Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

The mental devil snorted in acknowledgement, raising its head in pride.

“Then what are you doing right now?” Li Yao demanded.

“Nothing,” the mental devil replied lazily. “After our discussion a moment ago, I feel that you are right and reasonable. Your words were such a great enlightenment to me! Yes, killing is not going to solve any problems. That’s especially so given that human beings and demons might be brothers of the same origin who should live in peace. How can they attack each other?

“Therefore, now that so many of your ‘brothers’ are rushing toward you passionately, why don’t you explain the ultimate truth of ‘peaceful coexistence’ with your deft tongue?”

Li Yao did not have the chance to curse before a highly-heated bullet swooshed past by his head and blew a giant tree in front of his face to smithereens.

The stinky smell of his hair being burnt immediately spread out.

More than ten Eight-Armed Demonic Apes grinned hideously. They were less than a hundred meters away from him now.

Every Eight-Armed Demonic Ape had four extremely long arms that extended from their shoulder blades. They also had two abnormal arms on their back whose joints could be switched to any direction.

Most of the time, they jumped among branches in predictable angles and at an amazingly high speed with their feet, the short limbs on the back, and their long tail.

The four arms that were spared carried a lot of heavy magical equipment. One Eight-Armed Demonic Ape was enough to blow out immense firepower. Right now, the dozen Eight-Armed Demonic Apes were opening fire at the same time. The web of fire was impenetrable and left a wasteland inside the forest.

The situation would have been less tricky if there were only Eight-Armed Demonic Apes, but behind the Eight-Armed Demonic Apes were the Blood Moon Wolf Raiders. Moreover, the humming sounds of the Mirage Falcons tearing apart the air could be heard from the sky, too.

The thousands of demons present could exhaust Li Yao with their sheer number.

Li Yao spat, turned around, and ran away!

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

The crimson feathers in the halo of demonic energy exploded right below his feet, turning mud into magma instantly, which left bloody holes on his skin. He was grimacing in pain, his veins bulging.

“Therefore—”

The mental devil smiled. “Killing is necessary on certain occasions, and it is helpful for the solution of some minor problems, isn’t it? As for me, the sleazy, evil, and brutal mental devil, I might be of some use after all, right?”

“…” Li Yao.

“I’ll take your silence as a yes if you don’t want to say anything.”

“…” Li Yao.

The mental devil laughed and stretched out its arms. “Very good. We have finally reached a preliminary consensus. Now then—”

Deep inside Li Yao’s brain, the mental devil suddenly expanded, its redness turning Li Yao’s brain into a land of blood. His left eye shuddered abruptly, and his pupil expanded like a blossoming flower. Bloody streaks rippled out of the deepest part of his eye and rotated, transforming his left eye into a bloody swirl!

Li Yao came to an abrupt halt while fleeing. His left arm straightened out. Explosive noises burst out in the deepest part of his bones. His every pore was spurting out thick, red gas nonstop that seemed to be the smoke of incense!

Covered in the bloody air, Li Yao’s skin was now a golden color, with silver liquids being secreted from his pores. Very soon, the silver liquids consolidated into a glamorous armor. The cells on his elbow reproduced and ossified crazily until his elbow turned into a high-rising bone blade that looked like the fin of a shark. His five fingers were enveloped in the neat, silver armor, too, which significantly increased their hardness and defensive ability without reducing their agility at all. The front ends of his fingers grew sharp claws resembling those of dinosaurs and tigers. After a slight shake, the sound of air being torn apart could already be heard.

He felt that his palm was itching. Then, a half-round pearl which looked like a red crystal protruded out of the center of his palm. Deep red streaks were swimming delightfully like fish inside the pearl.

“Hu…”

Li Yao could not help but shiver and moan in great satisfaction. His body was like a volcano that was spurting out the most furious magma after billions of years of dormancy!

The enhancement of his body was already gratifying enough, and the improvement of his senses and his brain gave him a feeling that he had been reborn!

Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua!

In the moment, his eyes, ears, and nose felt incredibly refreshed. The lights, the soundwaves, and all kinds of particles were mixed together.

The rattling noise of the tree leaves, the faint body scent of the enemies, and the ever-changing shadows in the forest… All that information and more collided brutally inside Li Yao’s brain, breaking into tiny, golden fragments before they were reconstructed into virtual battlefields.

Everything inside the virtual battlefields was under Li Yao’s control. He knew the position and the route of attack of every enemy and had even begun to analyze the capability of the enemy with their movement speed and breathing frequency.

Shua! Shua! Shua!

The battlefields continued increasing, changing from one to two, to four, to eight, to sixteen, to thirty-two, to sixty-four!

The sixty-four virtual battlefields were running at the same time, precisely simulating the potential changes of the situation after he adopted sixty-four different tactics so that he could select the best tactical option.

My computational ability has significantly improved again!

Despite the excruciating pain in his brain, it was a pleasant surprise for Li Yao.

Ever since he advanced into the superlative height of the Core Formation Stage, his computational ability had remained stagnant. He had thought that it was the ceiling of the Core Formation Stage and did not expect that he would break the barrier at this moment!

After perceiving his brain cells in 0.01 seconds, he immediately realized that his soaring computation ability boiled down to the vastly changed brain cells.

Brain cells were among the most mysterious cells in a human body, and their greatest feature was that they were undividable and uncopiable.

Most of the cells in a human body, such as the liver and muscles, could divide and reproduced. One could stimulate the cells with their spiritual energy in training to speed up the division and reproduction. The weak, old cells withered, but stronger, new cells were born and replaced them.

Brain cells differed to other cells in that they could not be divided or reproduced.

The number of brain cells was fixed the moment one was born, which was approximately fourteen billion and would dwindle as one’s life went on.

Starting from their twenties, the brain cells of every adult would reduce by around a hundred thousand until they died.

If their parents were both Cultivators, and their bloodline was stronger, it was possible that the number of their brain cells would be larger when they were born—say, it could be more than twenty billion. But correspondingly, after their spiritual root was awakened and they embarked on the path of Cultivation, they would burn their soul every once in a while, which meant that the consumption rate of their brain cells was multiple times higher than that of ordinary people, too.

It was also the biggest factor that limited the longevity of the Cultivators.

It was true that Cultivators could train their body until it was as hard as steel. They were not scared of fire or flood, and they were immune to most diseases.

For the stronger Cultivators, they could even suppress cancer cells with their own strength!

However, even if a Cultivator was never engaged in combat and attached great importance to body fitness, their body might be as healthy and strong as a young person, but their withering brain cells were irreversible.

In the end, because of the fatigue of their brain cells, they might succumb to brain death even though their body was immaculate!

But right now, Li Yao had discovered that, when part of his brain cells activated the primeval state through atavism, they began to boast abilities, however feeble, of division and reproduction.

While his original brain cells were withering, new brain cells were being produced incessantly!

Li Yao was overjoyed by his findings.

“This is the ultimate form that I can build right now!” There was pride and expectation in the mental devil’s voice. “The enhancement that the Blood Stripe Virus performed on living creatures is just based on their natural instincts. They do not have systematic theories. Therefore, the secret arts of training of the demon race are indeed of tremendous help for us!

“I have activated 1,354 segments of your recessive genes with the gene map that Jin Xinyue provided, allowing you to display the features of seventeen ferocious beasts!

“Right now, you are ten times stronger than Yan Xibei was!

“The preliminary gene maps are already enough to activate such terrifying combat ability. If we manage to get the most sophisticated gene maps inside the Pantheon of Demons, we will certainly be able to produce the strongest apocalyptic body ever! Haha. Hahahaha!”

“Can you please not laugh so bloodthirstily?” requested Li Yao.

“Not a problem.” The mental devil immediately regained its previous calmness and said mildly, “I can even remove all the ‘bloodthirsty’, ‘evil’ strength and stop them from ‘corrupting’ your body so that you are talk about your noble ideals of ‘peaceful coexistence’ with your brother demons. How does that sound?”

“I said nothing!”

Shua!

Li Yao’s feet stomped on a branch heavily, and the thick, tensile branch sprung Li Yao to the Eight-Armed Demonic Apes like a spring.

The Eight-Armed Demonic Apes did not expect that he would be bold enough to counterattack. They were all slightly dazed, but they soon roared and lunged at their enemy, waving their bone blades and chainswords.

After his computational ability broke the limits, Li Yao felt that he was placed in the middle of thick glue. Time slowed, and the ruthless-looking, crazily-yelling Eight-Armed Demonic Apes all turned into slow sloths for him.

Li Yao dodged between the bullets, lasers, acid, and venomous liquids that they spurted out unhurriedly. Their blades and firearms seemed to have turned into slates and steps for him on which he was dancing a dance of lightning. All the weapons that were touched by the tip of his feet slightly altered their direction.

As a result, the blades of the Eight-Armed Demonic Apes kissed their companions, and the bullets and acid all hit their teammates nearby precisely in the head, too. Sparks of blood were spluttering everywhere. A bloody mist seemed to be rising inside the obscure forest!

Hooo!

Before the dead bodies of the Eight-Armed Demonic Apes fell to the ground, dozens of streaks of whiteness lunged close. Their body size expanded while they were still in midair. Their pure white fur was ripped apart, revealing the tattoos that looked like bloody crescent moons!

The Blood Moon Wolf Raiders in their ultimate form were more like combinations of wolves and bears than just wolves. They were almost five meters tall when they stood up, and they gazed at Li Yao with their eyes that looked like two orange lanterns!