Chapter 2601: News Below the Ground

“Wuying Qi is truly out of his mind!”

Li Yao also mumbled, “Today is different from the past. The crust of the capital planet already changed drastically ten thousand years ago. It is now in a man-made unstable state. If he makes things worse, it is possible that the whole continent will sink into the ocean, and the bottom of the ocean will be heaved by several hundred meters, transforming into a new continent.

“When such huge changes take place on the surface of the planet, it remains to be seen whether or not the residents living in the cities could survive, but the ten billion residents living below the ground, including the people of the Great Iron Plants, will certainly be killed in the accident. Will Wuying Qi really be heartless enough to do that?”

“Of course he is!”

Li Jialing gnashed his teeth and said, “Considering Lei Chenghu’s coldness and brutality as an Immortal Cultivator, the casualties of a few hundred million will definitely be regarded as ‘acceptable price’ or even ‘necessary sacrifice’. It’s not a big deal. However, since Wuying Qi does not dare to inform Lei Chenghu of the truth, it is evident that the victims to be sacrificed in his plan will far exceed three to five hundred million. Chances are that ten billion people will die!”

Such an appalling number silenced all three of them.

The quakes in the underground gaps that happened once in a while also gave them the intense fear that the rocks would close soon and bury them.

Thankfully, whenever the intense quakes happened, there would be no need to worry that Wuying Qi’s alarm magical equipment would detect them, and Li Yao could take out his drill of mystic rays to press forward boldly. Their speed was significantly increased. In only a couple of hours, they already reached the s.p.a.cious and flat tunnel that they stopped by last time.

The tunnel was already up ahead. Judging from the sounds, heavy tractors were rumbling by every once in a while. Hiding in a corner in the gap among the rocks, Li Yao released a few crystal cameras the size of flies to explore the environment.

The few crystal cameras flew out of the gap without a sound and happened to catch an overwhelming team of tractors that extended from this end of the tunnel all the way to the other end. It was impossible to see the star or the end of the tractors.

The team was mostly made of super-heavy tractors with a capacity of more than a hundred tons. They were like moving hills.

The tractors were covered in cloth. Based on the traces of the tracks, they were all fully loaded, and they had been driving for a long time.

Holding his breath, Li Yao released his telepathic thoughts and controlled a few crystal cameras to dig into the gaps of the cloth.

“Crystals? So many ultimate crystals of high purity?”

Li Yao was slightly stunned by the dazzling pictures sent back by the crystal cameras.

Beneath the seemingly plain cloth were loads of colorful, high-purity crystals, which had been repet.i.tively purified and were readily absorbable for the trainers.

Li Yao even discovered quite a few marrow crystals. They were all rare treasures!

It was obvious that the crystals came from a myriad of sources and were wrapped very hastily. A lot of them were not stored in standard boxes but exposed to the air randomly.

In doing so, not only would the quality of the crystals be affected, but they might also cause inflammations or explosions. The excessive radiations they unleashed would hurt the s.h.i.+ppers too.

Also, Li Yao felt that some of the crystals were whetted in a very strange way. They had all been built into an octagonal shape, with a hundred attack rune arrays carved on the surface.

Li Yao thought for a long time. For what purposes would a crystal be whetted in such a way, and why were so many attack rune arrays carved on them?

Three minutes later, it finally occurred to him that those high-purity crystals should’ve been used to power the ma.s.sive anti-air positions. They were the ammunitions of the crystal cannons!

The capital, being the capital, naturally boasted a perfect defense network with comprehensive anti-air facilities. The whole planet was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with anti-air cannons that protruded at s.p.a.ce. It was almost like a superma.s.sive iron hedgehog.

The crystals and ammunitions of all sorts stored in the capital were naturally astronomical too.

However, right now, Wuying Qi had removed the crystals and even the marrow crystals that powered the anti-air positions, s.h.i.+pping them to the underground world.

Controlling the crystal cameras, Li Yao selected another few random tractors and checked their carriage. The result was the same. Tremendous crystals for anti-air positions and even for stars.h.i.+ps had been detached and moved to the underground world.

“What’s the meaning of this?”

Li Yao blinked quickly. “The four families’ ace fleets have arrived and will launch a general attack at the capital planet soon. Such a critical moment is exactly when the anti-air positions are needed most. However, Wuying Qi destroys his own defense by transporting the crystals for anti-air purposes to the underground world. Has he given up on the atmosphere defense?”

Li Yao shared the pictures he saw and his questions with Long Yangjun and Li Jialing. The three of them discussed for a moment and reached two conclusions.

Firstly, Wuying Qi truly trusted the secret weapon deeply buried below the ground. He believed that the other defensive measures were unnecessary as long as the secret weapon existed. Not even a single anti-air crystal cannon was needed on the capital planet. He would win the war the moment the secret weapon was activated.

Secondly, the activation of the secret weapon required astronomical energy. That was why Wuying Qi was sparing no efforts gathering crystals.

Over the past few months, he must’ve drained the whole capital planet. All the crystals in the a.r.s.enals, the warehouses, and among the civilians had been confiscated by him. That was why those crystals came from a myriad sources and were not appropriately preserved before they were s.h.i.+pped. In the end, he did not even let go of the anti-air positions but moved all the crystals away.

Of course, not all the crystals were supplied for the secret weapon. A proportion of them must’ve been used to blow up the most vulnerable parts in the tectonic structure to tear apart the land so that the secret weapon could be raised.

“What kind of magical equipment needs to be powered by the crystals of a whole planet?”

Li Yao found it hard to imagine. “Is it a piece of the legendary ‘stellar magical equipment’?”

After checking the a.s.sets loaded in the tractors, Li Yao paid special attention to the soldiers who were carrying out the secret mission to s.h.i.+p the crystals.

That was because Li Yao had been haunted by one question, which was the ident.i.ty of Wuying Qi’s accomplices who helped him with the insane, appalling crime.

Yes, Wuying Qi’s fundamental supporters were the Imperial Guards and the militarists who craved to restore the glory of the Imperium like Lei Chenghu.

As long as Wuying Qi proved that he was “Blackstar the Great”, most of the Imperial Guards would certainly follow their ancestor determinedly.

However, there should be a limit to their inhumanity.

The capital planet was home to most of the Imperial Guards, who had lived here for dozens of generations. Right now, their wives, their children, and their parents lived in this place too. This planet was their home and their everything!

If Wuying Qi asked them to fight the four families, Li Yao believed that most of the Imperial Guards would not cringe.

However, if Wuying Qi asked them to detonate the capital planet, the home that they had lived on for a thousand years, and blow up their family members by the way, they couldn’t have obeyed such a command even if something were wrong with their heads!

Li Yao did not believe that Wuying Qi could’ve fooled so many Imperial Guards into working for him, to the point of destroying their own hometown and families, only through deception.

It was highly unreasonable that so many crystals were s.h.i.+pped to the underground world and that the anti-air positions on the ground were all abandoned.

Most of the Imperial Guards were Immortal Cultivators. Which of them would charge forward relentlessly without figuring out what was behind it first?

Therefore, Li Yao paid attention to the Imperial Guards who were escorting the tractor team, particularly the officers with flowers on their epaulets who were surrounded by powerful vibes.

As he scanned the officers more carefully, Li Yao had a very uncanny feeling.

How should he put it? While soldiers were supposed to be grave and serious, the Imperial Guards who were wearing the pure-black, first-generation uniform of the army appeared to be lifeless.

They looked so determined, and their movements were so synchronized that they were almost no different from machines had it not been for their breaths.

Li Yao wouldn’t say that they were devoid of the feelings of human beings. However, 90% of their feelings had been filled up by certain zealotry and piety.

“Come and take a look. What are those people?”

Li Yao shared the pictures that his crystal cameras scanned with Long Yangjun and Li Jialing.

“They look like…”

After watching for a long time, Li Jialing said, “They look a lot like the Nepenthe believers in the Great Iron Plants.”

“Exactly. The magnetic fields from their brains are very strange. Interferences to a certain extent have been imposed on them, adjusting their brainwaves to the same frequency. They are in some sort of ‘reverberation’.”

Long Yangjun said, “You can say that they have been collectively hypnotized, or that they are in a certain state of collective unconsciousness or ma.s.sive hysteria. Of course, it is not wrong to say that they have been brainwashed either.”

“So, this is the way that Wuying Qi has adopted to make the Imperial Guards work for him!”

Li Yao recalled the riot of the captives of the Covenant Alliance that he had seen in the G.o.dly Might Prison. The brains of those people of the Covenant Alliance were indeed similar to that of the Imperial Guards that he saw before his eyes.

Wuying Qi tried to brainwash him in the Seven Seas Grand Market. Although it did not work out, it implied that the man mastered some sort of terrifying brainwas.h.i.+ng technologies. He was almost a duplicate of the Covenant Alliance!

It was not easy to brainwash Li Yao, but it was certainly not a problem to hypnotize and control a few Imperial Guards who had a deep trust in him in the first place.

“However, we cannot jump to any conclusion only by observing remotely.”

Long Yangjun said, “It will be best if we can secretly capture a few Imperial Guards and scan their brains from every perspective. That way, we will know what is wrong with them.”

Li Yao was thinking about how to catch a few captives when noises echoed ahead in the tunnel.