BOOM! BOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Zhi! Zhi! Zhi! Zhi! Zhi! Zhi! Zhi! Zhi!
All kinds of weird and earsplitting noises filled the inside and the outside of the temple. They were the sounds caused by the Immortal Cultivators’ army of penetrators that looked like torrents and locusts when they rushed forward and surrounded the temple.
Now and then, they were mixed with deafening explosions and hysterical screams. That was the small group of Immortal Cultivators who had broken into the temple and were having a fierce fight with the Cultivators who were defending it!
All of the Cultivators in the temple were prepared to sacrifice themselves. Like statues, they blocked the entrance of the gate of the temple and waited for the moment of the final glory. The only concern on their minds was the countdown displayed on the artificial intelligence behind them.
The second full strike of the “global sword network” had entered the final countdown.
All the anti-air magical equipment in the secret bases had been filled with an extreme spiritual energy that far exceeded their limits. They would certainly blow out damages that were ten times more powerful than before.
The defense shield of “Manjusaka, the City in the Sky” had been seriously damaged in the first round of attack and was not repaired yet. It was now a giant target hanging in midair.
This was the best opportunity.
“Ten! Nine! Eight! Seven!”
Everybody counted the numbers quietly, envisioning the picture where “Manjusaka, the City in the Sky” fell from the sky in furious flames.
Honest to the stars, they were willing to pay with their lives and their souls to make the scene a reality!
The drilling noises, the explosions, and the screams of killing were drawing nearer and nearer. The collisions between the penetrators and the earthly dragons had already affected the land below their feet. All the bones and muscles on everyone’s body were shivering.
But they were still persisting in the defense of the place. In another few seconds, the second round of attack would be fully activated.
“Six! Five! Four!”
“Sister Yun…”
Han Te and Liu Li were hiding behind Zuo Jingyun. Although shaking hard, they still grabbed the vibration sabers and the chainswords tightly without retreating at all.
“Don’t be scared. We still have a chance. Once we really blow up ‘Manjusaka, the City in the Sky’, the Immortal Cultivators will definitely be in chaos. By then, I will figure out a way to help you escape out of this place even at the cost of my own life!”
Zuo Jingyun covered the two little fellows with her cold mechanical arm. Looking at the Fist King next to her, she said in a hoarse voice, “Somebody needs to tell other people what happened today after all!”
“Three! Two! One!”
Despite the tension of the battle up ahead, when the countdown reached “one”, all the resistance warriors couldn’t help but turn around and watch the big, glittering, and colorful “zero” that the artificial intelligence had finally displayed, as well as the following rise of mystic rays, where thousands of flying swords would stab through the enemy’s heart!
“We’ve made it!”
“The second round of global strike has been activated!”
“The Immortal Cultivators are one step slower after all. This round of attack will certainly shoot down ‘Manjusaka, the City in the Sky’!”
The most dazzling fire was popping up in the eyes of all the resistance warriors.
However…
After the countdown above the head of the artificial intelligence jumped to “zero”, the pictures of soaring flames that they expected did not appear on the light beams around. Instead, they were seriously twisted as if they were suffering from a crystal processor virus.
In the next second, a short sentence of infinite mockery popped up on all the light beams.
“Zero… means nothing.”
Hum…
The control center of the “global sword network”, which had been humming and functioning at a high speed, seemed to have touched a certain switch. The colorful brilliance around it dimmed, the illumination rune arrays were shut down forcefully, the defense system was completely cut off, and the shining, gorgeous automatic crystal turrets all dangled down and turned back into wasted metals again!
“This is—”
All the members of the resistance were dumbfounded; their hearts cold, not having the vaguest clue what was going on.
Everything was dark except for the bright golden, enormous head in midair. The so-called “artificial intelligence” that was filled with the spirit, the will, and the beliefs of countless previous Cultivators and controlled the “global sword network” was still as eye-catching as before.
But the enormous head, which was more than ten meters in diameter, was experiencing drastic changes too, with weird contortions.
The flesh on its face was corroded within seconds, turning a healthy, charming head into a creepy, horrifying skull at a fast speed. Bloody tears flowed from the dark, deep eye sockets, and its pale teeth were clattering nonstop while it made chuckling sounds. It couldn’t have been more terrifying.
“What… What is happening?”
“It is impossible! Has it been invaded by the Immortal Cultivators’ virus?”
“Why? This is such a critical moment!”
Everything was lost at the last moment. The hearts of the resistance warriors hit the rock bottom from highly-rising mountains. They all felt that the world was swirling, and their heads were blank. They could barely breathe, and their faces were blushing and even turning purple as if they were suffocated!
However, the reality was only more cruel than their imagination.
They aimed all their firepower at the gate of the temple that had been opened, but they were never prepared for the darkness deep inside the temple.
At this moment, from the darkness deep inside the temple, hundreds of spiritual puppets flowed out like tides.
The spiritual puppets were like octopi with an enormous eye grown at the center of their bodies. They were made of a round shell and four freely extensible circular mechanical arms.
Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua!
From the sharp ends of the mechanical tentacles, cross-shaped tongs that were full of sawtooth were opened. At the center of the tongs were high-resolution crystal cameras. Almost ten thousand crimson crystal cameras were shining in the darkness and staring at the resistance warriors from the high stance without blinking at all.
It seemed that there were other channels at the rear of the temple that led to the outside world or even the surface of the planet, and the channels had long been grasped by the Immortal Cultivators.
“We… We have been tricked?”
“Trap! This is a trap!”
Looking at the cold spiritual puppets flying in midair with earsplitting noises caused by metal contortions, some resistance warriors finally realized what was going on, but it was already too late.
But even if they were dying, they couldn’t figure out at all what the problem could possibly have been.
The smiling skull, which was shedding bloody tears in midair, continued to collapse and fall apart. This time, after the pale mask of the skeleton broke into pieces, it turned into the face of a handsome middle-aged man who seemed to be carved out of marble.
What was glittering in the darkness, other than the middle-aged man’s face that was full of smiles, was the glass of red wine in his hands that looked like blood.
“My dear friends, thank you for your splendid performance so far. Your passionate and dedicated acting was indeed a soul-stirring and mind-boggling entertainment for all of us.”
The middle-aged man who looked like a marble statue sipped the delicious wine and continued with a smile, “However, even the greatest show has an ending. Due to the limitation of time, I have to reveal the truth to all of you now. First of all, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Wuying Lan, the owner of the ‘Manjusaka, the City in the Sky’ that you have been so determined to destroy…”
“What?”
“H-How is it possible!”
“What kind of trap have we fallen into?”
Including Zuo Jingyun, all the resistance warriors of Starlight felt that their souls had been shattered. The beliefs and the strength that supported them till this far completely collapsed. Everybody stared at the enormous head in devastation, like empty shells.
“Don’t you understand? Then, just look at the real ‘Manjusaka, the City in the Sky’ right now!”
Wuying Lan raised his voice slightly. Next to his head that was as enormous as a fiend, new light beams immediately showed up, in which the appearance of “Manjusaka, the City in the Sky” that was shot at a close distance was displayed.
Surrounded by the red and gold spiritual shield that was utterly intact and as fresh as new, “Manjusaka, the City in the Sky” was still hanging in the sky like the most glamorous flower. Was there any sign that it had suffered any attack at all?
“It is a shame that the picture of ‘Manjusaka, the City in the Sky’ suffering attacks just now, or rather, everything you have seen since you entered this so-called ‘temple’, is fake and simulated by the Immortal Cultivators.”
Wuying Lan said casually, “Ever since the very beginning, there has been no ‘global sword network’ or ‘temple of Cultivators’ at all. Everything, including your hopes, your missions, and the things that you were willing to strive for with your own lives, is false. They were all granted to you by the Immortal Cultivators.
“Even your organization, and the life of each and every one of you, was intentionally retained, carefully planned, and controlled by the Immortal Cultivators. You think that you were ‘free’, but your so-called ‘freedom’ came from our generosity. In fact, you were not any different from the sinners on the ground of the Land of Sins. You were all puppets made of flesh and blood whose strings were in the hands of ‘Manjusaka, the City in the Sky’. Your resistance, your fierce fight, your escape, and your ‘desperate counterattack’… Everything originates from the plays that the Immortal Cultivators have written.”
The 3D light beams around Wuying Lan began to display the pictures that had been secretly shot a long time ago. They were the most confidential combat meetings of the resistance organization. It was a sign that the Immortal Cultivators had truly infiltrated and controlled the entire underground branch of Starlight since a long time ago.
“This… This…”
Some Cultivators were at a loss of what to do; some burst into tears, and some held their heads so hard that their fingers were deeply embedded into their skulls. They staggered back for a few steps, before they collapsed to the ground, unable to say anything for a long time.
Some of them also looked at Wei Longtao, their general commander and the leader that they had always trusted, admired, and relied on most in suspicion!
“Right. There’s also your general commander, the omnipotent hero of Starlight, Wei Longtao.”
Wuying Lan’s smile was more and more intense as he appreciated the looks on the faces of the resistance warriors in great interest. “It is true that he was a Cultivator a long time ago, but he was smart enough to recognize the real laws by which the world functions. He abandoned the naïve, childish ideas that could never be realized and became an honorable, venerable, and dedicated Immortal Cultivator!”