Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Li Yao’s eyelids were trembling violently. He gnashed his teeth and spat, ”If you knew that I wouldn’t be hypnotized, why did you ask this Meditation Healer specialized in metal attacks to deal with me? How were you so sure that I would come with him instead of killing him immediately on the spot? Also, how did you know that I am not a pure refiner?”

Huangpu Shiyi explained, ”Your supersonic hands during the match and your continuous usage of ’Hitting the Cow Past the Mountain’ to spiritualize the materials for an entire hour required both enormous physical strength and an extremely sturdy body, neither of which is typical for a pure creation-type Cultivator!

”After carefully studying the videos of your match, especially where the shape of your muscles is displayed, I am very certain that you are definitely not a creation-type Cultivator who cannot even catch a chicken but a hybrid-type Cultivator!

”You are both talented in combat and in refining, and your combat ability must be good!

”It does make sense on second thought. After all, you spent your early years struggling and surviving in the relics of ancient battlefields at the edge of the sea of stars. Considering the perils in such environments, you would’ve been killed a long time ago if you didn’t have the ability to protect yourself!

”Then, the question remains, how good is your combat ability?

”I mean you no harm. This is an authentic and sincere invitation. However, I am just a pure refiner, and my combat ability is not even close to yours, even though my Cultivation is levels above you. You are just like me when I was young. Crazy, reckless, and decisive. I don’t want to be slain by you before I manage to say anything! Hahahaha!

”Therefore, I specifically devised this trap in order to test your true capability.

”I, of course, knew that Feng Ming and his Chaotic Star Gyro were not enough to hypnotize you. But I also knew that a young man who travelled in isolation for twenty years such as yourself would believe in nobody but yourself.

”From the style of your refining, I can tell that you are a confident, if not arrogant, man. You are ambitious, and you like to take chances!

”If it were someone else, they might’ve attacked Fei Ming when they saw through his faked identity.

”But if it was you, you would very likely enter the tiger’s cave, pretending to be fooled, driven by your curiosity.

”After all, in your eyes, nobody knew that you were in fact a hybrid-type Cultivator with reasonable combat ability. You were planning to capture the leader of the gang when you reached their base with this trump card. In the worst-case scenario, you could always get away freely with your combat ability.”

Li Yao was silent for a long time, before he said drily, ”What if I had attacked Fei Ming on the spot?”

”Then I’m afraid we would’ve been much more impudent,” answered Huangpu Shiyi.

”You don’t think that Fei Ming was the only one who went to invite you, do you? We have backup plans to test your true combat ability too. But I guarantee that they are less pleasant.

”Black Stone, White Dew, tell me about it. What is the true combat ability of my young friend Li Yao?”

Black Stone, the fair and stout fatty, smiled. ”Master Li Yao switched from absolute stillness to precipitous actions at an almost subsonic speed within 0.4 seconds. His skills in battle saber are quite proficient. In my opinion, his combat ability is as good as that of the battle-type Cultivators in the beginning level of the Building Foundation Stage!”

White Dew, the dark woman, spoke up, too. ”Master Li Yao’s speed in summoning the crystal suit was quite impressive. Within 1.7 seconds, 60% of the crystal suit had been implemented. I estimate that it would’ve taken him less than 3 seconds to put on the entire suit! It is not slow even in the circle of professional Exos.

”As for the Eight Arm Suit that he summoned, it was a masterpiece by the Silver Heart School, which seemed to have been modified profoundly and added with some decent combat components!”

Amazed, Huangpu Shiyi clicked his tongue in appreciation. ”Unbelievable, truly unbelievable! I never expected that my young friend Li Yao’s combat ability would be so good, considering his already incredible skills in refining! Combat ability equal to that of a Building Foundation Stage Cultivator, plus an Eight Arm Suit. They make an invincible trump card! Had I not been protected by Black Stone and White Dew, I would have been captured instantly!”

Li Yao’s face was as grey as death. He collapsed as if somebody had tugged away his spine.

Huangpu Xiaoya shrieked, ”What is going on, Uncle Shiyi? Where have you been in all these years? Why did you show up at this moment? How did Black Stone and White Dew, who were allegedly killed by Spider’s Thorn, come back to life? Who are you people exactly?”

Huangpu Shiyi smiled and explained, ”My original plan for this trip to the Skyhill Sword Seminar was to pick you up and kill Li Yao as a favor for one of my old friends.

”However, after witnessing young Li Yao’s arts of refining, especially his amazing hands, I changed my mind! Such a talented refiner to be killed in this place for a ridiculous reason? It would’ve been a shame. It was definitely going to be a shame!

”Therefore, don’t fret. I truly mean you no harm. I only came here to bring you away.”

”Kill me?” Li Yao murmured. He suddenly shivered and shrilled, ”Huangpu Shiyi, you are a space pirate, and they—they belong to Spider’s Thorn!”

Huangpu Xiaoya’s eyes were wide open. She stared at Huangpu Shiyi in disbelief while she stammered, ”It’s—It’s impossible! Uncle Shiyi, you went to Spider Den and became a space pirate?”

Black Stone sneered. He said in a sharp and high-pitched voice, ”What kind of bullsh*t are space pirates and Spider’s Thorn? Compared with our organization, Spider Den is but insignificant dust!”

Li Yao sneered, ”I don’t care whether you are space pirates or not. Huangpu Xiaoya and I are both important figures in the Skyhill Sword Seminar. If we don’t show up in a few hours, somebody is definitely coming to check. Do you think you can run away from the Skyhill Domain by then?”

Huangpu Shiyi, Black Stone, White Dew, and Fei Ming seemed to have heard the funniest joke in the world. They burst out into such laughter that tears were pouring down their faces.

While wiping away his tears, Huangpu Shiyi said, ”Here, my young friend Li Yao. Please take a look.”

He raised his six-fingered left hand. Halos suddenly spread out on the wall on the right side of the shop of antiques. The wall gradually turned transparent and became a glass window.

Outside of the window, it was the boundless sea of stars!

The Skyhill Domain had been left far, far behind!

Li Yao’s heart suddenly palpitated. Sweat the size of beans appeared on his forehead, but it froze almost immediately.

How could it be!

He had calculated that he was in a seven-floored plaza next to the hotel he was staying in. How on earth did he end up in a starship that was distances away from the Skyhill Domain?

Why was the starship so stable without the slightest bump or slope?

Huangpu Shiyi said, ”Are you curious how a seven-floored plaza turned into a starship?

”It’s simple. The shuttle you were on was specially refined by me. A piece of interference magical equipment was installed to the bottom of it, which could simulate all the information that I wanted you to know so that you would make misguided judgements.

”Also, this starship was refined by me personally, too. With the most advanced stabilizing system, it is as stable as stationary even when it is performing a space jump!

”You thought that you were still in the Skyhill Domain. So, you hoped to stall me and wait until other people notice your absence. But you didn’t know that I was stalling you, too, so that we can escape from the Skyhill Domain sooner.”

Li Yao didn’t respond. Every one of his brain cells was shaking violently as he considered the situation he was in.

Huangpu Shiyi was indeed a formidable refiner. The shuttle he’d refined had completely fooled Li Yao.

From this moment, the entire incident finally got out of his control and slid into an unknown abyss.

Huangpu Xiaoya gnashed her teeth. ”We might be out of the Skyhill Domain now. But so what? We are still in the Thousand Sails Space Zone, the home camp of all free Exos! As long as somebody finds that we are missing and lets out the message, everyone in the Thousand Sails Space Zone will take action! Since your starship has been ported in the Skyhill Domain, it must’ve been disguised as a business ship or a carrier. Its firepower is definitely not strong!

”Where can you run to?”

Huangpu Shiyi nodded. ”Xiaoya, you do have a point. When the Skyhill Domain finds that you are missing, we will run into a dead end.

”However, what if they are occupied by something more important and have no time to bother about you two?”

Huangpu Shiyi clapped his hands softly. More than ten light beams appeared beside Li Yao and Huangpu Xiaoya.

Inside the light beams were the pictures of the Skyhill Domain right now.

The first phase of the elimination matches of the Skyhill Sword Seminar had almost come to an end. Audience inside the match field was scarce. Two top 32 players were having their competition.

A few product release conferences, on the other hand, were lively and packed with people.

Quite a lot of tourists were gathered in the Museum of Sabers and Swords, talking and laughing.

There was a bouncing number which appeared to be a countdown on all the pictures.

Three, two, one…

Li Yao’s pupils constricted violently. The nerves all over his body were tense!

The countdown reached zero!

BOOM!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The main field of the Skyhill Sword Seminar, the Museum of Sabers and Swords, the product release conferences, fan meetings of the famous refiners, hotels that the top 32 refiners stayed in…

Serial earthshaking explosions took place simultaneously at more than ten important locations in the Skyhill Domain!

The explosions were so powerful that the anti-gravity rune arrays of two floating mountains were completely wrecked. The two mountains weighing billions of tons tilted in midair and smashed at the ground!

The Skyhill Domain had turned into a living hell!

Countless ordinary people and Cultivators were sobbing, screaming, and struggling in the flames, blasts, and earthquakes!

Huangpu Xiaoya was dumbfounded. Her body trembled beyond her control; she couldn’t believe what was happening. She cried, ”You—you blew up the Skyhill Domain! You’ve blown up the Skyhill Domain!”

Queer brilliance was reflected on Huangpu Shiyi’s face as he was gazing at the inferno in the light beams. He said casually, ”For now, nobody will notice that you have gone missing for maybe half a month. There will be enough time for us to perform a space jump and escape from the Thousand Sails Space Zone.”

Huangpu Xiaoya yelled. She jumped to her feet, trying to lunge at Huangpu Shiyi. But she was a pure refiner with insufficient combat ability. The barrier around her was triggered and bashed her to the ground. She screamed, ”Just in order to capture the two of us, you’ve slain thousands of people. So many innocent people!”

Huangpu Shiyi said calmly, ”It’s not just about you two. A lot of elite refiners have gathered for the Skyhill Sword Seminar. If I can blow several of them up, it will be a major strike to the Cultivators.”

Huangpu Xiaoya’s face was red, her eyes bulging. She shouted, ”You—you don’t deserve to be a refiner of the Huangpu family. You… you don’t deserve to be a human!”

Bizarre brilliance beamed out of Huangpu Shiyi’s eyes, as he replied with a smile, ”Of course, I’m not a human.”

Huangpu Xiaoya was dazed, not knowing what to say next.

Li Yao went tranquil again at the moment of the explosions. His eyes were hollow, his pupils almost purely black.

Taking a deep breath, he asked, one word after another, ”Then what are you?”

Huangpu Shiyi’s face was glowing. He said softly in a weird voice, ”There are billions of paths leading to the pinnacle of Cultivation. I only ask you this, do you want to walk on the immortal one?”