Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Swallowing hard and observing the environment he was at carefully, the young man felt that he was further and further away from the “absolute freedom” that he always dreamed about. Sighing helplessly, he said, “Then, what do we do now, Brother Yao?”

“Calm down, Brother Yao always has a solution. The environment we are in seems to be very rough, but in fact, everything is under my control!”

Li Yao raised the many Cosmos Rings on his fingers and declared confidently, “First of all, before I found you, I had collected tremendous remnants of the starship, especially those related to the ‘space jump unit’. Even at the moment before the crash, I also specifically released abundant spiritual energy to protect the most valuable unit. It is still in perfect condition without any damage!

“Secondly, now that this place is the Sand Primitive Sector in the past, and the activities of human beings were very frequent, it will be much easier.

“While the people of the Sand Primitive Sector were barbaric and aggressive, their civilization had advanced to a very high level, especially since the contact with the Martial Meritocrats Sector. Through the advanced technologies they learned from the Martial Meritocrats Sector, they produced a fairly large space fleet, to the point that the resisters in the Martial Meritocrats Sector had to develop a ‘global sword network’ to deal with them, right?”

Considering for a moment, Li Jialing nodded his head. “Yes, that’s correct. The people of the Sand Primitive Sector must’ve been good at space voyages too.”

“So, problem solved!”

Li Yao said with a smile, “Just like the Land of Sins, there must be a lot of remnants of the starships of the Sand Primitive people on this planet. No matter how powerful the destructive weapons were, it’s unlikely for them to have completely wiped out all the remnants of the starships, right?

“Besides, my Cosmos Rings have stored a lot of units, crystals, and fuel that I got from ‘Manjusaka, the City in the Sky’.

“Just rest assured. As long as we found enough remnants, with Brother Yao’s marvelous skills in refining, it will be more than easy to fix and strengthen a starship that is above average. Together with the ‘space jump unit’ in my hands, it won’t be a problem to escape from the Sand Primitive Sector!

“As long as we run out of the planet, with the strengths of you and me, wouldn’t we be like fish in an ocean and birds in the sky? Who can possibly stop us?”

Looking at the sky worriedly, Li Jialing did not loosen his furrowed eyebrows at all. He asked suspiciously, “Is that so?”

“Of course!”

Li Yao patted the young man’s shoulder and announced, “Trust Brother Yao. There can’t be any accident this time!”

Li Jialing pointed at the sky. “But look, Brother Yao. What is that?”

Li Yao looked at where the young man was pointing, only to discover that the surging, murky sky was as agitated as if simmering.

Ripples spread out nonstop, revealing immeasurably deep holes. Quite a few daunting starships of the Immortal Cultivators, like whales sinking in an ocean, were ripping the sky and slowly landing.

Right before the Immortal Cultivators’ starships was a Colossus that was brimming with spiritual energy and killing intent. What else could it be other than Li Lingfeng’s Tempest God?

“You’ve got to be kidding me. He has tracked me down all the way here?”

Li Yao was dumbfounded. “Has the guy lost his mind? Why does he have to capture us instead of handling the mess in the Martial Meritocrats Sector? How… How is he going to face the infinite wrath of the big shots of his family?”

Li Jialing: “… Well, Brother Yao, not that I don’t trust you, but do you think we should run separately?”

“Cut the crap. Let me think!”

Li Yao tapped his forehead and thought hard for a moment. Then, his face suddenly changed as he snapped his fingers and said, “Right. It was my negligence. Although I took many things into consideration, I never examined the big picture from Li Lingfeng’s perspective. The target Li Lingfeng is pursuing right now is not me but you, Li Jialing!”

“Me?”

Li Jialing blinked his eyes and pointed at his own nose. “Am I so important?”

“Absolutely!”

Li Yao said, “I thought that Li Lingfeng, as an expert in the Divinity Transformation Stage, would’ve stayed in the Martial Meritocrats Sector to clean up the mess if he was rational enough to weigh the pros and cons, in order to preserve his power and the hope to move a step forward in future.

“If I were the only one who escaped, he might’ve made the choice helplessly despite his fury.

“But I brought you away, which made the situation entirely different. He could let go of me, but he absolutely could not let go of you!”

“Why not?”

Li Jialing was confused. “You destroyed ‘Manjusaka, the City in the Sky’, Li Lingfeng’s dozens of years of investment, while I simply escaped because I had enough of his enslavement and exploitation. I did not even cause any actual damage for him. Why would he rather let go of you than let go of me?”

“Because you are a hundred times more valuable than me!”

Staring at the Tempest God and the Immortal Cultivators’ starships in the sky, Li Yao said solemnly, “If we are to view the issue from Li Lingfeng’s perspective, his fiasco this time has caused irreversible losses, which basically means the end of his path of power. He will barely be able to keep himself safe after he returns to his family! However he cleans up the mess, bends his knees to the big shots of the family, and concedes to the competitors of his generation, nothing can change that, right?”

Li Jialing immediately nodded his head and analyzed with the calmness that far exceeded his peers. “Yes. The failure this time is simply too terrible. It is almost the greatest shame of the Li family in the past hundreds of years. Whatever remedies Li Lingfeng takes, I’m afraid he will not be forgiven by the big shots of the family. Even if he is forgiven, it will still be the best weapon for other competitors to attack him with in the future. Chances are little to none that he accedes to the throne of the leader of the family and wins the title of ‘Kurfürst’ in the future!”

“Therefore, there is absolutely no way that he can clean up the mess in the Martial Meritocrats Sector.”

Li Yao said, “Then, with your understanding about Li Lingfeng, do you think he will simply abandon all his ambitions after the failure, conceal all his vigor and aggressiveness, and withdraw from the stage of the universe as a common warrior of the Li family, or perhaps an ‘elder’ one day in the future?

“Absolutely not!”

Li Jialing gnashed his teeth. “I know Li Lingfeng very well. His ambitions may be disproportional to his talents, but he is never a quitter. Whatever methods he must resort to and whatever prices they mean, he will certainly have a desperate struggle!”

“So, he has to catch you.”

Li Yao said solemnly, “It is meaningless now to go back and clean up the mess in the Martial Meritocrats Sector. The game there is already too messed-up for him to win. Instead of submitting humbly like meat on a chopping block and begging for the mercy of the big shots of his family and his peers, he might as well have a desperate attempt to knock over the chessboard and put his fate back into his control again.

“As the saying goes, the strong ones are never to be punished. As long as Li Lingfeng is strong enough, even if he has made a horrible mistake, the big shots of his family and his peer competitors will not be able to slate him with the debacle this time!”

Thinking for a moment, Li Jialing asked, “Then, how can he grow strong quickly enough?”

Li Yao said, “Naturally, it is impossible for Li Lingfeng to achieve a qualitative leap in his own strength in only a couple of days. However, he may get what he wants with the strength of somebody else, which is Li Linghai, the queen of the Imperium of True Human Beings!

“I suspect that Li Lingfeng had been planning to work with Li Linghai, his biological sister and the queen of the Imperium, since the very beginning. Of course, it would only be nominal cooperation, and he would be in fact controlling the queen’s forces as the dominator of the alliance. When the brother and the sister joined their forces, he would be able to negotiate with the competitors and the seniors in his family.

“For the purpose, he carefully refined you as a leverage.

“At that time, Li Lingfeng still had the support of his personal armed forces and the big shots within the family. He also had the Heavenly Eye Group and ‘Manjusaka, the City in the Sky’ as his fundamental bases. So, he was not in a hurry to show his hand to the queen. Or rather, he could have prepared for a while longer until his odds of success were greater.

“But now that he had lost everything, the game with Queen Li Linghai has become his only hope. If he can join hands with the queen, he will still have an opportunity to make a comeback in the family, or he will truly be doomed for good.

“Naturally, your importance as a leverage has been increased to an unprecedented level. You are his everything right now!

“That is why he has marched to the Sand Primitive Sector despite all the costs. He is not here for revenge but to grasp you again, whatever it takes!”

Li Jialing was silent for a moment. Instead of raising any doubt for Li Yao’s meticulous, dazzling analysis, he asked an unexpected question, “Tell me. Is there really a special relationship between me and Li Linghai, queen of the Imperium?”

After a brief daze, Li Yao said, “You are very smart.”

Li Jialing smiled bitterly. Rubbing his head, he said, “I do not want to be smart, but you will never know what a painful price I paid when Li Lingfeng and Wuying Lan tried to build me into such smartness!”

After a moment of hesitation, Li Yao said, “What will you do if my answer is ‘yes’?”

“Nothing.”

Li Jialing said expressionlessly, “Li Lingfeng, Li Linghai, any other members of the Li family, and the powerful celebrities and the ambitious small fry from other Immortal Cultivator families are all the same. They are all jackals of the same lair. I do not want to be related to any of them or to live their life at all.

“I only want to live a free life where nobody commands me, enslaves me, and exploits me. Li Lingfeng can never use me, nor will Li Linghai, no matter how we are related, and no matter what they have given me, even including… my most precious life!”

The sensitive and smart young man had already vaguely guessed something from Li Yao’s analysis.

But the stubbornness and disobedience in the deepest part of his eyes had never changed.