Those who had advanced to the peak of the Divinity Transformation Stage were all at least two hundred years old. Naturally, they had a lot of disciples and descendants, who, under the tutelage of the Divinity Transformation Stage experts, could mostly reach the Core Formation Stage or the Nascent Soul Stage without much trouble.

When an expert at the peak of the Divinity Transformation Stage joined a battle, they would often be followed by ten or so or even more squires, who would cooperate with them with lesser Colossi or advanced crystal suits. Those squires were mostly the Divinity Transformation Stage experts’ true disciples or biological descendants. Their combat abilities, loyalties, and teamwork were far better than the outsiders.

In the world of ancient Cultivators, those squires would be the greatest reliance for a Divinity Transformation Stage expert to compete for the hegemony of the world. They would always invest tremendous resources and efforts in their squires, and their squires considered their leader to be more important than anything else.

When Li Yao and Ding Lingdang were in the Star Glory Federation, their personal squires were managed by Wu Mayan, Li Yao’s true disciple. It was not hard to tell how important the squires were.

Right now, the squires of “Devilish Abyss” Li Jianyi and “Star Breaker” Song Huanzhen, an elder in their respective family, had all been deployed. It was obvious that they couldn’t have been attracted by Dongfang Wang who had already kicked the bucket. Then, they certainly had another target…

Also, considering the anomalies of the Deep Sea Fleet, it was hard to not think of Queen Li Linghai. Li Yao was greatly alarmed. “They’re so fast!”

More information came to the communication channel. “Devilish Abyss” Li Jianyi and “Star Breaker” Song Huanzhen had the highest Cultivation, combat ability, and position in their respective family in the “coalition army of the five forces” here. When the two of them led their squires to their commanding ships on the Silver Moon Ocean, it was naturally impossible for anyone to stop them.

Also, the Deep Sea Fleet, commanded by Dongfang Sheng, was observing and suppressing them from nearby. It was said that the four Kurfürst families issued new orders. For a moment, everybody was at a loss about what to do when the commandership was taken away.

The more he thought about it, the more scared Li Yao became. He suddenly bulged his eyes and demanded, “Cut off your communication with the battle network, block all the communication and information transmission channels, and turn off all the power and defense units on the crystal suit. Do not make any spiritual wave spread out!”

His warning came too late.

Long Yangjun and Li Jialing had indeed suppressed the spiritual waves of their crystal suits to the minimum as quickly as possible, yet the water around them immediately squeezed them like a landslide, resulting in the cracking noises on the crystal suit.

The three of them sank to the depths of the ocean like three iron blocks.

However, there was still the coldest wave that passed the trench that they were at. It was like a frigid wind that pierced through their internal organs and limbs.

Li Yao, Long Yangjun, and Li Jialing couldn’t help but shudder hard.

“Damn it. We’ve been noticed. Also, it was probably Blackstar the Great who could scan such a deep trench accurately with his telepathic thoughts through the dark ocean!”

Breathing heavily, Li Yao rolled his eyes and spoke through the point-to-point private channel.

“Right now, Blackstar the Great is still unaware that we have inferred his real identity. It is possible that he is gathering the troops above and below the Silver Moon Ocean. Do you think we can expose his real face if we march out and declare the truth to everyone?”

“Absolutely. But then what?”

Long Yangjun asked back, “Are you sure that you can stop his plan after unveiling him? Don’t forget that he is the founding emperor of the Imperium of True Human Beings. Now that Emperor Shenwu is already dead, who can say that he does not have the legitimacy to succeed the throne? Chances are that other people will kneel before him immediately after you reveal who he is! At the very least, ‘Devilish Abyss’ Li Jianyi and ‘Star Breaker’ Song Huanzhen seem to have betrayed the four Kurfürst families and taken his side.”

“It does make sense.”

Thinking quickly, Li Yao came up with a new plan. “Then, since he is unaware of your existence right now, if you hide in the darkness, is it possible to kill him directly in an ambush?”

Long Yangjun shook her head hard. “No.”

“Why?”

Li Yao raised his voice. “Are you not the reincarnation of a primeval god? Shouldn’t you have a hundred other forms? Can’t you beat him?”

“Primeval god my a*s. We are both carbon-based lives, and we have to abide by the fundamental laws about energy transformation and cell division. If I am as strong as you described, I would’ve slapped you to death already!”

Long Yangjun replied, not in a good mood, “Just think with your pig head. If the primeval gods were so awesome, why is it mankind who survived in the end but not the Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan? The air constituents and the energy changes on most of the habitable planets in the three thousand Sectors are no longer suitable for the survival of the Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan. It’s almost like putting the human experts on the primordial planets billions of years ago. They would find it difficult to get accustomed to the air and terrain at that time!

“Also, I am not the reincarnation of a primeval god, but an elite human warrior who received the dual refinements of the Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan. Essentially speaking, I am still just a common warrior, whereas Blackstar the Great is an excelsior warrior at least among trillions of human beings. How could he be killed by me so easily? What are you thinking about?”

“It does make sense.”

Li Yao mumbled. He narrowed his eyes and looked at the black water above his head where spots of light were bursting out.

In a trance, he seemed to notice a pair of gloomy, profound eyes that were staring back at him.

Shuddering again, Li Yao discovered that his team had fallen into a predicament.

At the bottom of the ocean ten thousand meters deep, in order to run away at the highest speed, they would have to activate the power units and the spiritual shields of their crystal suits to resist the pressure of the water and create a path for themselves.

But as a result, intense spiritual waves would spread out, which would be perceived and followed by the unknown enemy immediately. If the enemy was really Blackstar the Great, Li Yao was not confident to get rid of him.

What if they did not activate their crystal suits?

It was certainly not a joke. While crystal suits were not as monolithic as Colossi, they were metal objects that could easily weigh ten tons. How could the runners prevent their crystal suits from not sinking in the ocean with only the spiritual energy inside their bodies? If they tried to swim forward, they would only be slower than tortoises!

Now that the enemy boasted the experts including “Devilish Abyss” Li Jianyi and “Star Breaker” Song Huanzhen as well as all of their squires, it was only a matter of time that they laid a dragnet to search for the escapers. There was no chance that Li Yao and his companions could run away.

Time was running out. They had to get away before the enemy completely controlled all the troops in the Silver Moon Ocean!

“There is only one solution for us to escape right now.”

Pondering for a moment, Li Yao said, “It is impossible for the three of us to escape simultaneously. We have to send a great hero who is both smart and brave to distract Blackstar the Great so that the other two people can escape through the trench. Otherwise, the three of us will be screwed together!”

After saying that, Li Yao looked at Long Yangjun.

Long Yangjun looked back at Li Yao emotionlessly.

Li Yao: “Well, judging from your face, you are not very interested in carrying out the arduous mission of distraction, are you?”

Long Yangjun: “What do you think? Whether or not Blackstar the Great is reborn, and whatever scheme he may have, why should I care about it at all? I only came to the Imperium to enjoy a new life, and I’d lived quite a few years peacefully and comfortably here. But everything changed the moment you showed up!”

Li Yao: “It does make sense. Then, do you think we should send Li Jialing… Forget it. The worst outcome is just death. I’ll go! The enemy should be unaware of the situation yet. Chances are that I can deceive him and elicit even more intelligence from him. If we figure out what Blackstar the Great is up to exactly, we will be able to come up with corresponding countermeasures!”

Long Yangjun: “… What a great plan. With your wisdom, you will certainly be manipulating Blackstar the Great like a toy. My concerns are redundant. Then, we’ll leave now and meet you at the agreed upon coordinates!”

Long Yangjun waved the crystal fins next to her legs and swam to Li Jialing. Snatching the young man’s arm, she said, “Follow me.”

“Huh?”

Before Li Jialing realized what was going on, he had already been dragged to the depths of the ocean by Long Yangjun.

Long Yangjun even cut off their communication with Li Yao, in case the enemy followed the traces and caught all the three of them.

“You are really—a fast runner!”

Looking at Long Yangjun and Li Jialing’s shadows disappearing in the trench quickly, Li Yao gritted his teeth and unleashed his spiritual energy, swimming to the opposite side of the trench.

Now that he had decided to distract the enemy’s attention, there was no need for any disguise. He retrieved “Gold Vulture” at the earliest chance and set all the attack magical equipment to the active state, ready to launch the weapons.

As he submerged deeper and faster, the dozens of cold winds were gradually left behind. It seemed that the top priority for “Devilish Abyss” Li Jianyi, “Star Breaker” Song Huanzhen, and Dongfang Sheng’s Deep Sea Fleet was to seize the commandership of all the starships in the Silver Moon Ocean and to suppress the disobedient guys so that the fairly-large troop would be under their control. They had no time to bother with the runners for the time being.

However, the pair of eyes that were even more profound than the trench had been staring at the back of Li Yao’s head the whole time. The stinging coldness went all the way down along his spine, giving him the feeling of fear and intimidation.

Finally—

He reached the end of the trench. There was no way ahead now.

He could either sink to the bottom of the trench to be buried by the water weighing billions of tons or rise to the surface of the ocean and confront the owner of the terrifying eyes.

Calculating the time, Li Yao estimated that Long Yangjun and Li Jialing should be far away now. He took a deep breath and surfaced.

Hardly had the Gold Vulture leaped out of the trench when he detected the giant iron ball that was full of tentacles that were dancing crazily like vipers.

In the gloomy water thousands of meters deep, Li Yao in his “Gold Vulture” and Li Linghai in her “Hellstar” floated and confronted each other in silence.