Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Looking at the captives, who possessed all kinds of bizarre appearances but were equally wary and anxious, staring at him eagerly, Li Yao suddenly had the feeling that it was all a farce.

Silver-blood demons, the Blade of Chaos, federal soldiers… The three forces hated each other’s guts, yet he was trying to unite them?

It was crazy!

Taking a long breath in relief, Li Yao said slowly, “What I am going to say next may sound absurd and lacking evidence, but please don’t be hasty. If you have any questions, wait until I’m done. I can explain the whole thing, and I can also explain…”

His eyes stopped on Suo Chaolong, a silver-blood demon who appeared to be a brawny human being, and Han Hutu, a commander of the federal army who looked like a crazy devil. Pausing for a moment, he continued. “… everything that has happened to you!”

Han Tuhu nodded. “I’m all ears, Major Li.”

Suo Chaolong made a gesture of ‘please’, too. Whatever the grudge between them was, the guy had saved the lives of himself and his many brothers after all.

Aside from the rescue, Li Yao’s terrifying capability alone was enough to win his respect.

Li Yao scratched his messy hair and calmed himself down before he said, “The whole thing is too complicated. I have to explain from the beginning. Ten years ago, I unearthed a crystal warship from the Star Ocean Imperium on Boneyard and jumped into the depths of the sea of stars together with Skeleton Dragon. Later, I discovered a new Sector that was governed by human beings…”

“What!”

Hearing that, Han Tuhu could not help but jump to his feet, overjoyed. “A new human Sector?”

All the federal soldiers were simmering!

Everybody knew what the discovery of a new human Sector meant to the war between the Blood Demon Sector and the Heaven’s Origin Sector!

The silver-blood demons commanded by Suo Chaolong and the low-level demons commanded by the Fire Ant King, on the other hand, looked greatly distressed.

Whatever internal conflicts they had, they belonged to the demon race after all. A new Sector of human beings was certainly not good news for the Blood Demon Sector!

Suo Chaolong opened his mouth, meaning to question Li Yao, but he lost confidence before he let his doubt out.

It had been long confirmed that Li Yao jumped to the depths of the sea of stars with Skeleton Dragon. But right now, he announced his grand return with such a leap of his capability. It was evident that he must have gone through a lot of adventures!

When Li Yao went on a rampage on the lone island, Suo Chaolong had observed his crystal suit carefully. The Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit had been completely deformed by adopting multiple materials and technologies that did not exist in the Heaven’s Origin Sector. Its overall style was vastly different from that of the crystal suits of the Star Glory Federation.

The leap in capability could have been because Li Yao discovered an ancient relic.

But a brand-new super crystal suit could only be supported by an enormous industrial system. It could never have been made by a random craftsman.

Now, the Blood Demon Sector was in great trouble!

The faces of Suo Chaolong and the Fire Ant King dimmed, but they were more and more confused.

If the Heaven’s Origin Sector had the support of another Sector of human beings, it could have attacked the Blood Demon Sector directly. They did not understand why Li Yao ran into the Blood Demon Sector by himself. Was he there to mock them?

Li Yao saw Han Tuhu’s excitement and Suo Chaolong’s frustration. With a bitter smile, he said, “It’s not as simple as you imagined. Brothers of the federal army, don’t feel happy too early. Forget it. I’ll just continue the story. You will understand everything when I finish.”

He hid part of his experience in the Flying Star Sector, but he told the stories of Iron Plateau, the Temple of Immortals, the Immortal Cultivators, the apocalypses, the Dark Forest Theory, the star child, and the Imperium of True Human Beings exactly as they happened.

His monologue did not stop until more than an hour later.

At first, Han Tuhu and Suo Chaolong had a lot of questions and almost could not wait to interrupt him.

But later, they were both bewildered, covered in cold sweat.

Possession through an apocalypse? The dark forest? Immortal Cultivators who regarded ordinary people as ants? The Imperium of True Human Beings, which was in control of the prosperous area of the three thousand Sectors and thereby boasted a much higher capability than themselves?

Compared to the unimaginably large concepts, the war between the Blood Demon Sector and the Heaven’s Origin Sector at the edge of the universe was like a fight between kindergarteners!

“That was my experience in the Flying Star Sector,” Li Yao licked his dried lips and concluded.

“At this very second, while we are taking to each other, the expedition army of the Imperium of True Human Beings is marching toward us maliciously by way of incessant, short-distance jumps. By the most optimistic estimation, they will arrive in the Heaven’s Origin Sector in two hundred years.

“By then, the Heaven’s Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector will have completely melded, which means that neither you nor we can shun the barrage of the expedition army.

“Before that, and maybe only a few years from now, a weird ‘minor apocalypse’ will arrive. As of now, we are still unaware of the nature of the strike. Maybe, it will be an attack by an intelligent entity of energy, like the ‘star child’ in the Flying Star Sector. Maybe, it will be even more uncanny and unpredictable.

“But it is unquestionable that the minor apocalypse will reduce, if not rid, our ability to resist the expedition army of the Imperium of True Human Beings!

“That is the first thing that I wanted to tell you all.

“Now, you may think about it calmly. Is there an inconsistency in my story? Did I make it up for a certain purpose?”

The federal soldiers, the Blade of Chaos, and the silver-blood demons all fell silent.

There was too much information in Li Yao’s words. Even an hour was not enough for them to digest. Everybody remained numb for five minutes before desperate whispers echoed in the corner.

Suo Chaolong, on the other hand, was rolling his eyeballs weirdly.

Li Yao keenly sensed what he was thinking. He calmly said, “I know what some of the demons here are thinking. You think that, since the Imperium of True Human Beings is so formidable and their primary target is the Cultivators, can you make use of the Imperium of True Human Beings to destroy the Star Glory Federation?

“Of course, it is a realizable possibility.

“However, as terrifying as the Imperium of True Human Beings might be, it is a nation of human beings after all. It is not hard to infer their attitude toward demons. What will the Immortal Cultivators regard the demons as when they regard ordinary human beings as ants?

“I estimate that, after the Imperium of True Human Beings conquers the Heaven’s Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector, if you are lucky enough to survive the battles, the best outcome you can expect is to be sent into the sunless mines and toil until you die!

“The bottom line is, in the eyes of the Immortal Cultivators, we are all the same. Insignificant bugs that are hiding at the edge of the universe. No more.”

Suo Chaolong cursed silently; he knew that Li Yao was right.

“Besides—”

Seeing that everybody was scratching their head and whispering to each other but unable to find out any inconsistencies in the horrifying story, Li Yao gritted his teeth and threw out an even bigger bomb. “Now, I’m going to tell you the second story, one that might be even more shocking for you.

“I do not know how I should comment on the story. I only want to tell it exactly as it happened. You can think about what it means exactly yourselves.”

Everybody was startled.

What could possibly be more shocking than the Imperium of True Human Beings and the cruel ‘Dark Forest Theory’?

Li Yao glanced at the Fire Ant King and took out ‘Chaos’ Ba Yanzhi’s Hidden Star Box.

He had made a simple adaptor yesterday during his spare time and connected the Hidden Star Box to his mini crystal processor.

In such a way, the picture of the key memories of Ba Yanzhi would be able to be displayed in front of everybody by means of 3D projection.

“Every one of you, regardless of whether you are a silver-blood demon or a federal soldier, has gone through brutal torment in Elder Nether Spring’s laboratory and made to look vastly different.

“I don’t know whether or not you had doubts before. How did a silver-blood commander such as Suo Chaolong ‘turn into a human being’? And why does a commander of the federal army such as Han Tuhu look like an out-and-out demon?”

Suo Chaolong and Han Tuhu both shuddered. They looked at each other and breathed fast.

They had been pondering the question in pain for the past half year but did not have the courage to face it.

Shua!

An enormous light beam was triggered to the ceiling of the warehouse. As the image and shadow fell slowly, everybody found themselves in the palace of the ‘Ultimate One Sect’, a Cultivation sect forty thousand years ago.

Ba Yanzhi’s magnificent image showed up in front of everyone!

“He is Chaos!” Li Yao said one word after another.

He clipped the most critical parts of the memory pieces to accelerate the pace, displaying the discovery of the mysterious black spring, the reason of the demon race’s birth, the process of the demons’ conquest, and the division of the Ultimate One Demons and the Chaos Demons.

All the captives were wearing a complicated expression. The mottled picture dissected their faces into different areas that were different colors, hiding their real countenance.

“This is the origin of the demon race,” Li Yao said. “Demons originated from human beings, for the purpose of living a better life in the barren world in the Era of Doom. Or rather, demons were just another form of human beings in the Era of Doom. However, the whole event got out of control in the end.”

Silence. Silence. Silence was the only response.

“You—you’ve got to be kidding me!”

Out of Li Yao’s expectations, the first one to jump to his feet was, of all people, Han Tuhu, the commander of the federal soldiers.

He took off the military hat above his head and clutched the red star medal at the center of the hat so hard that it deeply pierced into his flesh as if they were melding into one. “Human beings and demons share the same origin? It’s impossible. It’s absolutely impossible!”