Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

The mental devil: “Are we going to deceive someone with the carefully-woven rhetoric again? Great, I like it! What are you planning to do?”

“Very simple. It is even possible that I can solve all the problems that the federation and we are faced with without fighting!”

Li Yao said confidently, “I am going to convince Li Linghai and awaken the real precious things in the Supreme Emperor’s legacy, which are the right ways to fulfill the glorious mission of defending mankind. I’m going to transform her into a Cultivator!

“Think about it. If the queen of the Imperium of True Human Beings can be transformed into a Cultivator, and the four Kurfürst families and the assortment of nobles and warlords are annihilated too, is it possible for the Imperium to gradually grow into a country of the Cultivators in the next several hundred years, or at least one where the experts and the ordinary people could coexist more harmoniously?

“Even if the queen cannot annihilate all the nobles and warlords, as long as the two parties reach a certain balance, and the Cultivators’ ideas can spread in the Imperium under the protection of the queen, it will be of great help in soothing the military pressure that the Star Glory Federation is faced with and our subsequent activities in public.

“Everything above needs not a soldier or a gun. I don’t even need to move a finger. All I have to do is to persuade the queen!”

“Wow!”

The mental devil shouted, “So, it seems truly an easy task to persuade the queen who has slain her biological brother without blinking and who is about to slay her own son. The trip to the Imperium will turn out to be the easiest and most comfortable ‘excursion’ since our career began, won’t it?”

While the two personalities were in an argument, Li Linghai, who was surrounded by purple air and dazzling lightning, had already started to float toward the two of them.

Her speed was not very high, but the bolts of lightning raging like dragons were wandering in the thousand square meters around under the control of her telepathic thoughts, interweaving into an impenetrable cage that nobody could escape from.

Having made up his mind to take a wild gamble, Li Yao abandoned the idea of running. He simply dragged Li Jialing and jumped out of the ravine and gritted his teeth to confront the queen!

Looking at the young man who was not wearing a helmet, Li Linghai’s eyes became deep and complicated.

On her flawless and beautiful face, the invisible, transparent mask cracked and recuperated again and again.

She slowly extended her hands at Li Jialing, with lightning arcs spurting out of her fingertips. There was no telling whether she was trying to touch Li Jialing’s head or simply to cut it off.

Li Jialing’s lips were trembling nonstop under the storm, but he was unable to say anything.

With the sharpest telepathic thoughts, Li Yao shouted at the young man, “Hey, don’t just stand there like a food. It is time to kneel and cry out ‘mother’!”

Li Jialing swallowed the rainwater and the air hard and hesitated for a moment. But stubbornness beamed out of his eyes. He clenched his fists and held his neck high, not saying anything at all.

In the middle of the wild wind, the sudden rain, the rumbling thunder, and the bolts of lightning that struck the dark sky and illuminated the earth into paleness now and then, the three of them were mired in a weird silence, like three distinctive monochrome sketches!

After observing Li Jialing without any expression for a long time, Li Linghai finally opened her mouth. “You are more like him than in the 3D photo… I truly wish that you could live on, and live on well.”

“Not good!”

The mental devil shrieked deep inside Li Yao’s brain, “The queen is growing killing intents. She is truly going to kill Li Jialing. If your tongue really works, it is time to shoot it!”

“Don’t be hasty. I’m still considering what I should talk about. The key is my identity. I really can’t explain my identity at all!”

Li Yao was rather anxious. “The queen is definitely not as foolish as Li Lingfeng was. Having hidden in the dark for decades and escaping everyone’s attention, she must know a hundred times more intelligence than Li Lingfeng did. I am obviously an expert in the Divinity Transformation Stage, and I have such a powerful Colossus as the Tartarean Skeleton. Where did it come from? How have I been training myself? Which force is responsible for supplies and maintenance? I can’t explain myself at all!

“I cannot resort to the ploy that I fooled Li Lingfeng with either, telling her that I am a ‘secret warrior’ raised by a certain family in secret. The queen must know every family and every force in the Imperium very well. Should she casually chat about the details of the family with me, I will expose myself at any moment!

“Also, my ultimate purpose is to persuade the queen and transform her into a Cultivator. Even if I successfully pretend to be an Immortal Cultivator, all that we can talk about will be the true path of immortality since we are both Immortal Cultivators. What on earth can I possibly transform?

“Therefore, I have to admit honestly that I am a Cultivator. That is the only way I can debate with the queen and try to transform her without her knowing it!”

“But you can’t pretend to be a Cultivator!”

The mental devil said in a hurry, “If you confess that you are a Cultivator, it will mean the exposure of the Star Glory Federation. Do you think it is appropriate to let the queen know the existence of the federation with the characteristics and stance that she has demonstrated? Trust me. Even if she does not send out troops to destroy the Star Glory Federation immediately, she will certainly come up with all kinds of schemes to bind the federation to her war machine as her bargaining chip in the game with the four Kurfürst families. It is even possible that she will let the federation die together with the noble families before she claims all the advantages!”

“Not a Cultivator, and not an Immortal Cultivator, then who the f*ck am I exactly?”

Li Yao thought hard for a moment, and his eyes suddenly shone. “Should I pretend to be a Demonic Cultivator?”

The mental devil: “… Are you serious?”

Li Yao: “It seems to be a bad idea. But it is an unresolvable paradox. I, Vulture Li Yao, have traveled far and wide for a hundred years, but never was I forced to tell such a difficult lie!”

Li Linghai seemed to have overlooked Li Yao’s quickly-changing expressions and focused all her attention on Li Jialing. Her voice gradually turned cold as she said, “However, I am aware of the procedures through which the two b*stards Li Lingfeng and Wuying Lan refined you. You have been corrupted by them into a complete monster. I really can’t keep you alive like this.

“Moreover…

“Your life in the past decades must be very painful, wasn’t it? Trust me. There are ten thousand kinds of pain in the world that are a hundred times more agonizing than death, and I would rather you taste none of them.

“How dark and desperate will your life be even if you can survive with your body right now and your past? The road I am walking on is one of thorns and flames and one where nobody can turn back. I really can’t bring you together with me.

“So, just let me grant you relief. Close your hands. It will be like a sleep without any pain, nothing like the inhuman experiments you had in the past…”

Li Linghai raised her arm high, and the lightning arcs danced and condensed around her fingertips, turning into the sword of true dragon again.

There was no telling if Li Jialing had been stunned or was heartbroken by his mother’s ruthlessness, but the young man truly closed his eyes slowly, biting his lower lip so hard that his teeth were buried into them.

The muscles around his eyes cramped violently. No matter how hard he closed his eyes, he could not prevent the clear tears from gradually leaking through his eyelids.

“Wait!”

Now that an ethical tragedy was about to happen, Li Yao had no choice except to stop before Li Jialing and bellow without considering anything.

“You can’t kill him!”

“Huh?”

Even the queen was surprised at what Li Yao, a mysterious person who emerged out of nowhere, was willing to do for Li Jialing. She had just killed an expert in the Divinity Transformation Stage!

“Brother Yao—”

Even Li Jialing opened his eyes quickly and looked at Li Yao’s back that was as solid as a wall!

But of course, it was inevitable that the wall was slightly quivering right now.

“Who are you exactly?”

The queen observed Li Yao’s face carefully. Undisguised confusion popped up on her face for the first time when she said, “I do not want to kill you yet, not until I figure out the secrets about you. Back off now!”

She waved her hands softly, and the purple electric currents slashed at Li Yao brutally.

This will be a win-or-die gamble. Pop, if you are watching over me, please ensure that my fancy words will work and I can bring your old lover who was “innocent and kindhearted” back. Although what I’m about to say may be slightly in contradiction to reality, you certainly would not blame me, would you? I’m helping you to find back your lost youth!

Li Yao roared but did not dodge at all. A black light spurted out of the Cosmos Ring in his mouth and condensed into an arc-shaped shield before him.

Huala!

The purple electric sword slashed the black shield, and the blast threw Li Yao almost twenty meters away. His two legs left deep gulches on the ground. Half of his body was buried in the hard rocks!

On the surface, Li Yao was defeated.

However, the moment the black shield was condensed, Li Linghai seemed to be hit by ten thousand bolts of lightning. The mask covering her face collapsed abruptly, and an authentic, utmost shock beamed out of it!

Shua!

A narrow, long crack was caused to the black shield by the bolts of lightning, but the wound recovered soon as if it was thick liquid metal. It was even wriggling slowly into a cute black ball.

It was “Little Black”, born from “Black Wing”, the flying sword that Li Yao’s foster father left for him!

“This is… This is…”

Her face, which looked like perfect, flawless white jade at the beginning, was now even paler than ever. There was not even any hint of blood in her lips. She asked with a shaking voice at first, but then, her voice turned sharp and desperate, and her flames of spiritual energy flooded at Li Yao like hissing vipers.

“Where did you find it? Who gave it to you? Or did you steal it or pick it up somewhere? Speak. Speak now!”

Li Yao could obviously tell that, although she looked ten times more intimidating than before, her killing intent was quickly ebbing.

He was more or less relieved, knowing that he had won the first round of the gamble.

The queen was indeed aware of the existence of Little Black. Perhaps she had seen Little Black’s own kind in the mysterious world fragment?

“This is my foster father’s belongings!”

Holding Little Black in his arms, Li Yao wagered on the chance and shouted aloud, “He held my hands tightly before he passed away and asked me to carry it with me and find a woman named ‘Li Linghai’ in the Imperium!”