Chapter 1313: The Fleet Descends—The Cultivation World Is in Peril!
By now, more than half a year had passed since the Cultivation World entered a state of combat readiness. News of breakthroughs poured in one after another. Nicknames like “Small Lu Yang” and claims like “makings of another Lu Yang” sprang up everywhere, as if every prodigy could rival the Lu Yang from back then.
Prodigies with the nickname “Small Mengzhou” were far fewer. After all, imitating Meng Jingzhou was simply too difficult. What prodigy didn’t dream of spending the night with a saintess or a demoness?
At first, Lu Yang wanted to curb this unwholesome trend, but his fame was too great. Everyone viewed him as their role model, and the resulting noxious fad had grown too strong to stop.
Lu Yang couldn't help but sigh. Sitting in the newspaper office reading intelligence reports day after day, he had already learned to automatically filter out the words “Small Lu Yang.”
This also reflected the vitality and progress of the Cultivation World. Everyone was striving to seize this great fortuitous opportunity, cultivating with everything they had. If one could distinguish themselves in the battle against the Zhutian Civilization, that would be ideal.
These days, events worthy of making the news occurred at every moment. The weekly publication could no longer meet the public’s demand. Fortunately, the aid team Dean Gao brought had made a major breakthrough in combining spirit qi with technology, enabling mass production of quantum communicators, though the manufacturing costs had yet to come down.
Typically, three to five households pooled their funds to purchase one. With communication efficiency improved significantly, the newspaper naturally upgraded from the Cultivation Weekly to the Cultivation Daily.
“Strange. Why haven’t the Zhutian Civilization’s warships arrived?” The Xia Emperor and the others were baffled. Over half a year had passed, and Lu Yang had traveled from the Interstellar Alliance back to the Cultivation World in less than a month.
“Could they have run into some accident along the way?” Zhu Tian speculated, chatting with the Xia Emperor via a quantum communicator.
“Aren’t they supposed to be the hegemon of the cosmos? What accident could they possibly encounter?”
~~~
The emergence of Cultivation Daily meant that the newspaper had to be published every day, causing the workload to increase drastically. Lu Yang couldn’t take it anymore and wanted to slip away.
However, he had been the one to tell the Innate Daoist Priest and Gu Junye that he would handle the newspaper in the future. Once he had made such a bold claim, it wasn’t easy to take it back.
Big words were hard to walk back. Lu Yang had no choice but to declare that, as a half-immortal, he had a duty to defend the Cultivation World, heading to the entrance to enjoy some peace and quiet.
The Cultivation World had established two lines of defense at the entrance. The first was composed of Fusion cultivators, while the second consisted of Transcendent Tribulation cultivators. They rotated shifts regularly to guard against any surprise attacks from the Zhutian Civilization.
The Transcendent Tribulation cultivators were from the older generation, and Lu Yang was unfamiliar with them, so he mingled with the Fusion cultivators instead. At least there were familiar faces there.
~~~
Not far from the Cultivation World, space warped as one warship after another emerged from wormholes.
To reach the Cultivation World sooner, Shi Wumian had ordered the fleet to accelerate without regard for the consequences. In less than a year, they arrived. The moment they completed the spatial jump, the spirit stone detection radar began blaring incessantly, its display filled with countless red dots.
Shi Wumian rubbed his hands in excitement. The sound was music to his ears. This means that the cultivator Lu Yang hadn’t lied to the Interstellar Alliance—the Cultivation World truly has endless spirit stones! Even at the Heavenly Emperor’s place of origin, the radar had never reacted this intensely! Perhaps even 1500 warships can’t carry this many spirit stones!
He could already picture returning laden with spoils and the Heavenly Emperor rewarding him. Forcing himself to calm down, he enlarged the radar display and projected it onto the screen for all the commanders to see.
Shi Wumian pointed his baton at five unknown regions. These spots had the densest clusters of red dots, so much so that they glowed purple. “All of you see it, right? The Cultivation World holds numerous spirit stones, but the places with the largest quantities and highest-quality spirit stones are these five locations.
“Shortly after, each of you will lead two hundred warships through directed wormholes to plunder spirit stones from these five locations. Take as much as you can carry! I will report every one of your performances to His Majesty the Heavenly Emperor upon our return.”
No need to play by the rules in such an uncivilized place. Just gotta snatch what we want.
“Yes, sir!”
The commanders’ eyes gleamed with excitement. They knew this was a golden opportunity to earn merit and perhaps even compete for the position of Legion Commander in the future.
This was Shi Wumian’s leadership style—give your subordinates benefits, and they would work themselves to the bone for you. Dispatching these five commanders would maximize the credit they could receive.
Directed wormholes were a technology even the Interstellar Alliance hadn’t mastered. As long as the probe could determine a location, no receiver was needed on the other end. A wormhole could be opened directly to the destination.
Five wormholes appeared before the fleet, and the commanders led their warships through. The wormholes closed, and the warships vanished.
Shi Wumian’s fleet comprised 1500 warships. He had sent out a thousand, leaving five hundred. It’s beneath a legion commander to personally join the plunder. My job is to wait here for the results.
After a while, he grew baffled. According to protocol, warships have to report after passing through a wormhole, so why have all five commanders gone silent?
“Fleet One, respond when you hear me.”
“Fleet Two, respond when you hear me.”
“Fleet Three...
“Fleet Four...
“Fleet Five...”
The communicator crackled with static, but there was no response.
Shi Wumian frowned. Is the Cultivation World’s special terrain interfering with the signals? There have been precedents. Communication should be restored once they get closer.
He disliked having things slip beyond his control. He ordered the remaining five hundred ships to approach the Cultivation World.
~~~
After Fleet One passed through the wormhole, the radar readings nearly went off the charts. The commander was elated. This may be the location with the most spirit stones.
“Report, Commander. There appears to be an undeveloped, remote mountainous region with scattered structures below.”
𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚
The commander looked down. It’s true. Mountains stretch as far as the eye can see, with few signs of development. It seems that the people living here are quite backward.
“Land.”
A technician saluted before reporting, “Report, Commander. An anomalous force field is detected. Our preliminary assessment is that it’s a natural field formed by the excessive spirit stones in the area and their irregular distribution. The fleet is unable to land.”
The energy detection readings were abnormal. They had never encountered a situation like this before.
The commander frowned as a problem arose at a critical moment. “How do we solve this?”
“We can attempt to neutralize the force field with an energy beam at maximum power.”
“Approved.”
Boom!
A fully charged, white energy beam descended from the sky and struck the Dao-Seeking Sect’s Great Sect Defense Array, creating a slight ripple.
~~~
The Moonchaser True Person and Qing He were drinking tea on the Snow Mountain, and the River Spirit was bathing in the river. They all looked up at the strange caterpillar-like fleet in the sky, bewildered.
Haven’t two lines of defense been established at the entrance? How did this fleet get through? And are they... attacking the Dao-Seeking Sect?
The inmates on Incarceration Peak heard the commotion and witnessed the scene, their jaws dropping. They had learned of the Zhutian Civilization through the newspapers, but never in their wildest dreams had they imagined that the Zhutian Civilization would dare attack the Dao-Seeking Sect.
Guan Shanhai couldn’t hold it in and burst out laughing.