Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

At that moment, Li Yao felt that he had been locked onto by 108,000 eyes at the same time, as if every weakness on his body had been grasped by the enemy.

He finally understood why the awakened one was named 'Hunter'. It was true that few things in the world could escape his hunting.

Zhang Daniu was already scared out of his wits when he saw the container truck sweeping over. He could not control the direction at all. The off-road vehicle started moving crazily and trembling violently.

The enemy had blocked the entire lane. Li Yao and Zhang Daniu had nowhere to run. There was no time for them to make a 180-degree turn. In a moment of desperation, Li Yao shouted and expanded the veins and muscles all over his body. He ripped off the entire roof of the off-road vehicle and grabbed it like a surfboard.

"Let's go!"

When the off-road vehicle and the container truck were about to collide, Li Yao grabbed the back of Zhang Daniu's neck and pulled him out of the vehicle. He stomped on the back of the off-road vehicle and brought Zhang Daniu into the air like a giant bird. He then covered the top of the vehicle with his feet and used his ankle, knee joint, and leg muscles to ease the impact of landing.

Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi!

The roof of the tank rubbed against the ground, producing dazzling sparks. Li Yao felt excruciating pain in his legs. He slid hundreds of meters away and rolled on the ground more than ten times. At this moment, the off-road vehicle collided with the container truck brutally with earsplitting noises. A gargantuan fireball soared into the sky and illuminated the storm into a crimson blade.

The impact of the container truck was slightly diminished, but the hunter took the opportunity to jump off the truck. While he was still in midair, he took out two pistols from his waist. One of them was silver and carried the coldness of death, while the other was as brilliant as burning gold. The bullets that darted out of the muzzle were mixed with the brilliance of silver and gold, too. Dozens of curved blades seemed to be attacking him from various directions and constituted a crisscross cage.

Dodging the bullets of ordinary guns was a piece of cake for Li Yao, who had awakened the power of Cultivation.

However, the moment the hunter's bullet left the barrel, Li Yao felt as if the entire space had become exceptionally oppressive and thick. It was as if his body and soul had been entangled, enveloped, and delayed by an inconceivable force. He entered a slow-motion state and could only watch helplessly as several dozen rounds of bullets "slowly and unhurriedly" shot towards him. Even if he bit the tip of his tongue in order to forcefully keep his mind clear and move his four limbs and body inch by inch, narrowly avoiding the first dozen or so rounds of bullets, he was still hit by the next few rounds of bullets, causing his skin to split open and blood to splatter everywhere.

Li Yao grunted and fell off the top of the tank, rolling on the highway.

But in the next second, he stood up again and shot into his body. The bullets that shattered his bones and internal organs did not seem to affect his movements at all. He gritted his teeth and fired the last cluster of iron nails.

"Huh?"

Behind the deep black sunglasses of the hunter, there was a hint of surprise in his eyes. It seemed that he did not expect that his opponent would still maintain such a high motor ability and combat ability even though he had been shot multiple times. His original target was only Zhang Daniu, but right now, he was deeply interested in Li Yao. He dodged Li Yao's storm of iron nails unhurriedly and came close to Li Yao. He carefully observed Li Yao's bald head and said, "You are… that college student, Li Yao. You are actually not dead? What is this? Is your ability similar to the super powerful cell reproduction and recovery ability of a gecko?"

Gritting his teeth, Li Yao pushed his hands against the ground and attacked the hunter's lower body like two axes.

The hunter's expression didn't change in the least. He didn't even bother to take off his sunglasses. The feeling of being so thick that it was almost suffocating once again emerged from his body. It pressed down on Li Yao like a mountain or a deep sea, causing Li Yao's movements to be slowed down by half a beat. In the end, the hunter lightly kicked him flying hundreds of meters away, nearly breaking a street lamp next to the railing.

"Student Li Yao, there are many secrets behind you. What kind of people are you exactly?"

The hunter finally took off his sunglasses. He then took out a silk handkerchief from the pocket of his suit and wiped his eyes slowly. His eyes, which had been hidden behind the sunglasses all the time, seemed to be burning with cold flames. He walked toward Li Yao step by step and asked, "Who ordered you to approach the author of 'Forty Thousand Years of Cultivators'? How did you end up talking about the 'Ark Foundation' and the 'Apocalyptic Organization'? When we return to… the organization, can we talk about the questions?"

Leaning against the cement railing, Li Yao vomited a mouthful of thick, stinky blood. He felt that all the bones in his chest were broken.

Good, very good. This guy's strength was indeed stronger than he had imagined. However, hehe, it was precisely this kind of heart-wrenching attack that completely opened his nerve endings and gene strands. Li Yao had a faint feeling that as long as he could pass this test, he would definitely become stronger. As long as…

Li Yao groped his body. His face suddenly changed.

"Where are my energy bars? Where are my energy bars and energy gel?"

The hunter was getting closer and closer.

"Uh…"

Li Yao raised his hands and made a gesture of surrender. He said feebly, "Mister… I think there's been a misunderstanding between us. It's totally fine if you want to have a nice talk, but can you wait for me to eat something first? How should I put it? I'm suddenly hungry. I'm afraid I have low blood sugar. I can't think straight at all!"

The hunter smiled and raised his guns at Li Yao again.

Inside the chamber, the ripples of energy emitted by the special bullets targeting the awakened could be clearly seen in the black rain.

Right then, a cluster of rolling grey mist suddenly rose up.

The grey mist seemed to have a life of its own and soon enveloped Li Yao and Zhang Daniu. It even split into dozens of gray tentacles that swept toward the hunter's hands and the guns.

The hunter finally put on an expression that was different from 'aloof'. He shot all the bullets at Li Yao in the grey mist.

Li Yao vomited blood and dodged to the side despite his heavy wounds. However, he discovered that the bullets that were shot into the grey mist were corroded, jammed, and deflected by a certain weird force. There was no telling where they went.

The grey mist seemed to have a life of its own. Not only did it possess the power to interfere with bullets, it also seemed to contain the power to calm the soul. Li Yao's muscles and bones had been broken, his internal bleeding was serious, and there was not a single part of his body that wasn't in pain. Under the cover of the grey mist, a cool feeling actually surged out from within his body. His hot and restless soul also returned to tranquility as he gradually fell into a peaceful dream.

Before he passed out, he only heard the furious roars of the hunter and Zhang Daniu's screams.

…

This was the second time that Li Yao had passed out in only half a day.

In the same way, he also had that bizarre, inexplicable dream—not of an interstellar tyrannosaur, but of him living in a bustling, busy metropolis on Earth, lost, resisting, struggling, and even falling.

No, not one big city on Earth, but several different cities and villages. He seemed to have experienced several different lives under different identities. They were all his… previous lives?

However, in every memory piece of his previous life, an enormous silver-white balloon was following him at a distance neither too far nor too close. It was being pulled by a narrow rope from the back of his head. Every time he looked back, he would see his own image twisted like a mirror on the surface of the silver-white balloon.

"Who am I?

"Am I… Li Yao?"

"If I am Li Yao, which Li Yao am I?

"What is my destiny exactly? Is it the 'Vulture Plan', or—"

Looking at his twisted self inside the silver-white balloon, he shuddered and woke up.

…

Beep! Beep! Beep!

The pure white room, the smell of disinfectant, and the beeps from the medical equipment next to it were all inexplicably tranquil.

Li Yao observed his surroundings and discovered that his entire body was tied up with IV lines and unknown wires. He was lying on a specially-made hospital bed. The medical equipment around the hospital bed was not as advanced as the "medical pod" in , but it had already far exceeded the emergency equipment that Li Yao had seen in ordinary hospitals.

He listened carefully. The slight shivering of the ward and the feeble noises coming from below immediately reminded Li Yao that he was not in a fixed building but in a 'mobile hospital' modified from a container truck that was running on a highway.

"You're awake?"

A deep and gentle voice came from the corner. "How do you feel?"

The other party did not conceal his existence. Li Yao managed to raise his head and discovered that the speaker was the "Lady Grey Mist" who had appeared in the morgue.

The awakener seemed to be used to using his own ability as a code name. Recalling the weird grey mist that appeared when the hunter was trying to kill him, Li Yao immediately realized who had saved him.

Besides, he had already fooled the grey mist lady once in the morgue. She must've been alarmed. It was unnecessary to pretend that she was still unconscious.

"I feel good."

Taking a deep breath, Li Yao did not find any shrapnel left inside his body. His joints and internal organs did not seem to have suffered any damage, either, as if his memory of being shot was just an illusion. He sat up and looked at his bulging muscles that were nourished by various drugs and nutrition liquids. "What drugs did you give me?"

"That is a good question."

The grey mist lady looked at Li Yao. "Other than saline, glucose, and some special high-energy nutrition liquids, we didn't give you any drugs. But your body has amazing self-recovery ability. All the bullets that the hunter shot into your body were squeezed out. Then, your wounds were healing at a visible speed. What an amazing ability."