Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“No!”

Li Yao reached for her, only to snatch a few burning green feathers. Every feather was part of Wei Qingqing’s soul that focused the drops of her life in the past century. The joy when she was with the children on the remote resource planets, the delight when her imagination ran wild in the fictional world she constructed, and the excitement when she had the chance to explore the unknown future millions of years away!

It was her song, her pride, her hope, and the most dazzling moment of her life!

But in front of the shining green features, Wei Qingqing flapped her wings and accelerated abruptly toward the hideous, bloody mouth of the extraterrestrial devil!

Without any question, she was tied up by almost a hundred tentacles, but the moment before her soul was completely shredded, she was still emanating her feeble light while gritting her teeth, exactly like how she had burned her entire life on the train north to the Grand Desolate Plateau a hundred years ago when it encountered a beast tide just to launch the Taiyi Lightning Railgun once!

The Wei Qingqing in front Li Yao and the Wei Qingqing in his memories overlapped into an unbendable, unkillable, and unbroken green bird that disappeared deep inside the bloody mouth of the extraterrestrial devil.

“Argh!” Li Yao burst into such fury that every shackle, every barrier, and every blockage deep inside his soul was cracking and exploding!

Silver liquid metal was flowing out crazily from his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth, only to be burnt up by the flames of his fury. It was the corruptive force from the extraterrestrial devil that had invaded his body earlier, but it was pushed out of his body in his desperate rage!

Li Yao’s previously dim and insignificant soul was clear, expanding and burning again. His messy hair all stood up, making his head look like an active volcano from which magma was erupting incessantly. The entire dark void was illuminated in red!

“What kind of strength is this?”

“What a powerful soul! And it is still rising. Is this really just a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator?”

The other experts from the Ancient Sages Sector were still competing with the extraterrestrial devil hard with their mental power. The two parties were at an impasse. Although they had managed to resist the corruption of the extraterrestrial devil and even occupied and wasted the extraterrestrial devil’s enormous computation ability, it was still impossible for them to launch a counterattack.

Right then, they all perceived the soul power that was flowing crazily out of Li Yao. There seemed to be a black hole deep inside Li Yao’s brain that was connected to an alien world. Strength from the distant shore of the sea of stars was arriving in this world. The unprecedented, overwhelming soul tides even dazzled the Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators such as Meng Chixin and Wu Suiyun!

Besides Wei Qingqing, the other Spiriters had all heard Li Yao’s explanation and the extraterrestrial devil’s horrendous declaration.

For most of the Spiriters, even if they considered the Spiriters’ Realm their new home, they could not accept that their family, offspring, and compatriots would live such a life forever—not to mention that they would all be controlled by the extraterrestrial devil!

Wei Qingqing had set a good example for them. Even if they had been transformed into the Spiriters, they were still proud human beings!

The souls of the Cultivators only the size of fists and the souls of the ordinary people that looked like butterflies were all charging at the extraterrestrial devil while roaring!

In the dark void, a glamorous meteor shower glowed most brilliantly with the dignity, pride, and free will of mankind!

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The souls of countless Cultivators and ordinary people crashed into the extraterrestrial devil brutally, causing splendid ripples on the shell of the silver ‘virus’.

But they were too weak after all, and they did not understand the means of soul attacks. Their random collisions barely brought any result. Instead, the tentacles and flagella of the extraterrestrial devil caught them and swallowed them one mouthful after another.

With every cluster of souls that it absorbed, the strength of the extraterrestrial devil would expand a tiny bit. The souls that it did not have time to consume were blown away with tentacles. Those firefly-like souls were shaking in the dark void randomly as if they had been mired in the violent tempest, disappearing while shrieking aloud!

“Hahaha. This is the deepest part of the Spiriters’ Realm that I carefully crafted. This is my domain, my world!” Its flagella squirming, the extraterrestrial devil laughed soul-stirringly. “Every corner of this universe carries out my will and my rules. Nobody can defeat me in this place. Nobody!

“As Spiriters, you are supposed to be the constructors and defenders of the Spiriters’ Realm. You are the new hope of mankind!

“But you have betrayed me, betrayed the Spiriters’ Realm, and betrayed the brand-new civilization of mankind! You can all just die. Turn into basic data currents and be part of my database…”

The crazy laughter came to an abrupt halt.

Unusual ripples were spreading out on the surface of the virus’ shell, with abnormal bubbles protruding at the center. The flagella and the tentacles were all straightened, as if they were affected by a certain invisible force. They were unable to move anymore!

Bo! Bo! Bo!

The abnormal bubbles exploded one after another. Green light that was made of interconnected green feathers beamed out of them.

“Ah! This—this is—”

The extraterrestrial devil’s crazy laughter turned into a scream of fear and confusion. The bubbles all over its body kept increasing and exploding one after another. Light spots that looked like fireflies all rushed out of its body and got away from its control.

They were the souls that had just been swallowed, the souls that were feeble and insignificant but clear and firm!

“The extraterrestrial devil has reached the limitation of its computational ability!” Long Yangjun shouted in excitement. “The core data is overflowing. It cannot digest and absorb so many souls. There are certain fatal logical errors in its fundamental algorithm. If it absorbs more souls, it will crash!”

“It’s impossible. How can this happen!” The flagella of the extraterrestrial devil were wriggling again, trying to block every broken bubble on the body, but it was as useless as blocking a flood with a fence.

More and more ‘fireflies’ were spurting out of its body, like a shining spring. Not just the souls that were swallowed moments ago, even the soul pieces that it had devoured in secret over the past decades were vomited out, too!

The green light that had torn apart its body at the very beginning, which was made of green feathers, condensed into a tiny, insignificant green bird in the meantime. It was flapping its wings and glowing freely in the middle of the storm and turbulence!

“Sister Qingqing!”

Li Yao felt two streams of hot magma spurting out of his eye sockets. A new name was added to the list of women who he wanted to hug most other than his wife!

The extraterrestrial devil intended to build a new world that was solely made of the Spiriters, but the so-called Spiriters had abandoned it. After throwing out tremendous souls that were incompatible with its core algorithm, the body of the extraterrestrial devil was greatly reduced, like a balloon whose air had been discharged. Silver tides were also surging on the crinkled shell. Almost four tides seemed to be attacking and mauling each other, until eventually, one of the tides protruded and condensed into the shape of a human.

It was Professor Mo Xuan’s appearance!

“Li Yao!”

Embarrassment, regret, confusion, determination, and many other emotions flashed on the face of this ‘Professor Mo Xuan’ in turn. His arms were deeply stabbed into the silver ball, blowing out a swirl that reached its core. He raised his head and roared at Li Yao, “Now is the time. Open fire at me and finish everything!”

“Professor…” Li Yao mumbled. “Is that you? Are you really Professor Mo Xuan?”

“He is the real Professor Mo Xuan!” The little green bird that was hovering in the void chirped. “The core operational logic of the extraterrestrial devil and him had a conflict. That’s why we were set free!”

“Enough talking! I have exposed its—my core database to you!” Silver tears flowed out of Professor Mo Xuan’s eyes. He desperately shouted, “If the core database is not destroyed, it may run away and be reborn. I cannot hold it for long. Open fire now. Kill me and destroy it!”

“What are you doing? What are you doing exactly?”

Another few clusters of silver tides rose up on the surface of the silver ball and turned into the appearance of Professor Mo Xuan, but their faces were all extremely twisted and looked nothing like the real professor.

Those fake ‘Professor Mo Xuan’s shrieked and lunged at the real Professor Mo Xuan, but however hard they bit and shoved, they could not stop the real Professor Mo Xuan from opening the core database to Li Yao!

“Don’t dawdle, Li Yao. Do what you must!” the real Professor Mo Xuan shouted at the center of the surging silver tides.

Li Yao understood everything.

Perhaps Professor Mo Xuan’s soul had indeed been split apart in the accident decades ago, and more than half of it had been lost.

But even in the residue that remained after the accident, there was still something called ‘humanity’ inside.

Whatever his body and soul had changed into, he was still a human being, he was still a Cultivator, and he was still Professor Mo Xuan!

While hot tears were raging out, Li Yao raised his right hand.

He heard the singing and the roaring of all the sources around. He also sensed that his own soul was shaking, which was so feeble and yet entailed infinite potential and strength.

It was reverberation. The reverberation of human souls when they were vibrating at the same frequency!

“Right. It seems that I do have one last trick!

“It’s what I learned from the qi-trainers of Iron Plateau, the reverberation of fighting will!

“Fighting will is the presentation of the soul when it is activated to the maximum. If fighting will can be reverberated, why can’t the soul?

“Come on. Sing, roar, burn, and reverberate! Everyone, let me sense the vibration of your soul, your pride as a human being, and your determination to fight to the end. Let me gather all of your strength!”

From deep inside Li Yao’s soul, magnificent, soul-stirring music was running out like a dam whose gate had opened!