Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Boom!

The super large saber that was stabbed deep into the ground suddenly shone in crimson brilliance, as if the undying flames at the core of the planet were flowing up through the gaps inside the saber!

After a momentary impasse, the super large saber expanded abruptly and exploded in a deafening noise!

The thousands of weapons of the past, after being burnt to thousands of degrees, were melted into an orange river of iron. They were dispersed and floating in the river again!

Even Iron Commander Zhou Hengdao was blown away. His Basaltic Fighting God Battlesuit was riddled with holes by the scraps of the weapons. One of the arms had been chopped off, too!

When he finally stood on his feet again, he discovered, to his surprise, that Li Yao had soared out of the ground and stopped at a higher altitude than his!

The Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit on Li Yao’s body was beyond recognition now. Part of the scraps were even deeply embedded into his flesh and blood. Even his facial cover was half broken, revealing a pair of sparkling eyes!

He seemed to have just been picked up from magma. Steam was popping up from every inch of his skin that was exposed to the air, just like his intimidating aura, expanding crazily at a speed that Iron Commander Zhou Hengdao could not comprehend!

The war debris from two hundred years ago was attracted by Li Yao’s surging spiritual energy and danced around him like the asteroid around a planet. They were colliding, melting, and taking a new shape!

It was… the shape of an unparalleled saber!

“It’s impossible! It’s impossible! Ahhhhhh!”

Iron Commander Zhou Hengdao burnt his life and soul without caring about anything. His spiritual energy was boosted to such an extent that it was beyond the limits of his crystal suit!

In the intense electric arcs and flames of light, the super crystal suit was collapsing inch by inch!

With his broken crystal suit as the cost, his will stretched out in all directions like an octopus.

More ancient weapons rose up and flew to him, only to be pressed into a saber that was larger and more dominating than the previous one!

Two hundred years ago, the debris of the magical equipment through which the federation won the Battle of Broken Wind two hundred years ago now became the best weapons for the two Cultivators in the middle of a bloody fight!

In the wind, storm, and thunder, two hundred-meter-long sabers—surrounded by their will, beliefs, and strength—took quickly shape!

“Iron Commander!”

Brilliance that eclipsed the lightning beamed out of Li Yao’s bloodshot eyes. He roared, “It is not me who sullied the spirit of the federation and corroded its foundation but you, the guys who call yourselves ‘patriots’!

“You claimed that you were not blinded by hatred and that everything you did was based on careful calculation and repetitive deduction in the best interests of the federation.

“If so, why did you not dare to put your plan forward in parliament? Why were you scared of telling the people the whole truth?

“It’s simple! Because you were very clear that, when the people found out the truth, learned the ‘same-origin theory’, and knew that the Pantheon of Demons was going to surrender, they would never agree to your conquest plan. They would never agree to fight a war that would only be a recipe for disaster at the cost of the lives of countless their compatriots, for nothing more than turning the ordinary people of a different world into slaves!

“You knew too well that you’d be standing on the opposite side of the majority since the very beginning! That is why you never dared to tell everything to public and could only achieve your goal through deceptions, schemes, and all the clandestine methods!”

The super large saber in front of Iron Commander Zhou Hengdao grew a few secondary edges that looked like tusks after several cracking noises.

He was too focused on building up the saber to respond to Li Yao’s criticism.

“Maybe you are right that we can conquer the Blood Demon Sector with a minimal price should the war begin.” Li Yao’s will illuminated the dark battlefield. His roars awed the rocks dozens of kilometers nearby like thunder, crushing Zhou Hengdao’s soul nonstop. “But what can you get after the Blood Demon Sector is conquered?

“What we will gain is a minor Blood Demon Sector that is far from enough to help us resist the Imperium of True Human Beings, and what we will lose is our trust in each other and the foundation that has supported the Star Glory Federation for five hundred years!

“If you butcher the demons and enslave them, or even their offspring who have done nothing wrong while knowing clearly that demons were transformed from human beings and that the countless bottom-level demons are just ordinary people in a different appearance, the spirit of our country will collapse, and the Star Glory Federation will really be screwed! Everything that we swore to protect and preserve will be wrecked by our own hands!

“That is your path! If you walk down the path, you will only witness the rise of another Imperium of True Human Beings, instead of a great Star Glory Federation!”

Boom!

Their ultimate sabers finally took shape. The two sabers, both hundreds of meters long, absorbing infinite lightning and thunder in the sky, triggered an aura of almost a thousand meters. Deafening noises were echoing as they collided.

Li Yao laughed. In that moment, his brain was clearer and more peaceful than ever, as if he had become one with the entire ancient battlefield. He seemed to sense that countless souls, who belonged to the federal soldiers and the Cultivators in the Battle of Broken Wind two hundred years ago, were standing behind his back cheering for him!

“Do you know, Iron Commander? In my eyes, all the ‘patriots’ are coward!” Li Yao eyed Zhou Hengdao coldly as if he were looking at the dry bones in a grave. He declared, “You said that I had zero confidence in the federation? No. I am too confident about the federation and the fire of civilization we’ve ignited!

“I have no doubt that the burning fire will radiate to every corner of the Blood Demon Sector in the decades to come. All the ‘demons’ will be proud to be part of the civilization of mankind. They will be willing to fight until the end to defend the federation and the fire of our civilization as members of the federation!

“This is my confidence, which none of you have. None!

“You are talking about how great the federation and how glorious the fire of our civilization is. But you are so scared of a minor Blood Demon Sector that you don’t even have confidence to assimilate a few demons!

“Your belief is so unsolid. How do you expect to resist the Imperium of True Human Beings in future or even march to the center of the sea of stars?”

“You!” Iron Commander Zhou Hengdao gave up the competition of beliefs completely. His eyes bulged out, and his hair was standing up. He raised the Five Tigers Hell Cutting Saber high with burning fighting will.

In front of him, the hundred-meter-long saber was heaved, too. The aura of the blade dashed into the sky and tore a large hole in the overwhelming clouds.

Li Yao raised the Blood Moon Dragon Hunting Saber high, too. The super large saber in front of them was lifted in the same way.

Hundreds of lightning bolts appeared in the clouds, attracted, absorbed, and activated by the two sabers, adding to the auras of the blades!

In that instant, even the world seemed to be awed by their fighting will and halted for a moment.

Every raindrop was frozen in midair, only to be shattered by the sweeping auras of the blades, turning into a mist covering dozens of square kilometers!

Shua!

In the mist, the two streaks of brightness accelerated to the highest speed at the same time. Like two shooting stars, they crashed into each other destructively!

The moment of the collision was like a soundless painting. There was no anomaly nearby at all except for the two monolithic sabers and the two ragged crystal suits that were at an impasse.

On Li Yao’s back, at the axis of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, the cracks on Black Wing further increased, like weird stripes. Infinite spiritual energy rushed out of the cracks and formed black wings almost a hundred meters long!

Then, there was a cracking sound, as if something inside Black Wing broke apart. The wings of spiritual energy expanded to more than three hundred meters all of a sudden, leaving an exhaust flame a kilometer long!

“Ahhhhh!

Something seemed to have broken apart in Li Yao’s brain, too. He let out the most thunderous roar, which awakened the entire world.

Wind was blowing, clouds were exploding, rocks were jumping to the air, and the animals hiding in the ground were reduced to smithereens!

The two enormous sabers collapsed at the same time, turning into burning sparks in the sky!

The two streaks of brightness brushed past each other. Their sabers were kept absolutely still in the most perfect posture, like two silhouettes that had been etched into the sky.

At the south of the Dark Desolate Domain, Ding Lingdang and several experts from the capital were marching forward, followed by the troops of the federal army that had received the ‘ultimate order’ from the Speaker.

Suddenly, Ding Lingdang and the few experts halted, and all stared toward the north in astonishment.

“Such tremendous spiritual waves. What has happened?”

To the north of the Dark Desolate Domain, on Burning Prairie, despite the super thunderstorm, the awe-inspiring spiritual waves were perceived, too!

Luo Xingzi, Ji Wende, and other Cultivators from the Flying Star Sector all narrowed their eyes and looked at where the spiritual waves were coming from.

“It is thunderbolt? Or is it…”

The troops in the drill around the Dark Desolate Domain detected the spiritual waves, too. The commanders of the troops were confused and thinking hard, too.

At the center of the spiritual waves, the ultimate collision of two Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators even affected the weather and created a temporary ‘microclimate’. The clouds disappeared, and the sun rose again in the one square kilometer nearby. Rays of sunlight pierced through their bodies, which were now riddled with holes.

Pu!

Li Yao vomited a mouthful of blood while the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit exploded into pieces. He could not help it any longer and slowly landed on one of his knees. He panted hard and almost could not control his bladder because of the lack of spiritual energy.

Or to put it in a more straightforward way… he almost peed his pants in the fight!

Pada!

While he was calming himself down trying to control his bladder, Zhou Hengdao fell on his face, creating a huge noise. The Five Tigers Hell Cutting Saber, which had broken in half, stabbed into the soil nearby, too.

Zhou Hengdao’s Basaltic Fighting God Battlesuit was now pure garbage. He took off his twisted facial cover with all his remaining strength, revealing a dry, dying face.

He extended his iron hand that was about to melt to Li Yao. His dry lips moved for a long time before a soft sound echoed from the depths of his throat.

“Federation…”

Iron Commander Zhou Hengdao, the Chief of the General Staff of the federal army, gradually lost his breath.

Before his body perished, his soul had been crumbled by Li Yao’s saber. It was impossible for him to be transformed into a spectral Cultivator at all.

Li Yao sighed and vomited another mouthful of blood. He crawled over and closed Zhou Hengdao’s only eye.

He tried three times, but the old command who was as tough as iron would not close his eye. Uncanny brilliance popped up in his hollow eye as he watched Li Yao. There was no telling what the remaining emotions in it were. Regret? Frustration? Or… glimmering hope for the new federation in the future?