Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Li Yao’s smile was immediately frozen.

“Well…”

He scratched his hair, his eyes wandering unnaturally. “It’s indeed hard to explain. Give me a minute and let me think.”

“It’s impossible to explain at all. It’s full of questions and contradictions from the beginning to the end, alright?”

Li Jialing jumped to his feet. “What’s there to think? You are coming up with a lie of fifty thousand words to trick me, right? I will not fall for it again. My wisdom has dignity!”

“Aya, don’t be excited, don’t be excited!”

Seeing that Li Jialing was truly turning red in fury, Li Yao felt that the whole thing was rather tricky too. “Brother Yao did not mean to trick you, but the whole thing was truly very twisted, complicated, unusual, and unbelievable. In fact, I’ve been considering how I should explain it to you, but I haven’t come up with the appropriate description yet…”

“Forget it, you don’t need to. I understand it well.”

Taking a deep breath, Li Jialing calmed himself down and said rather gloomily, “I know that Brother Yao did not mean to keep it a secret from me. It’s just that my identity is too special. I may be captured by Blackstar the Great any minute. His soul may invade my shell, control my brain, and swallow my memories.

“Therefore, whatever Brother Yao tells me, it may be learned by the fiend Wuying Qi. It’s for that reason that Brother Yao can’t tell me anything.

“I understand all the reasonings. I do. I know Brother Yao has your reasons. I just… can’t accept it emotionally for the time being. You too know that I don’t have any family since childhood. After I finally learned who my mother was, her attitude was rather subtle if not cruel. Since my childhood, Brother Yao has been the only family member who is nice to me without asking for anything in return. Therefore, after I discovered that I was separated from your little society, and everything was kept from me while you were flirting with Boss Bai and Sister Long, I feel rather terrible.

“I’ll be fine. Just leave me alone for a while.”

While talking, Li Jialing gave Li Yao a rather rigid smile.

“Wait, since you are so frank, I really can’t conceal it from you now!”

If Li Yao could still hold it back, he wouldn’t have been a Cultivator at all. He said solemnly, “There are two things that we must straighten out. Firstly, I indeed whispered a lot with Boss Bai, but when did I ever ‘flirt’ with Long Yangjun? You are free to decide what goes into your mouth, but you must watch carefully what comes out of it, especially when it is a matter of life and death! Secondly, fearing that Blackstar the Great may learn it is only a secondary reason why I did not tell you anything. The main reason is what I said just now. It’s too complicated and too hard to explain. Since we have a great foe ahead of us, I did not want to add to our trouble.

“However, if the incident is about to affect our brotherhood, Brother Yao has to explain everything to you. When I asked you to crawl into the ventilation tube to distract the enemy’s firepower, you went without batting an eye. If I still keep anything from you, how can I be your big brother in the future?”

“Really? Are you really going to tell me everything, Brother Yao?”

Li Jialing was merely complaining to Li Yao in the beginning. Not expecting that Li Yao was really willing to tell everything, he jumped in excitement. However, he pulled a long face after thinking carefully again. “However, what if Blackstar the Great learns it?”

“We will deal with it!”

Li Yao sniffed. “Wuying Qi is not a fool. Now, I have publicized the identity of ‘Black Wind King’, and the direction of the Black Wind Fleet has been within the knowledge of the Council of Elders in the first place. Even Qi Yuanbao has guessed that it was Firefly that swallowed the Black Wind Fleet. With his wisdom, do you think Wuying Qi cannot infer more things from the traces?

“I assure you that if Wuying Qi truly takes back the Imperium, he will certainly send a new expedition army toward the general direction of the Black Wind Fleet.

“All in all, the time has come for us to show our cards and swords! As long as we win the battle of Seven Seas, even if Wuying Qi learns everything, so what? He won’t be able to do anything about ‘Vulture Li Yao’!”

Li Yao slapped his thigh, his dominance surging out like tides, making him truly like an unparalleled expert who mastered the sea of stars—that was, ignoring the giant can of bubble juice that he chugged.

Deeply touched by Li Yao’s dominance and determination, Li Jialing felt that the blood all over his body was boiling too. The magnificent picture of the universe seemed to be unfolding before his eyes. Holding back his excitement, he said, “Therefore, Brother Yao, ‘Black Wind King’ is still not your ultimate identity, is it? Although you have fooled the Immortal Cultivators of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors who do not know much about you, I know very well that you have boundaries however shameless and despicable you look on the surface. You are absolutely not an Immortal Cultivator but a real Cultivator!

“What’s the truth exactly? Was Qi Yuanbao’s guess correct that the Black Wind Fleet was taken down by Firefly? But how was it possible?”

“In the next second, I will explain my identity and the whole thing to you in the most concise way.”

Solemnly, Li Yao extended one finger and said, “However, I have one condition, which is that you must believe everything I say. If you still doubt me when I’m being so honest, it will hurt me too much!”

“Of course!”

Li Jialing swore, “Brother Yao trusts me so much that you are willing to tell me the life-and-death secret. Would I still be a human being if I suspect you?”

“Alright, just prick your ears and listen up. I won’t repeat my identity.”

Li Yao coughed and said, “I have never lied to you since the beginning. I’m truly a Cultivator and a special representative of the government-in-exile of the Star Ocean Republic on Firefly. I did encounter the Black Wind Fleet, fought them hard, and won the allegiance of many experts after it was defeated. However, there were more things that I have left unsaid.

“Firefly alone was naturally no match for the Black Wind Fleet. Another country was involved in the matter, which was a powerful nation of Cultivators named ‘Star Glory Federation’, my homeland!

“I don’t need to tell you the specific coordinates, population, industrial and technological abilities, magical equipment research abilities, relic exploration records, and other secrets to you, right? The history of the country in the past several hundred years can be explained to you after the four Kurfürsten and Blackstar the Great are crushed. You only need to know that Brother Yao is the greatest living hero in the Star Glory Federation who has saved the federation three times, four times, or maybe even more. I killed ‘Skeleton Dragon’, the strongest demon expert at the early years of the demon dynasties. I once chopped the head of a member of the Pangu Clan and kicked it around like a ball. I also visited a world of ancient Cultivators covered in the dark nebula where time was frozen, talking and dealing with the ancient Cultivators and extraterrestrial devils in the place.

“I crushed the schemes of the Immortal Cultivators countless times, killed a ‘star child’ from the Imperium, and swallowed ‘Blood Stripe Virus’, a mysterious alien creature from billions of lightyears away. I made friends with a big shot of demons and made the largest organized force of demons in the entire universe surrender. When I burst into a fury, I even killed the director of my homeland’s intelligence agency and the godfather of the Spiritual Nexus!

“It’s exactly because of my feats that I became the idol of countless young people of the Star Glory Federation, to the extent that they called me the founder of the New Federation and the ‘nation’s father’.

“Later, my wife became the Speaker of the federation, my senior brother and my disciple controlled the largest capital group of the federation together, my best friend managed the largest intelligence agency of the federation, and my another disciple led a different special force that ranks second but is even more secretive and brutal… Huh, why do I feel that I’m even more awesome than the four Kurfürsten now that I talk about it!

“Rest assured, I’m naturally not the same kind of people as the four Kurfürsten. Considering that I was simply too great and brilliant, and it was impossible for me to cover my infinite radiance even if I kept a low profile, the federation would’ve been accelerated into oligarchy if I were to stay in the Star Glory Federation, suppressing the healthy development of other forces. So, a team of close comrades left the federation with me, and we came to the center of the cosmos that is much bigger.

“After I came to the Imperium, I did not forget to continue my training but demanded myself to perform to a much higher standard. I destroyed ‘Manjusaka, the City in the Sky’, helped the reformists to march into the capital, and beat up Blackstar the Great, severely humiliating the thousand-year-old ghost. Right. I also facilitated the birth of a brand-new virtual life by the way, who would likely make the civilization of mankind leap qualitatively in the next millennium and evolve beyond Pangu and Nuwa. In the meantime, there’s also the risk that the civilization of mankind will be destroyed, and everybody either dies miserably or ends up as slaves to the crystal processors and the Spiritual Nexus.

“However, I feel that the risk is worth it, because other than the mediocre enemies such as Blackstar the Great, the Alliance of the Holy Covenant, or the Kurfürsten, we may be faced with the unfathomable, ultimate destruction that is the Flood! Indeed, the three thousand Sectors we live in are not the only universe but just a tiny pond which I have named ‘Pangu universe’. Outside, there may be countless similar ponds that constitute a ‘multiverse’ together with us. However, a small spindrift from the Flood may be enough to wipe out the fishes, shrimps, and bacteria in several ponds.

“Of course, the existence of ‘Flood’ and ‘multiverse’ is not my own deduction. I just helped everybody solve the critical puzzle because I happened to know a thing or two about the language of the ‘wizardly universe’. Why do I know the language of the ‘wizardly universe’? Because I probably know the greatest secret of the multiverse, although I have accidentally forgotten it.

“Alright. Reviewing my life in the past hundred years in hindsight, I think those are some of the insignificant matters that I have done. I have become a minor celebrity because of luck. In fact, I do not feel that it is a big deal, and I’m certainly not showing off with such trivia. So, why are you looking at me with such a flabbergasted look? I am already being so honest. You wouldn’t suspect that I am bragging, would you?”