Book 7, Chapter 18: Unauthorized Access
After Sky City regained its mobility, it had essentially become a fort with two different forms.
One was its lightly-armored mobile state and the other was its heavily-armored fortress state.
The former allowed Sky City to move as it pleased, while the latter had the strongest combat abilities.
When the Deep Sea Anchor was tethered to the Origin Energy Sea, Sky City once again regained the ability to tap into an endless source of Origin Energy. At that moment, the entire city shone brilliantly in the night sky as if it were the sun.
The ninety-nine Sun-Shooting Pearls sitting atop the Arcana Towers emitted a dazzling radiance as a flood of Origin Energy rushed into them. The burden on the Arcana Masters sitting inside greatly decreased as a result even as Sky City’s firepower significantly multiplied in intensity.
The once-flickering barrier suddenly stabilized itself, but that wasn’t all — multicolored Origin Energy cannons and Origin Formations had also appeared around it.
At the same time, a sudden thunderstorm descended onto the battlefield as lightning bolts mercilessly bathed the ground in white plasma. The sheer destructive power of this storm of lightning was impossible to describe.
This was the Heaven’s Execution Formation.
While this formation didn’t have any special characteristics in and of itself, it was rare for any formation to be able to affect hundreds of kilometers around the targeted area. Its might was fixed no matter how much energy one used to power it, but its area of effect scaled with the energy it was supplied with. Thus, it was one of the most effective formations against large groups of enemies. The Harpies hadn’t used it against the Thousand Poisons Toad because it was only a single individual — activating the formation would have been a waste of Origin Energy. After all, even though Sky City had an unlimited amount of energy, maintaining the formation still put a sizable burden on the Arcana Masters.
Against the millions of Beasts, however, this formation was the ideal one to use.
The thunderstorm swept over the majority of the battlefield. Even though the Demonic Beasts below howled and roared relentlessly in defiance, their efforts to stem the vicious a.s.sault were all in vain.
The lightning bolts continued to mercilessly descend upon the Beasts.
These bolts of lightning were not powerful enough to kill a Demonic Lord outright, but their effects against the low-ranking cannon fodder were a different story altogether. The vast thunderstorm inflicted an almost inconceivable amount of damage to those lower ranked Beast soldiers.
Even though these lower ranked Beast soldiers were not very strong, they still occupied a noticeable portion of their opponent’s attention. The Beasts would never let them be wiped out in an instant like this if they could help it.
As soon as the thunderstorm appeared in the sky, four streaks of light simultaneously shot out, flying towards it at high speeds. The four Sovereigns had finally made their move.
Following their appearance, countless Demonic Beasts and hundreds of Demonic Emperors took action as well, unleas.h.i.+ng a coordinated wave of attacks against the sky. A tremendous barrage of energy exploded forth, disrupting the storm clouds and the formation itself.
Destroying a formation through brute force was the simplest method. Under these circ.u.mstances, it was only natural that the Heaven’s Execution Formation would be incapable of holding on for too long, but it didn’t need to. As long as it dealt enough damage before being destroyed, it would be enough. Beast after Beast had already been turned to ash by the relentless rain of lightning.
Le Feng, however, felt his eyelids twitch in surprise when he saw this.
If the Harpies were fighting the Boundless Sect, what would have happened?
Under the combined might of the Sovereigns, the Heaven’s Execution Formation was quickly shattered. Immediately afterwards, however, a new cloud of hot ash appeared in the sky.
Another terrifying Origin Formation was preparing to strike.
Le Feng had once heard that Sky City possessed hundreds of extremely powerful Origin Formations, and some of them were even strong enough to be considered forbidden-level formations.
The previous Heaven’s Execution Formation was a forbidden-level one, as was the currently forming cloud of ash.
Sky City relied on its boundless source of energy and its vast size to bring its true might to bear. It was truly and undisputedly the most powerful fortress on the entire continent.
Molten fire rained down from the sky, glowing brilliantly as they fell down from the heavens like shooting stars. It almost seemed like a picture of the apocalypse. The Sovereigns were forced to strike yet again.
They had to destroy the brimstone clouds.
“ROAR!”
With a fierce roar, a giant creature took center stage. It was nearly a thousand feet tall, and its body seemed st.u.r.dy enough to hold up the sky itself. This creature unleashed a punch at the brimstone cloud in the sky without delaying.
This was the Stone Barbarian Demonic Emperor. Of all the Demonic Emperors, it had one of strongest physical bodies, with a gigantic frame and a humanoid form. According to the legends, no one could compete with it in terms of pure physical strength.
The Stone Barbarian’s hammer-like fists cleaved towards the sky, ripping out a ma.s.sive chunk of the cloud.
A moment later, however, a giant figure formed from lightning appeared in the sky.
This lightning giant pulled back its arm, which was wielding a spear also made of lightning, and then threw its spear at the Stone Barbarian, shattering it into pieces.
But even as the Stone Barbarian fell, two more giant Beasts appeared behind it — a Golden Blaze Lion and a Cracked Pattern Beast. They clawed out, destroying the lightning giant in a single clash.
Immediately afterwards, a dragon made of wind appeared, twisting towards the two Beasts. This time, four Demonic Emperors preemptively rose high into the sky to meet it.
The Demonic Emperors and the wind dragon collided in a fierce exchange at the same time that the Beasts on the ground met Sky City’s impregnable defenses. In the end, this only resulted in a ma.s.sive increase in casualties. At this level, even Demonic Emperors seemed to be somewhat lacking in power.
It would be impossible to tell who was winning this battle for a while, so Le Feng turned his attention away from the battlefield and back to the smoke pouring out of Sky City.
About one minute had pa.s.sed between when the anchor’s chain first started clanking until it had stopped.
However, Le Feng had a suspicious feeling that the clanking sound was actually meant to confuse him.
After all, tethering the anchor to the Origin Energy Sea was no simple matter. It had taken Sky City two years to successfully release the Deep Sea Anchor for the first time. Of course, this was partly because they wanted to preserve the Deep Sea Anchor for future use.
But even still, under these pressing circ.u.mstances, the Deep Sea Anchor’s deployment was definitely a great matter. There was no reason for them to rush to complete it in a minute.
But from their earlier performance, it seemed as if that was truly the case.
Le Feng was quite suspicious, but on the surface, he pretended that nothing was wrong. Instead, he continued to casually wander around Perpetual Daylight Palace.
The two Harpy soldiers anxiously watched over his every move, worried that he would discover the truth if he got too close.
Unfortunately, even with Le Feng’s Purple-Eyed Eagle Aspect, it was impossible for him to thoroughly inspect Sky City from outside of it. This agitated Le Feng quite a bit.
At that precise moment, a large cart pa.s.sed by Le Feng, headed towards Eternal Daylight Palace.
He had seen this kind of cart quite often before. Ever since Sky City detached itself and started moving, these carts had been moving in and out of Perpetual Daylight Castle in a constant cycle. Le Feng refused to believe that they had nothing to do with the Deep Sea Sorrow.
But how could he possibly get a better look at the situation?
As the cart drew closer and closer, Le Feng decided to take a risk and seize the opportunity.
Right as the cart was about to pa.s.s him, he took a single step forward.
This step was extremely timely and put him right in the path of the oncoming cart. His move was so sudden that the cart was unable to brake in time and it smashed into him. Unexpectedly, the cart was the one that suffered the most damage from the collision. As it broke, the trunk it was holding shattered, and a large quant.i.ty of Origin Stones poured out.
Origin Stones?
Le Feng was stunned by this discovery.
Origin Stones were a basic supplemental item for all cultivators. Why would Perpetual Daylight Palace, which had an endless supply of Origin Energy, need such an item?
Countless possibilities flashed through Le Feng’s mind even as the two Harpy soldiers cursed out the Harpy driving the carriage. “Hey! Be a little more careful, will you? Keep your eyes on the road!”
“It’s alright. He didn’t do it on purpose,” Le Feng said with a chuckle, trying to smooth over the situation.
As he spoke, he began helping the Harpy driving the cart pick up all of the Origin Stones that had fallen to the ground.
Since these Origin Stones weren’t a particularly valuable resource, the two supervising Harpies didn’t pay him that much mind. More importantly, as Le Feng’s guards, there were quite a few secrets that they also hadn’t been informed about so that they wouldn’t inadvertently spill these crucial secrets. Naturally, matters concerning the Deep Sea Anchor were even further removed from them.
If they didn’t know about the secrets, they couldn’t reveal them. However, this also meant that they would be completely unaware if the secret was fully exposed in front of them.
What had just happened was a perfect example of such a situation.
In the two Harpies’ eyes, these common Origin Stones were not worthy of their attention. However, the fact that they were being sent to Perpetual Daylight Palace had aroused Le Feng’s suspicion.
It was only natural that the two Harpies were completely clueless.
Le Feng continued to help the cart driver put all the Origin Stones back into the trunk.
The cart driver similarly had no idea about the significance of what had just transpired. After quickly thanking Le Feng, he got back onto the cart and soon entered Perpetual Daylight Palace.
As Le Feng watched the cart driver’s figure pa.s.s the palace door, he chuckled, and then uttered a string of strange words before whispering a few sentences into his transmission box.
The two Harpies couldn’t understand what he had said, and they didn’t feel that anything was strange either. After all, Le Feng had already done this multiple times before.
They never even considered that what had just taken place could be important.
After the cart was ushered into Perpetual Daylight Palace, it made seven or eight turns before finally stopping at a storehouse, waiting for further instructions.
Many other carts, similarly filled with Origin Stones, had also stopped at this storehouse.
From time to time, Harpy soldiers would enter, open the carts, and dump all their contents out. These Origin Stones were then placed in the center of a gigantic Origin Formation. After a brief flash of light, the Origin Stones would be consumed and turn into powder. More Origin Stones would then be immediately added to take their place.
Down the long corridor leading away from the formation was a vast, open area. In the center of that s.p.a.ce stood a giant instrument that was somewhat similar in appearance to a cauldron, with a flame burning fiercely away beneath it. It hummed quite loudly, supplying a shocking amount of energy to the rest of the city.
This was the Sark’s Nucleus, the core of Sky City.
The energy from the converted Origin Stones was being sent here.
This was, without question, the most interesting aspect of the whole operation. The seemingly infinite source of energy, Sark’s Nucleus, needed to be supported by Origin Stones?
If Le Feng saw this with his own eyes, then he would definitely realize what was happening.
This was the truth behind the one-minute deployment of the Deep Sea Anchor.
Sky City’s engine was always extremely busy, and heat constantly radiated outwards.
Once the battle outside reached its most chaotic state, the energy output from Sky City’s internal mechanism would also reach its uppermost limit.
“Hurry, hurry! Another Origin Formation has been destroyed. Increase the incoming energy feed. Prepare to switch to the Light Shaking Formation!” the supervisor of the Sark’s Nucleus yelled, his voice echoing throughout the chamber.
“Increase? Increase with what? The Deep Sea Anchor has only reached the border. The anchor’s saturation hasn’t even reached five percent yet!” one of the Craftsmen replied huffily. “We’re only surviving right now due to the supplemental energy from the Origin Stones.”
“Then increase the feed of Origin Stones! The front lines are in a precarious position; whoever makes a mistake first will die!”
A Harpy ran over and barked, “Hurry! Increase the feed of Origin Stones!”
A few more carts of Origin Stones were hurriedly dumped on the formation.
No one noticed that a drop of blood had been smeared onto one of the Origin Stones hidden in the carts. In the next moment, the stone was consumed with a brilliant flash of light.