Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Li Yao and the Fire Ant King looked at each other in bewilderment. After calming himself down for a moment, Li Yao turned back to look at Lu Wuxin expressionlessly although thousands of thoughts were rolling on his mind. “I’m starting to believe you. If you give me more details and prove your value, perhaps it is possible for us to strike a deal.”

One of Lu Wuxin’s eyes was like a rotten goose egg while the other looked like a bean that was sprouting. Staring at Li Yao with the pair of weird, asymmetric eyes, he said, “Fine. What harm is there in telling you more details?

“The Children of the Nether World Project is not an independent plan. It is supposed to support the Spore Stratagem, or rather, it is a prerequisite project for the Spore Stratagem. The purpose of the project was to ensure that the Spore Stratagem went smoothly.

“In fact, it was one of the earliest projects that Elder Nether Spring initiated, much earlier than the development of the Demon God Virus and the establishment of the Nether World Watch. I estimate that the project might’ve been kicked off seventy to eighty years ago.

“The reason is simple. Both the development of the Demon God Virus and the establishment of the Nether World Watch required a huge amount of manpower and resources. Also, secret bases of enormous scales needed to be created as disguises. Everything suggested that he could only accomplish his goal after he became the supreme leader of the Nether Spring Kingdom.

“The Children of the Nether World Project, in the meantime, is very easy from a technological point of view. All he needed was a batch of Divine Blood of Chaos and some trusted subordinates.

“Even Jin Xinyue could be transformed into a human being without her doing anything, right?

“My speculation is that Elder Nether Spring discovered a relic of Chaos, which happened to be the warehouse of the Divine Blood of Chaos, by accident years ago. He retrieved a huge amount of Divine Blood of Chaos and discovered its shocking effect.

“After that, Elder Nether Spring suddenly came up with an amazing infiltration plan. He asked his subordinates to swallow excessive Divine Blood of Chaos and infiltrate the Heaven’s Origin Sector after they were human beings through and through!”

“Wait!” The Fire Ant King frowned and asked, “Even if they had been transformed into human beings, how exactly did they sneak into the Heaven’s Origin Sector?”

“That’s very easy.” Lu Wuxin grinned. “Most of the ‘beast tide outbreaks’ that the Blood Demon Sector launched against the Heaven’s Origin Sector were actually implemented by the Nether Spring Kingdom. Wasn’t it more than easy for Elder Nether Spring’s subordinates to hide among the beasts?”

“Then, what is his goal?” Li Yao was deep in thought. “It’s not like Elder Nether Spring had already come up with the Spore Stratagem and was determined to put it into practice decades ago, right?”

Lu Wuxin shook his head and said, “According to my analysis, Elder Nether Spring did not have any special goal in the beginning.

“At first, he sent the Children of the Nether World to the Heaven’s Origin Sector perhaps only because he wanted to know the intelligence on the Grand Desolate Plateau and to smuggle the advanced crystal processors and magical equipment of the Heaven’s Origin Sector.

“We all know that human beings of the Heaven’s Origin Sector developed countless types of magical equipment targeting demons after five hundred years of warfare. Many kinds of magical equipment are much more fatal than the demonic artifacts.

“The crystal processors of the Heaven’s Origin Sector are vastly different from the biochemical brains in terms of functioning mechanisms and computation models. They are highly complementary, too.

“At that time, Elder Nether Spring hadn’t seized the highest power of the Nether Spring Kingdom yet. He was engaged in the cruel internal strife with other experts of the Insect Clan.

“If he had a few spies in the Heaven’s Origin Sector, the ‘beast tides’ that he launched would be more adaptive and more likely to accomplish brilliant results. He would be able to prove his value to the seniors of the Insect Clan.

“The crystal processors and magical equipment that were smuggled over could help him increase his influence and win the internal struggles, too.

“Moreover, if the spies he sent out rose to power in the federal army or the main sects on the Grand Desolate Plateau, he could even release the news about the beast tides initiated by his competitors in the Nether Spring Kingdom in advance. Thus, their beast tides would suffer brutal failure. In such a way, he would be able to eliminate his opponents and seize all control.

“I estimate that this was Elder Nether Spring’s purpose in the beginning.”

Li Yao nodded.

That was quite a reasonable deduction. If he were Elder Nether Spring, and he had a batch of mysterious drugs that could transform demons into human beings, such an endeavor would certainly make the best use of the drugs.

“However,” Lu Wuxin continued, “as time went by, the Children of the Nether World Project slowly changed. Supported by the messages sent by Elder Nether Spring intentionally or unintentionally, many Children of the Nether World slowly infiltrated the critical, and sometimes the highest, posts in the major sects and the army of the Heaven’s Origin Sector!

“At that time, Elder Nether Spring had already become the leader of the Nether Spring Kingdom and one of the four giants of the Blood Demon Sector. He established the Nether World Watch and, for the first time, had the idea of creating a third life form that was perfect.

“Then, the importance of the Children of the Nether World couldn’t be more obvious.

“By then, the Children of the Nether World were meant to ensure the smooth implementation of the Spore Stratagem. They also had the mission to take control of the Heaven’s Origin Sector and seize the power of the Star Glory Federation in the chaotic world after the outbreak of the virus, paving the way for Elder Nether Spring’s ‘new world’!”

Li Yao felt that his heart was pounding.

If that was true, everything would make much more sense now!

The key procedure of the Spore Stratagem was that the elite troops of the coalition army of demons and those of the federal army needed to be concentrated somewhere for a killing spree, which required the effort of both sides.

In the Blood Demon Sector, Elder Nether Spring was under the illusion that Jin Tuyi was manipulated by him and that his scheme was working out.

But how was he so certain that the situation in the Heaven’s Origin Sector would be exactly what he expected?

If the federal army had not acted as he planned, the Spore Stratagem might have been doomed to fail before it started!

Elder Nether Spring had been considering the plan carefully for decades. It was highly unlikely that he would count on hope and guesses for his success.

But if Elder Nether Spring had spies in the Star Glory Federation who could make the influential decisions or, at the very least, had access to the top secrets…

According to the original plan, the Children of the Nether World would stir up trouble and disrupt the Star Glory Federation at the last phase of the Spore Stratagem, when the Demon God Virus was spreading out uncontrollably.

Now, although the Spore Stratagem had failed, the Children of the Nether World had not yet been unearthed. They were still lurking in the heart of the Star Glory Federation!

“How did you know all this?” Li Yao’s voice was cold. “Do you have the name list of the Children of the Nether World?”

“Of course I don’t,” Lu Wuxin said unhurriedly. “The Children of the Nether World Project was activated more than seventy years ago. It is a key project under Elder Nether Spring’s direct control. Nobody except himself—not even Despot and Swirl, who were his most trusted subordinates—knew anything about the project. I was only recruited by Elder Nether Spring for the refinement of the Demon God Virus ten years ago. Why would he give me the name list of the Children of the Nether World?”

Li Yao thought for a moment and realized that it was probably true. It would take at least twenty to thirty years for a Child of the Nether World to rise to power in the Star Glory Federation after they sneaked in. The most important batch of the Children of the Nether World had probably been sent out sixty years ago.

With Lu Wuxin’s experience, he could not have known much about the details.

Li Yao frowned. “Then, how did you uncover the project?”

Lu Wuxin smiled. “I don’t have many shortcomings, except that I am very scared of death. How could I not prepare myself when I was working for such a brutal man as Elder Nether Spring? The information was collected after arduous efforts over the past decade for the single purpose of trading for my life when the situation demands.”

Li Yao sniffed. “What a shame. Without the name list of the Children of the Nether World, everything you said is still groundless. Who can tell whether it is true or not?

“Also, even if it is true, does it mean anything?

“We are both clear that, after absorbing excessive Divine Blood of Chaos, a demon will be completely transformed into a human being. So, there is no way that we can prove someone is a Child of the Nether World, is there?”

“That’s not necessarily the case,” Lu Wuxin said slowly. “Although I don’t have the name list of the Children of the Nether World, I actually have a large batch of intelligence that the Children of the Nether World sent back to Elder Nether Spring, much of which is the top secrets of the federation army and the major sects.

“Not too many people would have had access to the top secrets at the time the intelligence was sent back. As long as you list everybody who knew the information and check out their background, you will soon find the Children of the Nether World!

“For example, here I have a piece of intelligence about the Dragon Scale Sect’s purchase of the mainframe crystal processors for their headquarters nine years ago, including the specifications of the crystal processors and the ways to crack the barriers and hack into them.

“Then, everything is easy. Nine years ago, few disciples of the Dragon Scale Sect had access to the top confidential information. You only need to trace back their life and see if they had ever been to the Grand Desolate Plateau, if they had any relatives, or if they had been born in a big family… Then, you will certainly find the Children of the Nether World among them!”

Li Yao took a long breath and tried to stop his shock from surfacing on his face.

The Dragon Scale Sect was one of the sects that had the longest history in the Star Glory Federation. It was one of the founding sects of the federation!

The so-called Star Glory Federation was originally an alliance of sorts established by nine Cultivation sects for the purpose of slaying the demons and protecting mankind.

The nine stars in the Rising Dragon of the Nine Stars flag actually referred to the nine founding sects!

After five hundred years, the nine founding sects had evolved into thousands of sects, but there were still nine sects that were passing on their names.

Although the nine sects were no longer as dominant as five hundred years ago, they were still very influential in the federation.

It had never occurred to Li Yao that the Children of the Nether World could even infiltrate the Dragon Scale Sect and get access to the mainframe crystal processors of the sect!

A lot of top secrets of the Dragon Scale Sect must have been stored in the mainframe crystal processors. Having access to the mainframe crystal processors meant that Elder Nether Spring knew everything about the sect, did it not?

Many experts of the Dragon Scale Sect were working in the federal army or government. Also, there were two Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators in the Dragon Scale Sect. A lot of critical information could be inferred based on their whereabouts.