Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

As Jin Xinyue grew more and more daunting, Jin Tuyi gradually lost all his vigor.

He seemed to have finally put down the heavy burden on his shoulder, a burden that he had gritted his teeth to walk with for a long time. He was finally given a chance to take a rest, perhaps a permanent one.

“I know that you will live up to your ambitions. That’s more like Jin Tuyi’s daughter!”

Holding the handrail, Jin Tuyi coughed but smiled in great comfort. “Now, let’s get started with you becoming the Dark Lady of Nine Heavens!

“Elder Nether Spring has already started spreading the Demon God Virus on a large scale in the Nether Spring Kingdom. The situation will get out of control very soon, and the disease will soon affect the rest of the kingdoms. We must take action immediately!

“Since your blood is the key to the Demon God Virus, we must highlight the point in our announcements. We will build you up into the most kindhearted, the most lenient, and the greatest saintess ever to win the support of the middle-level and bottom-level demons!

“I will help you make decisions in the Pantheon of Demons, and you will become the most trusted saintess for the middle-level and bottom-level demons through propaganda. Therefore, you will certainly become the most powerful Dark Lady of Nine Heavens in the history of the Blood Demon Sector. You will not be a front but a real decision-maker!

“After you become the Dark Lady of Nine Heavens, you will participate in the peace negotiations as the representative of the Blood Demon Sector and facilitate the final peace. Eventually, you will leave a deep impression on the people of the Blood Demon Sector, the Heaven’s Origin Sector, and the Flying Star Sector as an envoy of peace, which will lay a solid foundation for your future path!

“Think about it. How will your story be told in the Star Glory Federation?

“You were a descendent of a noble family in the Blood Demon Sector. The environment and the brainwashing education made you cruel and coldhearted. Thus, you became an accomplice of the Pantheon of Demons and an evil soldier.

“However, you were born merciful, and it was your nature to pursue justice and brightness. During the countless murders, your humanity was awakened. You began to question yourself, your family, and the social class that you were in!

“Because of that, you were abandoned by the evil family and your social class. You were even hunted by them!

“At the critical, life-and-death moment, you happened to run into Vulture Li Yao, the greatest warrior of the Star Glory Federation and an Ultra-Level Federal Hero!

“Under the warrior’s tutelage, and touched by his real actions, you finally realized what was right and what was wrong.

“You decided to abandon the darkness for the light. You betrayed your family and class and embraced the brightness without any hesitation by becoming Li Yao’s disciple!

“Later, you told your master the evil scheme known as the Red Tide Plan. Together with your master, you took action at great risk and reversed the situation. You sabotaged the Eye of Blood Demon and stopped your ambitious father’s evil invasion plan!

“Had you not revealed the Red Tide Plan, your father’s evil scheme certainly would’ve worked out. The ferocious troops of the coalition army of demons would’ve marched into the Heaven’s Origin Sector through the Eye of Blood Moon. Also, an even more dreadful Spore Stratagem was hidden behind them!

“The capital city of the Star Glory Federation would’ve been destroyed and turned into a paradise for the walking dead. Billions of federation citizens would’ve been killed miserably!

“You stopped the Red Tide Plan and the Spore Stratagem and saved billions of lives in the Star Glory Federation. After your father was sent to the tribunal, the war between the two Sectors was finally ended, and everlasting peace began!

“My daughter, this is the start that I’ve planned for you. For the citizens of the federation, when they hear such a twisting story and see your current appearance, how can they ever be against your past identity?

“This is as far as your father can help you now. You will have to finish the rest of the journey yourself.”

Although Jin Xinyue’s heart and nerves were already strong enough because of the shocks recently, she still could not help but took a few steps back when she heard her father’s last sentence. She exclaimed, “What are you talking about, Dad?

“You are going to be sent to the tribunal? Why?”

Jin Tuyi smiled. He touched Jin Xinyue’s head, but this time, he was not pouring in any strength. It was just an affectionate gesture of a father to his daughter.

“Little dummy, this long war between the Blood Demon Sector and the Heaven’s Origin Sector is like the mauling of two deadly beasts. How can you stop them without offering meat?

“No matter what the specific terms of the ‘conditional surrender’ are, the one about the punishment of war criminals will not be reduced. It is even more important about the reparations!

“This is the foundation on which the federation was established. There’s certainly no room for negotiation.

“Then here comes the question. Who is the biggest war criminal? Who should be responsible for the war? Is there a second candidate other than me, the commander-in-chief of the coalition army of demons?

“Putting everything else aside, to carry out the Red Tide Plan, we launched a fake attack on the Grand Desolate Plateau and killed a lot of soldiers and civilians of the Star Glory Federation.

“In the capital city of the federation, some of the troops, and perhaps even one or two demon emperors, must’ve been teleported over. They certainly would have caused serious damages before they were annihilated. It was like a slap in the face for the Star Glory Federation!

“How will the federation accept our surrender if the no one answers for the crimes?

“Even if the federal government is willing to, the family of the victims who must still be furious will not agree!

“Teeth for teeth, blood for blood. This is the most natural logic. I was the one who put forward the Red Tide Plan, I was the one who led the construction and modification of the Eye of Blood Demon, and I was the top commander of the war. If I am not counted as a war criminal, nobody else will be qualified to be one. It’s not like we can pick a few random black-blood soldiers as scapegoats, right?”

Amid complicated feelings, Jin Xinyue was lost for words for a long time.

Jin Tuyi sighed deeply and continued. “In my original plan, I was only the third most influential person in the coalition army of demons. Elder Blood Robe and Elder Nether Spring would have taken the blame for me and played the roles of ‘war criminals’. I would have played the role of ‘envoy of peace’ and taken charge of everything that followed.

“But I didn’t expect that Elder Nether Spring would push me up to be the commander-in-chief of the coalition army of demons as a cover for his Spore Stratagem.

“As a result, although it was more convenient for me to control the Blood Demon Sector, I now have to take the blame as the ‘war criminal’ personally!

“Maybe, if I negotiate with the Star Glory Federation with all possible methods, I can achieve better conditions and will not be executed.

“However, if I am exempted, the people of the federation will not be convinced even if the federation’s government agrees to the conditions. They will be angry for a long time and feel that the victims haven’t been avenged. Then, the so-called ‘peace’ will only be a pot of half-cooked rice. It will be a bad start for the hundred years of integration.

“Only if I—the commander-in-chief of the coalition army of demons, the ambitious warlord, and the source of all disasters—am trialed by law in the tribunal of the Star Glory Federation and executed in public will the federation have a complete victory. The hundreds of years of war will be ended cleanly, and all the citizens of the federation will be able to vent their anger so that they can slowly forgive and embrace their enemy in the past in the hundred years to come. Only in such a way can you, the daughter of the coalition army of demons, get rid of your dark past and run toward a much brighter future!”

Jin Xinyue was having trouble breathing. She felt that her nose was sour and bitter, and her eyes were more or less swollen. She shook her head hard and said, “That’s too unfair. Too unfair! If the new federation is established one day, you will be its original architect! If we are cruising at the center of the sea of stars one day, you will be the greatest contributor! It is safe to say that the lives of countless human beings and demons will be saved by you. So many ordinary people will live in peace and stability because of your planning! How can I sit by and watch you be sent to a tribunal and be punished for the crimes that aren’t your fault?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Jin Tuyi said casually. “You know my condition very well now. Even if my body can linger on for another few decades, the fire of my wisdom will die soon. By then, I will become a moron with incontinence of bowel and bladder, and my life will be less dignified than a stray dog whose legs are broken. Dying in humiliation after being mocked for decades? That’s not the ending that I look forward to.

“The new human beings that are the combinations of the old demons and the old human beings are about to ignite the torch of their civilization. So, let me be the kindling.”

Jin Xinyue’s tears finally flooded out of her eyes. Her voice was trembling as she said, “What I care about is not how much longer you can live, Father, but your honor! If you are sent to the tribunal as the ‘commander-in-chief of the coalition army of demons’, you will be the greatest war criminal. The Star Glory Federation’s five-hundred-year hatred toward demons will be vented on you alone! You will certainly be disgraced forever!”

“Don’t be silly, my child.” Jin Tuyi laughed again.

At first, he was smiling in amusement, but then he grinned. He was coughing and laughing so hard that he was out of breath, and his tears and snot were all running crazily.

Amid the loud laughter, he stared at the endless stars in the sky and said, “Do you really think that the trial of the Star Glory Federation will give the final verdict for me?”

Jin Xinyue was confused. “What—what do you mean, Father? I don’t understand.”

“It’s true that I am willing to go to the tribunal of the Star Glory Federation and be sentenced according to their laws. But it is definitely not going to be the real trial; it is just a folly!

“Here and now, nobody in the entire federation is qualified to judge me. They can trial and criticize me however they want. I don’t care if I am crucified to the pillar of shame forever. I don’t care at all.”

Jin Tuyi’s dominating aura spread out of his body again and soared into the clouds, raising roars of thunder among the clouds.

He looked at his daughter and said, one word after another, “Only the history that you will have created ten thousand years later will be qualified to judge me!

“I look forward to the day very much!”