Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

At 10:50 a.m., Li Yao slithered into the ventilation tube of the kitchen of the Junhao Hotel like an enormous lizard.

Over the past ten years, he had snuck into the most dangerous ventilation tubes in the Heaven’s Origin Sector, the Flying Star Sector, and the Blood Demon Sector countless times. Right now, the ventilation tube of the regular hotel was not even a piece of cake for him; it was the cream on the cake at best.

As the lunch time drew near, the ventilation tube was gradually filled with burning smoke. Together with the oil and dirt that had accumulated over years, it would definitely have been as harsh as a volcano for other people.

However, in Li Yao’s eyes, it was much more comfortable than any of the tubes that he had snuck into before. The scenery here could almost be called beautiful!

The hundred-day memorial ceremony was to be held the following morning. To participate in the grand ceremony and to witness the debut of Burning Prairie, there would be an unprecedented number of people in the capital city. The security measures would definitely be the most thorough, too.

If he walked about on the street, he would be scanned by dozens of surveillance cameras. He would run into a lot of problems whether he checked in a hotel at night or wandered on the street.

Therefore, Li Yao decided to simply lurk in the ventilation tube for one day and get out next day in the morning.

For a moment, Li Yao had an urge to jump out to the center of the capital city right now and shoot ‘I am Li Yao. I am still alive’ into the sky. At least tens of thousands of residents of the capital city would see it.

It was unlikely that the Children of the Nether World and Abyss were going to block such a piece of breaking news.

But right now, the Secret Sword Agents would be everywhere outside. If he did it, they would certainly be the first to arrive.

If he resisted, he would risk injuring the Secret Sword Agents who were fooled and the innocent passers-by

If he did not resist, he would be tied up and lose the ability to counterattack. It was possible that he would fall into the control of Abyss.

Li Yao thought for a moment. If the Secret Sword Agents put on a Venomous Scorpion Bone Biting Shackle on him, he was not confident that he could crack it safely again.

Yes, the Speaker, the Iron Commander, Ding Lingdang, Professor Mo Xuan, and the leaders of the major sects in the capital city would certainly learn of the matter, but how long would it take before they reacted? An hour? Two hours?

After all, the Secret Sword Bureau was not a pure intelligence agency. It was also a security agency that aimed to prevent the federation from internal destruction. It had its own armed forces and secret bases, and it was even more independent than the federal army!

Throughout history, the Secret Sword Bureau had arrested evil Cultivators who committed felony as fast as lightning many times at the risk of head-on confrontations with a lot of Cultivation sects. However, every single time, the undeniable evidence had proved that the seemingly innocent suspects were guilty of unpardonable crimes later.

After hundreds of years of development, all the Cultivators of the Heaven’s Origin Sector acknowledged the tradition, which was that Cultivators, given their strong personal ability, must be checked by a certain power.

The federal army was part of that power, and the Secret Sword Bureau was another part. Only the check and balance could make the federation more stable!

Therefore, the Secret Sword Bureau definitely had the ability and the reasoning to lock him up for a few hours against pressure from all sides.

Losing the ability to counterattack in the hands of Abyss for a few hours?

Li Yao believed that, with the interrogative methods of Abyss, in three to five hours, even his darkest secrets would be dug out, not to mention the evidence in his hand!

So, just hold it for another day!

It’s useless to rush out and show up in public right now. I must wait until ten o’clock in the morning tomorrow and reveal myself right in front of the Speaker, the Iron Commander, the director of the Secret Sword Bureau, the leaders of the major sects, and billions of spectators. Only such a piece of super shocking news can break the plot of Abyss!

Li Yao closed his eyes and rested in the suffocating smoke, waiting for the arrival of tomorrow.

With Black Wing as his guard, he had a great sleep and did not wake up again until five o’clock in the morning next day.

There were five hours to go before the hundred-day memorial ceremony.

When he opened his eyes in the dark ventilation tube, Li Yao’s physical energy and thinking ability soared to the maximum!

It’s time to warm up a little bit.

Back in North Tranquility City, he had observed three citizens of the capital city at a close distance and collected their facial features, voiceprints, and fingerprints. Based on the information, he made three flawless false identities.

However, had the Secret Sword Bureau found out the false identities or not?

He only needed to run a minor test.

Li Yao took out a secondhand crystal processor that he had purchased from the magical equipment store in East Seagull Port and searched for the free network in the Junhao Hotel.

Such luxury hotels all boasted fast, free coverage for the customers. Soon, he was connected to the Spiritual Nexus, and the signal was not bad.

At the railway station in North Tranquility City, when he picked his prey, he did not select them randomly but specifically chose passengers who seemed to be bad-tempered. He had also managed to get their numbers while he was tailing them.

Li Yao dialed the number of one of the passengers.

At this moment, it was 5:10 in the morning, the time when most people were enjoying their dreams.

Beep… Beep… Beep… Beep…

Nobody picked it up. It was perhaps set in the do-not-disturb mode.

Li Yao was not frustrated. He dialed the number of the second passenger. This time, after more than ten seconds of beeping, somebody finally picked it up.

“Hello!”

The voice was low and brimming with anger.

“Hello. Is this Mr. Wan Ziang? I am Officer Zhao Zhiwen from the police station of the East District. My police ID is 334245. I want to confirm with you whether my colleague…”

There was indifference in Li Yao’s courtesy.

As he expected, the speaker was infuriated and bellowed, “Are you ever done? What time is it? Your colleagues have asked me like twenty times! I am not going anywhere today. I’ll just be at home. Does that sound okay to you!”

“Well, it certainly does. Perhaps they didn’t make it clear to me earlier. Thank you for your cooperation, and sorry for the trouble. Goodbye.”

Pa!

Li Yao cut off the Spiritual Nexus and crushed the second-hand crystal processor, throwing all the scraps into his Cosmos Ring.

His eyes were cold.

The police had asked the guy almost twenty times?

Fine. The three carefully-prepared false identities could be thrown into a dustbin.

Guo Chunfeng was indeed the most terrifying demon hunter in the federation. He was so close to capturing him!

Li Yao smiled and activated his final backup plan. He brought the components of the secondhand artificial body that he had bought in East Seagull Port out of his Cosmos Ring.

Theoretically speaking, the invisible spectral Cultivators could be attached to artificial bodies in all kinds of shapes.

However, most spectral Cultivators and the ghosts transformed from ordinary people preferred to keep the shape of a human being, which often made them feel that they were still sort of connected to their life in the past and that they were still a human being.

Besides, the parts of the human-shaped artificial body were replaceable with the artificial limbs designed for the disabled. Therefore, the cost could be reduced. Artificial bodies were much cheaper in price, so they were more economical for most ghosts.

It was exactly so for the artificial body in Li Yao’s hand. The artificial body was approximately two meters tall with limbs, a head, and everything. It looked like a mechanical puppet.

However, the inside of the artificial body had been emptied by Li Yao. All the unnecessary components had been thrown away, and only the parts on the surface were kept.

Taking a deep breath, Li Yao summoned his spiritual energy in silence and compressed his muscles, veins, and nerves to the minimum. The thick arms slowly shriveled into dry firewood that could fit into the arms of the artificial body.

The face of a living person boasts all kinds of features. It was impossible to find two identical people even if there were a million candidates.

Therefore, by the scanning of the surveillance cameras, it was very convenient to find out their identity in the database after the facial features were determined.

However, ghosts did not have real bodies. The artificial bodies that they used were all manufactured.

Since they were manufactured, artificial bodies of the same model would naturally have identical faces.

Many spectral Cultivators liked to modify their metal faces, but such modifications were not always recorded.

Therefore, if Li Yao pretended to be a spectral Cultivator, how was the Secret Sword Bureau going to find him?

At 7:25 a.m., a spectral Cultivator staggered out of the alley behind the Junhao Hotel.

His artificial body had apparently been used for quite a few years. It was covered in a green cloak that was full of patches. His hands and feet were enveloped in thick rubber as protection, but the body parts exposed to the air all had bright green rust.

In case the solar radiation affected his soul, he was wearing a huge hat. Below the hat was a face made of vegetable glue that was dull and emotionless.

He was walking like a cripple in a rigid posture. Weird noises were echoing from his knees, suggesting that the joints inside needed to be replaced.

Judging from the appearance, it was not difficult to guess his identity. He was certainly a poor ghost who had transformed from an ordinary person.

The hundred-day memorial ceremony was to be held in the Federal Square several kilometers away very soon. Although it was only seven o’clock in the morning, the entire capital city was already teeming with people. Everybody was crowding to the Federal Square.

The spectral Cultivator was apparently also going to participate in the gala. However, since he walked too slowly, he soon fell behind the crowd.

Above the street, hundreds of cute puji critters were flying everywhere. Their eyes were glittering crystal cameras that were scanning the blocks with countless invisible mystic rays.

The puji critters scanned the spectral Cultivator dozens of times.

But according to their instructions, they had been asked to search for three citizens of the capital city with more than 70% of their analysis ability.

A spectral Cultivator was not their target.

The mystic rays passed Li Yao and went to the flooding crowd behind him without pause.