Chapter 979: 740 leaves
The doors to some of the buildings had been opened, with nothing inside that could be taken away, or rather, anything that could have been taken had already been taken. The doors to the tallest building were still tightly shut with signs of being damaged by external forces. However, it was clear that the force wasn’t strong enough; the doors remained intact.
Long Yi infused the doors with the power of the Giant, and the heavy doors swung open with a thunderous noise, a metallic smell wafting from within. Long Yi stepped inside; it was a laboratory. Using the Giant tablet, Long Yi restarted the laboratory. He found some data on phenoptera, part of which surprised him greatly.
In the past, Giants had conducted destructive experiments on phenoptera and found that, if measured purely in physical terms, the shells of the phenoptera could almost withstand the impact of a star’s explosion. Such a high shell strength could not be found in any other creature in any corner of the multiverse.
Even more surprising was the fact that these phenoptera, which resembled giant worms, were not even adult insects yet!
At what the adult form was, the Giants did not know. Since the Giants had obtained the phenoptera, they had only grown but showed no sign of transforming into adults. Tens of thousands of years had passed since the Giants started studying the phenoptera, and all that had changed was that the insects had gotten bigger.
The Giants had once tried to find the origin of the phenoptera, even conducting extremely dangerous space-time explorations with little to show for it.
But! It was not for nothing!
There was once a sentence in a report: "That world is very different, and I’m not sure if the data we explored is correct, but if it is, it’s truly terrifying."
Whatever had even Giants feeling frightened, what was it? When Long Yi wanted to continue reading, that part of the data was gone. It seemed that these contents fell under the category of classified.
Upon leaving the laboratory, Long Yi saw Ai Lin. Ai Lin shook her head, indicating there was nothing useful here.
"Anything useful must have been taken by Delas. We need to find him," Ai Lin said.
Long Yi nodded and walked over to the Array. At that moment, Little Zi was still communicating with the phenoptera.
"Hey, my insect brothers, what do you know about your true origin?" Long Yi asked directly.
The six phenoptera gathered together, spiritual energy surged, and then they conveyed through Little Zi.
"It’s a dark place," Little Zi said, "dark and devoid of any light. It’s a place where matter, spirit, and energy exist independently, each preying upon their own kind. Yet, it was there that suddenly a ray of light was born, followed by a great spirit, a great matter, and a great energy, all of which fused together. They formed a peculiar entity, after which everything around it began to become orderly. But the disorder tried to snuff out that light, and thus war began, and we were thrown out of that place at that time."
This story required considerable powers of imagination to understand. Long Yi frowned, finding it hard to comprehend.
"Did you tell the Giants about this?" Long Yi asked.
"No, because at that time, our consciousness had not been fully awakened. Our spirit was dependent on energy, and energy on matter. Only when the body becomes strong enough does the spirit grow."
"It seems that the Giants missed out on an opportunity to explore the unknown world," Long Yi commented with a smile.
Given the current circumstances, it was not within Long Yi’s realm of understanding, so he decided not to waste any mental effort on it.
"So, where does this Teleportation Array lead to?" Long Yi asked Ai Lin beside him.
Ai Lin, who was examining the Teleportation Array, made some calculations: "This is not a preset Teleportation Array; its coordinates need to be entered every time it’s used."
"Then we..."
"But it cannot cross Planes."
"Ok, let’s find a familiar coordinate then," Long Yi muttered.
Speaking of familiar coordinates, naturally, it was one of the public Teleportation Arrays of The Divine Auffa Empire. Ai Lin, who had studied Plane Teleportation Arrays numerous times, naturally knew the coordinates very well.
The coordinates were quickly entered.
"Please wait a moment!" the phenoptera said through Little Zi.
"What is it?" Long Yi asked.
"We wish to leave with you," the phenoptera expressed.
"You don’t want to continue staying here?" Long Yi asked.
"Yes, the matter and energy here are very scarce, and we have long surpassed the time for evolution. However, we are unable to evolve due to the scarcity of energy and matter. Therefore, we request your help. In return, I will serve you until the next cosmic cycle begins."
The next cosmic cycle?
Long Yi immediately pulled out the Giant tablet and checked the term; a cosmic cycle included the entire process of a universe from its explosion to contraction.
"This time span... is indeed very long..." Long Yi glanced at the staggering numbers, which were longer than his own lifespan!
"In the chaos initially, our consciousness had experienced at least thirteen cosmic cycles... This isn’t as long as you’d think."
"Alright, I agree. Do we need to make a contract?" Long Yi asked.
"Contracts do not bind us; we are not life from this universe, but our spirit compels us to obey the Giants, so we will certainly be loyal to you. This is also why others could control us using a Giant device. If possible, we hope that you can retrieve that device."
"Don’t worry, next, we’re going to find him trouble!"
Long Yi forcefully brought out the Cosmic Stone, its immense energy crazily spilling out, continuously replenishing the Array with power.
In fact, Long Yi originally thought that the Cosmic Stone Greatsword could supply enough Mana, but he did not expect that even with the use of that huge Cosmic Stone, the speed was still so slow!
After more than ten minutes, the Array finally lit up completely, and the column of light emitted a dazzling array of colors.
"Is the Cosmic Stone useful to you?" Long Yi asked the cosmic bugs.
"Yes, pure energy and pure matter, this... this is the perfect food! This feeling, it’s just like the place we were born!"
The six cosmic bugs appeared very excited.
Their birthplace?
Long Yi used the Giant tablet to search with "cosmic bugs" and "Cosmic Stone" as the keywords, and he was shocked to find that the Cosmic Stones were actually developed through the study of cosmic bugs! This state where energy and matter are completely fused together is precisely the state of the world of cosmic bugs!
Could it be said that cosmic bugs were born in a yet-to-be-born universe? And that the explosion at the moment of the universe’s birth threw them into this universe?
"Can this Cosmic Stone cause you to evolve?"
"We do not know."
"No problem, this thing is yours now." Saying that, Long Yi stuffed all the cosmic bugs into his private space, and also threw the Cosmic Stone in.
"Let’s go, let’s go home!"
The Array flickered, and Long Yi, Ai Lin, and Little Zi vanished within the Array.
After a long while, the large group of Mages finally caught up, but by that time the Mana in the Array was extremely weak.
"Inject Mana! We’re leaving!"
A few Mages shouted, beginning to frantically pour Mana into the Array.
But they were shocked to find that the Mana they injected was like a stone sinking into the sea, with no response at all!
"Everyone! Inject Mana together!"
The group, disregarding their exhaustion, immediately gathered their power and poured it into the Array. At last, the Array’s last Rune, which was about to extinguish, lit up again, but it was flickering unstably, as if it would go out at any moment!
"Damn it! The Mana consumption here is too fast! We can’t activate the Array at all!" one person cursed aloud.
"It won’t do! Don’t hold back anymore! If we can’t leave this place, we’re all going to die here!" someone roared, pulling out three Cosmic Stone fragments from their private space.
Everyone immediately followed suit, Cosmic Stone fragments kept being pulled out, along with various types of magical tools. Everything that could be used was put to use, and some people even began inscribing Runes on the spot, their fatigue completely replaced by the desire to survive.
"Activate it for me!"
The light flickered, and Long Yi, Ai Lin, and Little Zi appeared on the public Teleportation Array of The Divine Auffa Empire, just at noon. As the three stepped down from the Array, the soldiers responsible for maintaining the Teleportation Array were initially stunned, but then immediately saluted.
"Lady Ai Lin!"
The surrounding soldiers followed suit in salute.
"Don’t be formal, go about your business, I’m just passing through," Ai Lin said, waving her hand.
The news of Long Yi and Ai Lin’s first battle quickly spread throughout the entire Plane, and after they returned, a member of that Family finally made it back to his Family. But he was immediately captured alive by the soldiers of the planet’s Emperor, and then he confessed everything. Including the part about Long Yi leaving them on the Mage burial planet, however, they had almost drained all their Mana and could only send him back. He had originally planned to ask Delas to reopen the Teleportation passage. But with his capture, Delas was even less likely to open the passage now. The elite of the Family were almost all on that planet, and from then on, the Family would be completely wiped out.
Not long after, Long Yi and Ai Lin released a statement through a third party.
The statement had only one sentence.
"Delas, I’m coming for you."
And Delas, who had been in hiding on a certain planet, was completely infuriated!
He had carefully calculated everything, of course he knew that his disciple’s Family could not possibly defeat Long Yi, so he specifically instructed his disciple to lure Long Yi and Ai Lin to that planet. He then shut down the Array, convinced that no matter how Long Yi and Ai Lin struggled, they could never leave there. Although that planet had an Array left by a Giant, the energy required to activate the Array could be described as terrifying, and how could the two of them possibly do it alone?
But the subsequent appearance of Long Yi in The Divine Auffa Empire was enough to prove that they had successfully activated the Array and left!
Now, they were even directly challenging him, calling out Delas by name!
You ignorant youngsters, I shall see what skills you possess!
Delas nearly gathered all the Giant relics he could use, he had to ensure nothing went wrong! However, he did not seek help from other Ancient Powerhouses. In his opinion, he was enough to deal with Long Yi and Ai Lin, he didn’t want to share his glory with anyone else! He would not let anyone else share in the secrets of Long Yi and Ai Lin’s powers! Whatever secrets Long Yi and Ai Lin had, the fact they could activate the Giant’s Array in such a short time proved that it was a terrifying source of energy! And it must be enjoyed by me alone! (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, you are welcome to support the author by voting on qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)
