Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Li Yao felt as if he was swallowed by a sun in that moment.

Lei Yuqin’s outbreak was too intense, abrupt, and unbelievable!

She was obviously on the brink of death, her soul drained. The fire of her vitality was flickering. Li Yao and Long Yangjun, two high-level Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, had confirmed it many times and implanted multiple barriers inside her brain before they were finally reassured enough to have a conversation with her.

However, all the barriers had been blown away into nothingness within a moment, like a fence that was faced with a flood. A stream of force that was both scorching and cold, both dark and bright, both extremely violent and extremely tranquil, burst out of Lei Yuqin’s brain unstoppably and drowned Li Yao and Long Yangjun at the same time!

It is… impossible!

This is… not Lei Yuqin’s own strength. This is not even the strength that any human being can possibly boast!

Li Yao felt that he was placed at the center of a furious star. His fleshly body was vaporized instantly, leaving his soul shuddering in fear. Right in the middle of the star was an enormous black hole, which stretched his soul until it was millions of kilometers long easily, forcing him to swirl and drop to the center of the black hole!

“Argh!”

The whole process was not painful at all. Instead, it was filled with indescribable peacefulness, as if he was about to be melded into a certain warm and eternal being. It was exactly the weird peacefulness that made him roar like a beast and try to free himself from the trap, but he was unable to get away from it despite his attempts.

Once again, time was flowing reversely, and the memory pieces hidden deep inside his soul swirled in turn. The Hundred Flowers Space Zone, the Uranian Ring Sector, Firefly, the Dragon Snake Space Zone, the Ancient Sages Sector, a century-long voyage, shocking adventures a hundred years ago. Then, the memories went deeper and deeper and became more and more blurred, reaching the most secret corners of his soul. Boneyard, the Occult Orbs Fellowship, the Grand Desolate War Institution, Ding Lingdang, the Crimson Nimbus No. 2 High School, until in the end, he returned to the beginning point of his life in the magical equipment graveyard where purple waste was running everywhere under the dim sky.

The force that dashed out of Lei Yuqin’s brain crawled into Li Yao’s brain like a fatal viper, tying, mauling, and swallowing the source of his soul!

Li Yao was no stranger to such feelings.

Ou Yezi, the Blood Stripe Virus, and the star child had all tried to swallow his soul before.

However, the intensity and force of their attacks did not seem worth mentioning compared to what he was going through right now!

Li Yao felt that his soul was falling apart. At least, his soul of this life was about to.

BAM!

He felt that he heard a crisp crack from deep inside his brain. The cold viper drilled through the solid shell that sealed his soul, allowing his memories to be traced back to a long, long time ago before the infant years in the magical equipment graveyard.

Li Yao’s body trembled abruptly. He found himself back in the dark, boundless universe where he was faced with the blue planet, the third planet of the solar system and the only habitable on in it. He heard himself swearing in the most solemn voice, “I will be back. I will definitely accomplish the Vulture Plan. I will definitely destroy—”

The memory, or rather, the part of the soul that had been launched to the Heaven’s Origin Sector across billions of stars from the mysterious world Earth, immediately launched a counterattack at the cold force that was invading his brain.

The uncanny force from Lei Yuqin’s brain could not have predicted that such a dreadful thing was lurking deep inside Li Yao’s soul! It had already run out of strength after corrupting all the way to this place, like a bullet that had surpassed the limit shooting range. Li Yao’s mental power, on the other hand, was like a spring that had long been prepared. The counterattack was inexorable and destructive, tearing the enemy apart instantly without giving it a chance to escape from Li Yao’s brain!

Li Yao heard screams echoing inside his brain. Some of them belonged to old people, some were children’s, and some were the pitiful voices of young girls.

Knowing that it was just the sordid methods of evils, Li Yao was not moved at all. He gritted his teeth to release the last brightness inside his soul and raise the blade of his will to mince all the things that had crawled into his head into pieces!

The short but intense mental warfare had drained almost every last bit of spiritual energy inside Li Yao’s body. He did not even have the strength to keep himself floating in midair anymore. Captured by the artificial gravity field, he crashed at the bottom of the cylindrical room that was almost twenty meters deep.

In a trance, Li Yao noticed that the old crystal suit on Long Yangjun’s body broke apart one piece after another, only to be replaced by clusters of new, more glamorous crystals all over her body. All the crystals were emanating brilliance that was even more dazzling than a supernova outbreak. It could vaguely be seen that in the middle of the transparent crystals, a lot of colorful streaks were chasing after a gray light. The gray light was like an injured boa and was slashed apart after only a moment!

Long Yangjun’s face, which seemed entirely made of crystals now, was devoid of human expressions and filled with indescribably coldness and solemnity. Furious roars burst out of her glass-like chest. “…Chaos!”

The last bit of grayness that barged into Long Yangjun’s body was minced apart into nothingness, just like the weird force that had invaded Li Yao’s!

“Ah!” Lei Yuqin, who looked like a white-haired devil, shrieked. Billions of colorful bugs seemed to be spread out of her body into hazy mists. The ripples flooded to all directions and blew out every light in the cylindrical room!

Lei Yuqin split apart into pieces just like that!

Before the room was completely consumed by darkness, Li Yao saw Long Yangjun fall from midair, too. The crystals all over her body retreated under her skin. She crashed into the ground and shrank into the posture of a baby. There was no telling whether she was just recovering her strength or had already passed out.

Everything returned to silence.

Even Liu Wenshan, the broken soul, seemed to have been affected. There was no vibration from him any longer.

“Huchi… Huchi… Huchi… Huchi…”

In the darkness, Li Yao’s and Long Yangjun’s breathing was both feeble and clear.

Although they carried light sources in their Cosmos Rings, and they could illuminate the room by rubbing a random finger to summon spiritual energy, the two of them were too exhausted to do any of that.

Li Yao focused his attention on mobilizing every mitochondrion inside his every cell, recovering his physical strength and spiritual energy quickly.

Low voices were still ringing inside his head like rats in the dark corners. “You can’t kill me. Hehehehe. I will always lurk inside your soul and feed on your emotional fluctuations, especially your negative emotions! Everybody has a dark side. No one is pure and flawless. So, I will certainly make a comeback… Who—who—who are you? What kind of monsters are you?”

“My friend, you’ve come for possession?” the mental devil said in a lazy tone.

“Impossible! It’s impossible! How did you—”

“Cut the cr*p. You must respect the first-come-first-serve rule when you are out to possess someone! I’ve spent a hundred years in this place, and I’m still waiting. You want to cut in the line? Not a chance!”

“Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!”

Amid the sounds of the mental devil having a great feast, the strange voice soon perished in miserable cries.

Li Yao sank his soul into his brain. He then frowned and watched the mental devil hunting the weird voice everywhere like a tornado. “What’s this?”

“I don’t know. Some sort of energy life form, perhaps.” The mental devil patted its round belly, satisfied. “It tasted rather familiar. I feel that I’ve had such a meal before.”

Li Yao was greatly alarmed. “Energy life form? The Blood Stripe Virus?”

The mental devil shook its head. “The Blood Stripe Virus is not the only energy life form in the universe. The extraterrestrial devils are energy life forms, too. There’s also Chaos, the Pangu Civilization’s mortal enemy in the legends. It was an ancient energy life form, too. Huh. This woman did shout ‘chaos’ just now in a weird tone, right?”

Li Yao bulged his eyes and exited the internal vision state. “Hey. Are you awake?”

Long Yangjun’s voice was so dull that it seemed to come from the bottom of an ocean. “…I don’t know.”

“We are in the middle of an emergency. There’s no time to play philosopher. Can you just talk normally? You shouted ‘chaos’ just now, didn’t you? What does that mean?”

“Chaos…” Long Yangjun said gloomily in the darkness. “I felt the woman’s head explode suddenly and blow me back to my previous life hundreds of thousands of years ago. Yes. I encountered a similar force before, the force that belonged to Chaos. She must’ve been invaded by Chaos!”

Li Yao took a deep breath. “Wait, wait, wait. My head is a bit muddled right now. Chaos, the Blood Stripe Virus, the extraterrestrial devils… There are so many kinds of energy life forms?”

Long Yangjun was silent for a long time before she took a soft breath and said, “Just like the Pangu Civilization was not a species but an alliance of countless carbon-based life forms, the so-called Chaos was probably not a certain energy life form but an amalgamation of a lot of energy life forms.

“Or maybe it was just the same thing all the time, but different civilizations and species gave it different names. In the primeval age, it was named Chaos. In the Star Ocean Imperium, it was called extraterrestrial devils. In the Flying Star Sector a hundred years ago, it was known as the Blood Stripe Virus!

“If that is the case, everything makes sense. Why has Professor Mo Xuan’s personality been greatly changed over a hundred years? Why does he boast technology that is more advanced than the federation’s and even the expedition army of the Imperium’s, allowing him to improve the grand-unified Spiritual Nexus, the artificial intelligence, and the virtual space of the federation by so much purely by himself? Because he has the technical support of Chaos!”

“Are you suggesting that Professor Mo Xuan was corrupted by Chaos a long time ago, just like I was once corrupted by the Blood Stripe Virus?” Li Yao asked in a hurry.

He was both asking Long Yangjun and the mental devil in his head.

The mental devil blinked its big, innocent eyes and said, “Don’t look at me like that. I didn’t do it… However, Long Yangjun’s theory is reasonable enough. The so-called Blood Stripe Virus is a very ancient energy life form, more or less like ancient fungus on a primitive planet. During their billions of years of journeying in the universe, they might’ve evolved into many mutants or even brand-new branches of energy life. It is perfectly normal that some of the branches were named Chaos or extraterrestrial devils!

“Chaos, the extraterrestrial devils, and the Blood Stripe Virus are actually the same family. This theory seems valid enough!

“Right, by the same logic, the Flying Star Sector that you and Professor Mo Xuan visited a hundred years ago was a place very suitable for energy life forms. It was as attractive as an oasis in a desert. I don’t think that the Blood Stripe Virus was the only energy life form there. Don’t forget that the extraterrestrial devils were one of the three hazards in that world.

“Huh. It’s rather strange. Speaking of which, after you dealt with the riot of the Immortal Cultivators, it has been a long time since the extraterrestrial devils last caused trouble in the Flying Star Sector!”