary Soldiers behind Li Yao detonated themselves at the same time. The flames they generated were manipulated by Xiao Xuance’s telepathic thoughts and turned into a giant fire snake that stabbed Li Yao’s spine!
Li Yao had to focus his attention on the fire snake.
Xiao Xuance took the opportunity to flee.
He stored the Heavenly Lord Battlesuit and the Ares Extension into his Cosmos Ring and put on a crystal suit that was in exactly the same in appearance to the Grand Illusionary Soldiers!
Ten seconds remained. Nine seconds remained. Eight seconds remained!
The Grand Illusionary Soldiers around Li Yao were exploding one after another. They were not blocking Li Yao but merely jamming the scanning of his telepathic thoughts so that he would not be able to locate the real Xiao Xuance!
Seven seconds. Six seconds. Five seconds!
All the other Grand Illusionary Soldiers and Immortal Cultivators lunged at the Cultivators crazily without a care for themselves, for the sole purpose of inflicting more wounds to the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators before they recovered!
Five seconds. Four seconds!
Li Yao frowned. He diminished the range of his telepathic thoughts.
Three seconds remained!
Li Yao had locked onto Xiao Xuance again!
He threw out a batch of powerful terror bombs, which mixed with the most worrying thought for Xiao Xuance in the bottom of his heart. “Xiao Xuance, your Imperium of True Human Beings is screwed!”
Then, ninety-nine golden feathers pierced through the wall of flames and outlined a special Grand Illusionary Soldier neatly.
When all the other Grand Illusionary Soldiers were marching forward fearlessly and detonating themselves one after another, a Grand Illusionary Soldier that looked very ‘prudent’ became very distinctive.
The last two seconds!
Realizing that he had been seen through, Xiao Xuance summoned the Heavenly Lord Battlesuit and the Ares Extension again.
However, before he finished installing the Ares Extension, Li Yao had shown up right before him and blown it into pieces!
Pu!
Xiao Xuance suffered a heavy kick to the chest. Despite the protection of the Heavenly Lord Battlesuit, almost ten of his ribs were broken. He had never suffered a heavier wound in the past dozens of years.
However, pushed by Li Yao’s heavy strike, he flew as far away as he could.
Hundreds of Grand Illusionary Soldiers stood before him and formed a full-enclosing giant shield connected by the electric arcs and the magnetic field.
The last second!
Li Yao raised his right hand. Countless pieces of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers were attracted to him and condensed into a metal saber more than forty meters long. He waved the saber and slashed at Xiao Xuance’s shield.
After a thunderous explosion, both the saber and the shield exploded!
However—
The effect of the Great Empyrean Soul Stirring Array had run out!
The tens of thousands of crystals embedded at the center of the broadcasting rune arrays cracked and exploded in one second, turning into colorful powder!
Xiao Xuance had been waiting a long time for that moment. He regained the immense Cultivation of the Nascent Soul Stage instantly. When the aura of Li Yao’s blade left the saber and rushed toward, he grabbed and crushed it amid crazy laughter instead of dodging!
The invincible aura of the blade was crushed in one grab!
“Now that you’ve failed to kill me in one minute, you are doomed!”
At this moment, countless Grand Illusionary Soldiers were still crowding into the bridge from various directions.
Luo Xingzi and the other five Cultivators returned to the Nascent Soul Stage, too, but their ‘Nascent Souls’ were much smaller in size than before.
Just now, the Grand Illusionary Soldiers had protected Xiao Xuance. Except for the heavy strike at the end, he did not suffer any injuries, nor did he use too much of his spiritual energy. Therefore, he still possessed the ability to fight.
The six Cultivators in the Nascent Soul Stage, on the other hand, were not only heavily wounded but also running out of spiritual energy because of the fierce battle against the Grand Illusionary Soldiers just now.
“The stronger you are, the quicker you become exhausted. Li Yao, how long can you stay in the superlative height of the Core Formation Stage?
“You raged for an entire minute so magnificently and killed quite a lot of my Grand Illusionary Soldiers. You must be reaching your limits, right?
“More than a hundred thousand Grand Illusionary Soldiers have been deployed on Heavenly Phantom. How many more can you take down?
“I’m going to exhaust each and every one of you with the pure advantage in numbers!”
Xiao Xuance was extremely cautious. Although he had regained the capability of the Nascent Soul Stage, he was still hiding among the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, healing his wounds, making new strategies, and striking at the Cultivators’ belief, because he was quite wary of Li Yao’s weird superlative height of the Core Formation Stage.
The situation was indeed not in the Cultivators’ favor.
The six Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators had been surrounded by infinite Grand Illusionary Soldiers. It was impossible to reduce their number.
Amid Xiao Xuance’s crazy laughter, the crystal cannons on the shoulders of the Grand Illusionary Soldiers released dangerous electric arcs. Their chainswords and vibration sabers were triggered to the maximum, too!
Breathing heavily, the Cultivators stood next to each other, faced with the surging tides raised by the iron torrent!
Li Yao laughed, too.
Professor Mo Xuan lost his cool and shouted in the secret channel, “Well done, Li Yao. We’ve made it!
“In the one minute just now, you successfully distracted Xiao Xuance’s attention and forced him to concentrate most of the computational ability of the star brain on you. It was a great opportunity for our infiltration.
“Because of your intense attack, we’ve finished the planting and the activation of the virus one minute faster than we expected!
“In five seconds, we will be able to control the central area around the star brain. Not only will we be able to paralyze all the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, we can even control all of them in the bridge!
“But we cannot control them for long. You must seize the window to take down Xiao Xuance and destroy the star brain!”
“Understood!”
Li Yao licked his lips.
In three seconds, the Grand Illusionary Soldiers would be out of Xiao Xuance’s control. Then, he had to find a way to buy him three seconds!
Li Yao took a deep breath. He suddenly pointed at Xiao Xuance, who was hiding behind the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, and yelled, “Xiao Xuance, if you have any guts as the best expert of the Flying Star Sector, do you dare to duel me? Let’s see whether the high level of the Nascent Soul Stage is better or the superlative height of the Core Formation Stage is more awesome!”
Xiao Xuance laughed aloud. “Did you break your head when you formed the core? Right now, my thousands of Grand Illusionary Soldiers have surrounded you. Victory is all mine. A duel? Do you think we are in a movie or what?”
Li Yao sighed and said somewhat helplessly, “Alright, it is you who refused the proposal of a duel. Don’t say that I didn’t give you the opportunity later!”
After the conversation, three seconds were up!
In a moment—
The star brain had been bright gold in the beginning, but part of the virtual neurons at the core turned into a weird gray and then transformed from gray into black!
Twisted and tampered telepathic thoughts darted out of the star brain in all the directions in the sea of stars!
On Heavenly Phantom, in space, and inside Heavenly Saints City… all the Grand Illusionary Soldiers, whatever they were doing a second ago, came to a weird standstill.
Many Grand Illusionary Soldiers that had been flying fell and hit the ground, leaving giant pits.
Their arms that had been waving swords and sabers a moment ago put down the blades and placed them on the two sides of the body. Then, the Grand Illusionary Soldiers crouched into the shape of balls, entering their idle mode!
They were like an army that had lost their vitality. The sound of slaughtering and explosions ended abruptly.
Inside Heavenly Saints City, many Cultivators and qi-trainers were dumbfounded. They looked at each other in bewilderment, not having the vaguest clue what had just happened.
In the meantime, on the bridge of Heavenly Phantom, the tens of thousands of Grand Illusionary Soldiers, after a moment of silence, opened their eyes again. Starry brilliance was beaming out.
But the brilliance turned into a strange gold!
Shua!
The tens of thousands of Grand Illusionary Soldiers turned to Xiao Xuance at the same time. The hundreds of them that were guarding around Xiao Xuance aimed their crystal cannons at Xiao Xuance. Dangerous brightness was flashing in their weapons.
“This is—”
Xiao Xuance was dumbfounded. Inside the Heavenly Lord Battlesuit, the crystal processor that was connected to the star brain was in chaos, too. The information streams projected to him were like scattered swirls that he could not make anything out of!
“The star brain has been planted with a virus. How is it possible!”
Li Yao extended his right hand and pressed down, while he said, “Kill him.”