Emperor of The Cosmos

Looked like he’d found another way to protect himself and stay alive in times of danger.

Sitting down in the dimension, Jiang Li let his consciousness extend outwards, seeping into the four walls of the dimension. Suddenly, he felt that he could control the stone, make it fly through the air.

“Is…is this white stone some kind of high-class attack vessel, or a strong magical weapon?” With that, a thought struck Jiang Li.

He still remembered that the dried up corpse from the sewers was once from the world of cultivators. While one’s physical body couldn’t hope to arrive on earth, perhaps the corpse could travel through time and space thanks to this milk white stone.

In the cultivator civilization, there were ancient weapons obtained through the sacrificial practices of cultivators. They were similar to battleships that the humans used. But while human battleships could be manufactured, these ancient talismans were produced and refined over thousands, perhaps even millions of years.

In other words…this milk white stone might be able to enable leaping through wormholes?

“Rise, float…”

Jiang Li tried to communicate with the stone with all his willpower, attempting to gain control over it.

These were methods he’d obtained during the dream. He had already lost count of the amounts of times he had entered the cultivators’ continent. Through those trips he had also gained some understanding of how their magical artifacts worked. The artifacts in question all required sacrifices of both spirit and fresh blood. Through this they gradually gained connections to the flesh and blood of living beings.

As a matter of fact, in the elite sector humans had learned this method as well and were using it to create artificial intelligence.

Under the concentration of Jiang Li’s willpower, the milk white stone rose into the air, shooting high up into the sky.

The stone had absorbed and stored enormous energy from multiple wormhole leaps, and had no trouble when it came to flying. Jiang Li got the feeling that this stone also contained plenty of energy from the heavens and earth.

Perhaps it absorbed the energy when he was performing fetal respiration. While it couldn’t have absorbed those energies on its own, it did have the capability to enhance its own spirit, allowing its spiritual success to reach the level of his fetal respiration. When he absorbed those vital energies and stored them within his body, the surplus must have gone to the stone.

After ushering the stone to leap into the sky, Jiang Li felt with his spirit that the stone had sped up so much that it broke the sound barrier.

It reached twice the speed of sound…three times, four times, and then five!

By the time it was speeding through the air at five times the speed of sound, Jiang Li felt himself losing control. It was the same drifting sensation one might get when driving a car too quickly.

“Hm? I can see the battleship!”

The stone’s friction against the air ignited into sparks, burning through the sky like a tiny shooting star.

Jiang Li saw the Astral Fish battleship, the one belonging to Jiang Tianhe’s team.

Below that, he spotted the seven disciples of Da Qian Academy. The atmosphere felt tense, as if the slightest spark would start the flame of a war.

The conflict between the cultivator and technological civilizations was about to begin. Even so, Jiang Li knew all too well that the seven disciples were doomed from the start.

Although one of the male disciples had a flying sword, there was no way it would be able to cut into the battleship. The Astral Fish battleship was worth four billion and had an indestructibly tough exterior that could withstand any sort of attack. Not even a laser canon could reliably break through that thing.

Now that Jiang Tianhe was encountering the seven cultivator disciples, all he needed to do was flip the switch on the attack systems of the battleship. With that, he’d be able to deal heavy damage to the disciples and take them into custody without so much as standing up.

Indeed, Jiang Tianhe was thinking those exact thoughts. From his spot high in the sky he turned on the light beams and began to ravage the landscape below.

“Haha, what a bunch of dimwits. What are they doing around the Astral University base? Are they looking to get killed? Even so, they’re pretty tough. Probably have more than enough power to hunt down those new students without battleships.”

Sitting up in the battleship, Jiang Tianhe laughed out loud.

In an instant, the male disciple with the flying sword suddenly ground his teeth together. He produced something from his arms. Jiang Li couldn’t get a close enough look to figure out what it was before the disciple threw it with all his might, flying into the sky.

A huge explosion rang out through the air. A shining golden hand of massive proportions appeared.

Jiang Li felt his jaw drop. The huge golden hand swept through the air, scattering its endless golden glow everywhere. All the lasers were deflected. Rising higher into the air, its five fingers curled around the Astral Fish battleship.

Crack! Crack!

The battleship began to shake violently in the hand’s grasp. On the tough exterior cracks began to form. It shook with a few small explosions as fires began to spread across the surface.

“Dammit! What is this thing? A magical weapon? A talisman, gathering massive amounts of heaven and earth energies, a manifestation of the body outside of one’s physical being?” Jiang Tianhe’s expression finally changed from shock to anger as he roared at the hand.

“Tianhe, hurry up and blow the thing up!”

“Energy canons, fire with full power!”

The Astral Fish battleship exploded into stunning light, firing against the huge golden hand.

The fingers twitched, pinching together around the ship.

Both of them exploded at the same time. The battleship turned into a fireball, falling from the heavens. The three people who were shot out of it all wore mechanical armor. They abandoned the vessel and leapt out like parachute jumpers leaving behind a plane accident.

Just like that, a battleship was destroyed. This hulking mass worth four billion had been destroyed by a cultivator disciple’s mystical weapon.

Seeing the golden hand rise through the air had been like watching a Buddha’s hand crushing a demon. It was so impressive in scale that even Jiang Li, watching through the stone, felt a shiver travel through his body. Good thing he didn’t get into a fight with the seven cultivators. If they could destroy battleships, how could he ever match up against them in a fight?

An even brighter golden light blossomed through the air as the flames sputtered everywhere.

The magical weapon thrown out by the cultivator was burning as well. It seemed like it was a one-time use weapon. After producing that golden hand and decimating the battleship, its own energy had run out as well.

Kill!

The male cultivator in the front suddenly howled. His flying sword flew from its sheath, transforming into a dragon. An explosive sound thundered through the air. The sword’s light curled, zooming at the three mechanical armors in the air, aiming to cut them open.

Jiang Tianhe, Huang Ye, and Li Na were wearing sonic speed armor! As the flying sword came at them, they moved together, forming a ring, striking all at the same time with their fists!

Their blows landed right on the blade of the flying sword with massive power. The sword bounced away, but Jiang Li saw that all three of their mechanical armors had been cut open.

Swish, swish, swish…

After deflecting the flying sword, Jiang Tianhe and the other two descended, breaking into a run toward the seven on the ground. The sonic speed became a shadow in the air, trying to destroy them, rip the enemy apart!

Even if one’s life force reached 3, even 4 or 5, one would likely shatter completely from the force of slamming against a sonic speed mechanical armor.

Scientific studies had shown that only life forces past 7 might have a chance in blocking a blow from sonic armor, perhaps even dodging and fighting back.

If anyone reached 10, they would be able to reach the speed of sound themselves. With speed like that, all they’d have to do was catch up with their opponents and rip the sonic armor apart by hand.

Clang!

The flying sword zoomed back at full speed, slicing through the air so quickly that it became a barrier, blocking the rush attack the sonic-armored trio was attempting. Its own speed reached that of sound, exactly enough to keep them at bay.

Pop! Crack!

The three suits of sonic speed armors collided against the flying sword. Sparks exploded into the air. Within minutes of their battle, cracks were beginning to show on the sonic armor, as if it were going to be cut open. Although the situation looked highly dangerous for the three of them, the sword also began to slow down, cracks forming along the surface.

It wasn’t surprising that the sword would suffer such damage. Although they faced a tough adversary, the armors were highly advanced technology. All of their materials had undergone intense compression. Even a flying sword trying to cut them open couldn’t escape some wear and tear.

As the three descended to the earth once more, the armor on their bodies finally collapsed, splitting open and falling to the ground in pieces.

With all the strength in his body, Jiang Tianhe jumped forward, swinging his fist into the sword. The sword shuddered, falling to the ground with a clang. Although it kept trembling, trying to rise again, it couldn’t fly anymore.

Of course, all three suits of sonic armor were irreparably broken, without even the slightest possibility of them being fixed.

This encounter between the cultivator and technological civilizations had ended with both sides in ruins. The giant golden hand had used up all its energies and burned up in the air, while the Astral Fish battleship had burned and crashed.

The three suits of sonic armor were completely destroyed, and the flying sword had lost its vitality as well.

Losses on both sides were heavy.

Jiang Tianhe, of course, had suffered the greatest losses. He felt tears welling up inside: “Dammit! The Astral Fish battleship, the best of our fleet, lost—just like that! How long will we need to save up to buy another one? Three suits of sonic speed armor are the trick up our sleeve that we’ve been saving for special confrontations…even if we do catch all seven of these savages, that won’t be enough to make up for even a hundredth of our loss!”

Battleships were the greatest crutch a team could have, and the most expensive of a team’s asset, almost like a house to a family. With a battleship, a team could move out quickly, traverse dangerous landscapes, and obtain more resources. Without one, traveling anywhere was so much more difficult and complicated that they wouldn’t even be able to complete many basic missions.

If a family lost their house, they would be homeless.

For Jiang Tianhe and his team to save up four billion would take years and years, longer than any of them could even imagine.

With the losses of this mission, he’d be in debt for so long that he wouldn’t even have money for a funeral.

“These aren’t new students! Let’s go!” The seven cultivators weren’t keen to keep at it with Jiang Tianhe and the others. The man leading them picked up his flying sword, called out to the rest of them. They started to retreat in the direction of the forest.

“If we can’t kill these extraterrestrial demons in a single hit, they’ll call more of their kind. These devils have ships far faster than anything we can fathom; if we’re surrounded by them we won’t be able to escape. Leaving now is for the best.”

The flying swordsman leader turned away without hesitation. He had the flair of an assassin: coming and going as quickly and quietly as the wind, knowing exactly when to retreat without clinging to the vanity of victory.

The seven of them rushed deep into the forest. Seven Fire God King birds immediately rose into the air—no doubt, these were their steeds. The seven of them leapt onto the birds’ backs, speeding away from the scene.

“Goddammit!”

Jiang Tianhe had no means to chase after them. All he could do was watch them disappear into the horizon. Even his hypnosis was useless: at a distance like this, he couldn’t even hope to slow down the Fire God King birds.

Now all of their armor was destroyed, their battleship fallen. They couldn’t fly even if they wanted to.

“We’ve lost too much this time. What do we do?” Huang Ye ground his teeth together, his face twisted with displeasure, “Tianhe, now that the battleship is gone, we’ve lost all of our property. How are we going to complete missions from now on?”

“It’ll be fine, we’ll figure out a way to save up money and buy a new one. We’re still students of the academy, after all—we get huge discounts on battleships. Buying one outside would cost us a few hundred billion, and that would do us in for good.” Jiang Tianhe kept his calm as he comforted Huang Ye: “As long as we’re all fine, everything will be okay. This team is worth way more than any battleship.”

“Then how do we get back now? Call some other team to pick us up with their battleship?” Li Nawei, being the hacker he was, was beginning to realize how bad the situation was. “Dammit, my computer chip shattered during the battle. It’s damaged too badly to send out messages.”

“Mine’s broken too.” Jiang Tianhe and Huang Ye said, looking down at their wrists.

Just now the battle between sonic armor and flying sword was so forceful that it had shattered the chips. None of them would be able to transmit now.

“Nothing we can do about it, then. Let’s walk around and see if we can hypnotize some Fire God King birds so we can ride them back.” Jiang Tianhe glanced around, trying to figure out which way to go. Suddenly his eyes shifted, and he shouted: “Who’s there?”

Huang Ye and Li Nawei hurriedly prepared themselves to fight.

“Well, well. The three of you seem to have suffered quite the losses…” Jiang Li appeared, standing on a big tree’s branch. Although he was about half a mile away, his voice drifted over with a slight hint of mockery.