Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

"Fine, you're the boss."

Tang Ka mumbled a complaint and went for medicines and heaters.

However, they didn't keep Zhou Xiuyun and her daughter in the cold room, mainly because the environment there was too horrible. It was possible that the little girl would really fall sick if she stayed any longer.

It was the first time that the little girl breathed in fresh air since half a month ago. She couldn't be happier when she crawled and ran in the aisles in the supermarket. Her giggles could be heard throughout the place.

Although Tang Ka and Chu Zhiyun had seen a lot of innocent kids from the movies of the Imperium, it still felt different when they saw one in the flesh.

As if they had encountered a creature that was entirely different from themselves, they were greatly curious about the girl named Tiantian.

After drinking up the formula that Chu Zhiyun made for her in person, Tiantian grew even more intimate with her. She kept climbing on Chu Zhiyun's body and burying her head in Chu Zhiyun's arms.

Chu Zhiyun appeared both awkward and confused, as if she were holding a fragile glass, before she smiled genuinely.

"Don't climb on me. Be a good girl. Careful!"

She lowered her voice and clumsily talked to the little kid.

There was a special area in the supermarket dedicated to children. In this area, not only were all sorts of toys sold, but there were also a pool of ocean balls and a plastic castle, which became a paradise for Tiantian. She threw a ball at Tang Ka and then gave a toy apple to Chu Zhiyun while smelling it as if it were a real apple.

Tang Ka and Chu Zhiyun were completely fascinated by the fairy.

Zhou Xiuyun had been observing them timidly, as if she were at their mercy. The poor woman did not really have a choice either.

The big kids and the little kid played for half a day until the sunset. Then, they realized the cruel reality as the air turned cold.

"Monitor, it's time to make a decision."

Looking at Tiantian who had finally fallen asleep in her mother's arms after crazy fun, Tang Ka asked, "What… should we do?

"Tomorrow is the last day of the ultimate test."

Chu Zhiyun said, upset, "Let's wait until tomorrow."

It was definitely not a good answer but bordered on a lie to themselves.

Tang Ka, however, understood Chu Zhiyun very well, because it was exactly what he had in mind too.

The longer he stayed with Tiantian, the less willing he was to give the ignorant child away to the holy temple where she would be transformed into someone like him.

Tang Ka then remembered the people that he saw in the movies, TV series, and commercials from the Imperium. Those people seemed healthy, clean, and happy. Even when they were in pain and sad, they could still unleash their feelings by roaring and crying without any concerns.

It seemed their lives were "realer" than the lives of those in the Covenant Alliance. Gradually lost in the tempting illusions, Tang Ka wondered whether he craved to become a Purger or a target to be purged.

"You will stay here tonight. Try to prepare more food and water-cleaning cartridges, got it?"

Squatting and petting Tiantian, Chu Zhiyun said to Zhou Xiuyun, "Tomorrow. We'll make a decision tomorrow about what we will do!"

Zhou Xiuyun nodded quickly and shed dirty tears again. She said softly, "Thank you! Thank you! I knew that you're good people!"

Good people?

Tang Ka was not sure.

According to the laws in the Covenant Alliance, they were probably the worst villains who had been enticed by extraterrestrial devils without knowing it.

With complicated feelings, they returned to their rendezvous point.

After six days of the "ultimate test", half of the participants had been eliminated, and the remaining students all kept a distance from each other.

Everybody was deep in thought. Their faces and their eyes were covered in vague mists, as if everybody had got a secret.

After only six days, all the students seem to have been reborn.

Tang Ka thought to himself. I wonder what they came across in their purge missions. Did they encounter their 'Zhou Xiuyun' but they would rather not talk about it?

This enormous city had only been occupied for ten days, and it was natural that some survivors were still hiding. Tang Ka thought that it was a reasonable guess.

Liao Meng, however, was still staring at Tang Ka ruthlessly like a rabid dog that was going to bite someone.

It was rather uncanny that this guy was still not eliminated after two consecutive losses of self-control.

Everybody was particularly reticent on the way back to the camp, including Li Yao who was in Tang Ka's head.

After the lights in the camp were turned off and Tang Ka closed his eyes, he couldn't help but call Li Yao, "Grandpa Yao, are you still there? Why are you not talking? Also, I sense that your soul waves are very drastic. You seem very… angry. Is that my illusion?"

"No, it's not. I'm indeed very angry, and I have to control myself so that my fury will not flood out of your pores and raze this camp to the ground," said Li Yao coldly, one word after another.

"Well…"

Tang Ka was surprised. "Why?"

Although he didn't know much about this mysterious Grandpa Yao, he had found Grandpa Yao cheerful and optimistic after a week of his company, as if the man was never really upset about anything.

"I'm angry for four reasons."

Li Yao said, "Firstly, I sensed nobody in the cold room in the supermarket in the previous five days. Although I'm unable to sense things when I'm in your body, that woman who calls herself Zhou Xiuyun is not an Immortal Cultivator who can freely control her breath and heartbeat but an ordinary person, and I should've been able to hear her even though the wall of the cold room was thick.

"There can only be two explanations for that: either my senses were more weakened than I thought, or she never hid in there before today."

"Well…"

Tang Ka's eyes bulged, and he breathed hastily. "What do you mean? There was nobody in the cold room, and she didn't hide there until today?"

"Secondly…"

Ignoring Tang Ka, Li Yao continued his analysis, "In case you didn't notice, the very first thing that Tiantian had after she came out was the formula that your monitor made for her. I don't know if you people can understand parental love, but in Imperium… or any places other than the Covenant Alliance, a real mother wouldn't have asked someone else to make food for her daughter in such a scenario.

"Thirdly, do you remember what you were doing when Zhou Xiuyun bumped into the shelves? At that time, you were roaming in the supermarket with your monitor in the fancy clothes from the Imperium. You weren't 'purging' anything at all.

"If you were Zhou Xiuyun, a woman who secretly ran out to get hot water and medicines for your child after hiding in a cold room for half a month, only to accidentally see two teenagers who were dressed like the natives of the Imperium, what would you think?

"Would you think that those teenagers were civilians hiding in the supermarket just like you, or would you think that the teenagers were whimsically teaching themselves to be 'Lurkers' while they were taking part in an 'ultimate test'?

"Don't forget that woman's self-introduction. She claimed to be a family member of an officer in the local garrison, so she couldn't have been completely ignorant of the Covenant Alliance. She knew the classic look of the Covenant Alliance people, which was nothing like how you appeared!

"But what did she say when she met you? 'Please don't kill us'. In other words, even though you were not wearing the standard uniform of the Covenant Alliance, and you obviously showed that you had feelings, she did not mistake you for two civilians of the Imperium at all. Why?"

Tang Ka's heart was frozen at first, before it was shattered and absorbed into a bottomless hole.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

The young man was almost crying. "That's just your speculation, right? You don't have any proof. What if she were only too nervous?"

"Fourthly, the most important proof…"

Li Yao sighed and said, "The map that she took out and the special shelter that she talked about are lies. That place does not exist at all. It's only a trap for you."

"How do you know?"

Tang Ka blurted out, "How do you know that the map is fake?"

"Because I'm in possession of the coordinates of all the real military shelters on this planet."

Li Yao said casually, "And the shelter that this 'Zhou Xiuyun' mentioned is not among them."

Backed by the whole Imperium of True Human Beings, it was not a problem for Li Yao to get a detailed list and description of the military bases and shelters on this planet either through General Lei Chenghu, Empress Dowager Li Linghai, or through the young emperor himself.