Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“I’m not a three-year-old. Stop bewildering me with such childish talks, alright?”

Furrowing his brows, Li Yao mocked, “Maybe you do have a point, but for some reason, your tone makes me unhappy, and I really want to refuse you! Even if someone has to control the Gold Crystal Pyramid, why does it have to be me? Some people are more suitable than me, like Li Jialing, right?”

“Li Jialing, the young lion, is indeed more suitable than you from a certain perspective.”

Wuying Qi 3.0 said, “But he belongs to Wuying Qi 2.0. It’s an agreement between me and Wuying Qi 2.0. He will receive Wuying Qi 2.0’s legacies, including Wuying Qi 2.0’s unparalleled power as well as Blackhole’s Heart. That Colossus is not suitable for you, and your Arsonist is one of the best Colossi itself. But other than that, everything concerning the Gold Crystal Pyramid is yours.

“You are definitely free to give the Gold Crystal Pyramid to anyone including Li Jialing, but are you sure you’re going to do that? Think about it carefully. If you give the Gold Crystal Pyramid, you will be at fault when he turns into the next dragon.

“Anybody else will be the same. Whoever receives the Gold Crystal Pyramid is likely to become a dragon. Then, who do you want to become a dragon?”

Li Yao was rendered speechless for a moment.

“Undoubtedly, you can be a dragon slayer for your life, whose hands are forever clean, killing one dragon after another. But someone has to be the dragon, right? Dragons are indispensable for the advancement of mankind.”

Wuying Qi 3.0’s smile was even creepier, and his voice crawled into Li Yao’s heart like invisible bugs. “Stop hesitating. It’s not the time for moral lessons. Yes, the technology of massive inoculation is deeply flawed, and I should’ve looked for a better solution.

“But in this pathetic reality, it’s often the case that we have to choose among the deeply-flawed plans to take care of complicated problems.

“If we leave the future of the Star Glory Federation aside; if we ignore whether or not Li Linghai and Lei Chenghu will liberate all hominoids, and whether or not it will cause another turmoil in the Imperium; and if we leave the Covenant Alliance aside—yes, let’s put everything aside for now…

“Then, what about the new-generation virtual lives—Xiaoming, Wenwen, and the Fist King?

“You know better than anybody else how powerful the information lives, virtual lives, crystal processor lives, or mechanical lives are. Since the day the crystal processor and the spiritual puppet were invented, countless people had dreaded that they would replace humans and even enslave and destroy the obsolete human beings.

“Such robots and cyborgs are so strong, swift, and elegant. Their very existence highlights the sluggishness, weakness, and insignificance of obsolete humans. Humans view them with helplessness, jealousy, fury, and fear, just like how the Pangu Clan viewed humans. One day, they will replace the obsolete humans as new humans, and this process won’t be peaceful and painless. A war of blood and fire that is a hundred times more horrible than any wars in the past will be inevitable!

“Face the reality. It’s impossible for mankind to gladly accept Xiaoming, Wenwen, and the Fist King. Now, Boss Bai and Long Yangjun have accepted Xiaoming and Wenwen partly because they are sort of eccentrics themselves, partly because they boasted unparalleled computation and analysis abilities, and most importantly, it’s because Xiaoming and Wenwen are still too weak and do not seem dangerous at all.

“However, when the new-generation information lives thrive, and the billions of ordinary people—who are idiotic, weak, selfish, insecure, shortsighted and easily-provoked—learn of them, do you think that they will gladly accept the new lives like you, Boss Bai, and Long Yangjun did?

“That’s impossible. There’s bound to be a war, just like the war that destroyed the civilization in the Martial Meritocrats Sector. Nobody knows the consequence when billions of ordinary people are instigated better than I do. They will be completely unreasonable!

“If you want the world to accept virtual lives with no bloodshed, and if you want mankind to peacefully reach the new phase where reality and illusion coexist, use the Gold Crystal Pyramid!

“Yes, it sounds like brainwashing if you do that, but you will be able to stop the total war between mankind and information lives. Wouldn’t it be in the best interest of your civilization?”

Li Yao’s eyes were like boiling swamps.

“Hold on a second—”

He almost lost his calmness when he discovered something impossible. “How can you know about Xiaoming and Wenwen? I have never told you anything about them. I buried the memories of them so deeply in my soul that you couldn’t have read it even when you brainwashed me. You’re not supposed to know them!”

“Yes, Wuying Qi can’t know Xiaoming and Wenwen, but he somehow knows. How are you going to explain this self-contradiction?”

Wuying Qi 3.0 chuckled. His face blurred, and his voice changed into a tone that Li Yao was very familiar with. “The reason is simple. Because I’m already dead. The real Wuying Qi died when he detonated his soul. What happened next was that his memories, his power, and his soul pieces entered your brain, and you digested and absorbed them.

“I’m not Wuying Qi, but you are. It was not Wuying Qi who tried to persuade you to use the Gold Crystal Pyramid; it was yourself. You know the value of the Gold Crystal Pyramid and that you have to get it under control. That’s why you created me, to convince yourself with Wuying Qi’s image.

“You knew that you were destined to be the master of the Gold Crystal Pyramid from the very beginning, but you still needed an excuse, and I was your excuse. That can’t be helped. Human beings are all hypocritical. Even someone at the peak of the Divinity Transformation Stage can barely cross the mental obstacle on his own.

“Now, you have completely overcome the obstacle. Do you realize who you are, and who I am?

Wuying Qi 3.0’s shadow rippled out and changed into Li Yao’s own appearance, who looked at Li Yao peacefully.

It looked like a gigantic mirror in the depths of the memory palace that was reflecting Li Yao’s heart.

Li Yao saw that his heart was examining himself unemotionally.

Bam!

The enormous mirror fell apart, and its pieces reflected ten thousand different Li Yao from ten thousand different angles. Every Li Yao seemed to be caged in the mirror pieces, unable to break free. However, the cages were shattered in the next second, and the glittering powder gathered into infinite gray butterflies that replaced Li Yao above the volcano in the Martial Meritocrats Sector.

Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua!

The gray butterflies danced and fell on Li Yao like volcano ash and dirty snowflakes, leaking into his soul.

Wuying Qi’s final legacy, including the ways to modify and use the Gold Crystal Pyramid, the details of the Sunspot Plan, the traps in the Supreme Emperor’s mausoleum, his understandings when he reached the Divinity Branching Stage and upgraded to 3.1, were all melted into Li Yao’s soul mysteriously and became part of Li Yao.

“I never figured out something that had bothered me for a thousand years until this moment.”

Wuying Qi 3.0’s voice echoed in Li Yao’s head again, like Li Yao’s own whisper. “How could I have slain an unparalleled man like the Blood God a thousand years ago when I grew strong only by accident and did not have any belief at all except for my addiction to power?

“The battle between me and the Blood God is like a nightmare etched to my soul. I thought that I was going to be killed by the Blood God. My final victory was uncanny and perplexing.

“But I’ve realized the answer at this moment.

“It’s just like how a shameless cockroach like you could kill Blackstar the Great—as a matter of fact, I never really killed the Blood God; the Blood God has been living in my heart.

“I never received his full legacy, filled the last gap of his belief, and helped him finish the glorious journey of his life until the moment I killed him.

“Now, it’s time for you to ask yourself the same question. Li Yao, have you really killed Wuying Qi? Can you really kill Wuying Qi? When this memory palace collapses and you wake up from unconsciousness, who will you be?

“Hehe. It’s all the same. Perhaps everything is the same. As long as we can break out of this goddamn universe, the Blood God, Wuying Qi, Li Yao, Immortal Cultivators, Cultivators, and Demonic Cultivators will be no different…”

The memory palace trembled violently.

It was the sign of a collision.

Eventually, hundreds of gray butterflies constituted a gray statue, which vaguely looked like Wuying Qi or the Blood God or Li Yao himself. The statue extended its hand to Li Yao with a smile, but when Li Yao extended his hand to it, he realized that it was nothing but another mirror and a vivid reflection.

Boom!

Li Yao was suddenly shocked. The memory palace collapsed all of a sudden, and infinite memory pieces flooded into his head. As if he had slept for a thousand years, he woke up in excruciating pain!