Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

The two mentors who almost looked identical nodded at the same time. One of the mentors scanned Liao Meng’s face with blue light emanating from his eyes.

Oddly enough, under his eyes, the veins on Liao Meng’s face all bulged, and the man seemed to be wearing a bloody mask.

Now, everybody could see that Liao Meng’s boiling blood was running all over his body and his face.

”Mr. Liao Meng, you’re out,” said the mentor with blue eyes coldly.

”I’m out?”

It was not until ten seconds later that Liao Meng finally realized what it meant. His pupils constricted as he stared at Chu Zhiyun and Tang Ka.

For a moment, Tang Ka even suspected that Liao Meng would lunge at him.

But eventually, Liao Meng simply jumped back after a scream, trying to escape from the supermarket.

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

His portable crystal processor shrieked. It was like a burning shackle that was restraining a rash and furious soul.

”I can’t be out! I’ve always been faithful to the gods! I…”

He jumped and wailed like a brute. He was about to run out of the supermarket when two soldiers of the purge troop knocked him down with a stun gun. He fell into the goods on the ground.

While the stun gun was not a lethal weapon, it was enough to make a stallion unconscious.

But Liao Meng got back to his feet with astonishing willpower.

His hair was erect, and his eyes became completely white. As if he couldn’t see what was around him, he reached out his hands, whose skin had been broken, hoping to run to where the fresh wind was coming.

Naturally, he fell again, and he was hauled back by two extensible chains, leaving a devastating trace of blood on the ground.

”This is impossible! I don’t believe it! Something must be wrong!”

In excruciating pain, Liao Meng shed tears of blood and cried, ”I’m absolutely loyal to the Ultimate Benevolence Masters and the gods! I’m a Purger! I can’t be possessed by extraterritorial devils! You’ve all been tricked! You’re wrong! Help me! Help me, gods! Ahhhhhhhh!”

He writhed on the ground in his blood.

”The gods are helping you, so please stay quiet.”

The mentor with blue eyes squatted and pointed his finger at the center of Liao Meng’s forehead.

Liao Meng suddenly cramped, and noises resembling those when gears were stuck came from his throat. He was suddenly rigidified as if he were a dead body.

The mentor with blue eyes asked the soldiers to pull the half-dead Liao Meng away from the supermarket and left with them.

The other mentor, whose nose was particularly huge, stared at Chu Zhiyun and Tang Ka.

He suddenly approached them and sniffed them carefully with his long and pointy nose as if he were a hound on its feet.

He sniffed Chu Zhiyun for a whole minute and then Tang Ka for another half.

”Ms. Chu Zhiyun, you’ve been the most distinguished student of the Holy Light Academy for the past three years, and you gave an excellent performance in this ultimate test. We look forward to your achievements after you become a real Purger,” said the hound-like mentor with a vague smile.

It was a compliment, but there was no warmth in his words at all.

Then, he moved his eyes that looked as if they were made of glass to Tang Ka. ”As for you, Mr. Tang Ka, you reek of fear. Why? It’s absolutely unnecessary. Your improvement in the ultimate test is beyond everyone’s expectations. Remember, the gods are watching you and guiding you. As long as you obey the gods from the bottom of your heart, you should never fear.

”Alright, please resume your test. We’ll reveal the final answer at the camp at sunset.”

The hound-like mentor sniffed again and stepped back until he left the supermarket.

Tang Ka and Chu Zhiyun both collapsed when the unannounced guests were away.

This time, even Chu Zhiyun who always seemed as cold as ice was sweating hard. She laid her hands on Tang Ka’s shoulder and could barely stand straight.

”That was close.”

Panting for a long time, Chu Zhiyun stared at the door of the supermarket and said gloomily, ”Tang Ka, how did you know that danger was coming?”

”I… I don’t know. It’s just my guts. I’ve been feeling anxious since last night.”

Tang Ka said, ”Didn’t you say that the most important thing for a Purger is ’instinct’?”

”Good boy. It seems that the mentor was not wrong. You’ve really grown a lot in the past few days!”

Chu Zhiyun held Tang Ka’s arm and whispered, ”I may have to respect your opinions more in the future.”

A smile flashed in Tang Ka’s face, and he said, ”But you want to become a Lurker, and I’ll become a Purger at best. No, it’s possible that neither of us can become what we want to be, and we will end up exactly like Liao Meng.”

Chu Zhiyun was silent again.

”What do we do now then?”

The girl said in confusion, ”I don’t want to go back. I don’t want to become like Liao Meng or any of those mentors. Have you not found that all of our mentors feel identical although they have different faces and body shapes? They’re like the different copies of the same template.

”If I’m destined to become one of the billions of copies of the same template, what’s the point of my life?”

”You want to run, right, monitor?”

Summoning his courage, Tang Ka said, ”You’ve been meaning to run since we discovered Zhou Xiuyun and Tiantian yesterday.”

”I…”

Both determination and confusion were flashing in Chu Zhiyun’s eyes. She took a deep breath and mumbled, ”I really don’t know what I want to do.

”It’s quite funny. Before the ultimate test, I was confident that I could train myself into a real Lurker against all the temptations from the extraterrestrial devils, but as time goes by, and maybe because extraterrestrial devils got into me, I’m less enthusiastic to become a Lurker now.

”I… I don’t know what I want exactly. But I know that I can’t tolerate my life in the past. I can’t stand myself becoming something like our mentors or our director.

”Run… Can I really run out of here? Tang Ka, what would you do?”

Chu Zhiyun loosened Tang Ka’s arm and walked absentmindedly. Then, she stepped on something hard.

She picked it up, only to see that it was an emblem of the Holy Light Academy with obvious scratches and blood on it.

It was Liao Meng’s badge. He accidentally dropped it when he writhed a moment ago.

”Let’s make this badge decide everything!”

Chu Zhiyun gritted her teeth and said, ”If it’s heads, I’ll finish the purge operation and return to the camp; if it’s tails, I’ll… walk on a path of my own!”

She took a deep breath and flipped the badge, which hummed in midair.

Her eyes moved following the badge, but the badge was suddenly grabbed by a fist before it hit the ground.

Tang Ka, the owner of this fist, carefully placed the badge on the ground with the tails facing up, before he put on the most brilliant smile.

”Look, monitor, it’s tails.”

Tang Ka said, ”So, it’s already decided. Let’s go!”

”Tang Ka, you…”

Chu Zhiyun was at a loss, feeling that she didn’t know her ”sidekick” that grew up with her anymore. ”You’re leaving with me? Tang Ka, do you know the consequences?”

”Consequences? To be purged in the holy temples at worst. Will it be any different from right now?”

Tang Ka picked up her hand and said softly and firmly, ”You were the first person I saw after I opened my eyes. We’ve been together for so many years. So, you will never leave me alone, will you?”

”Well…”

Confusion flowed out of Chu Zhiyun’s eyes again. She thought for a moment and nodded firmly. ”That’s right. As long as you’re willing to follow me, I will never abandon you. Let’s go!”

The two kids stared at each other for a long time, until they were both smiling. They clenched their arms and strode forward.

”Tang Ka, will the gods still watch over us?” Chu Zhiyun asked when they were about to leave the supermarket.

”Well, I don’t know if the gods will watch over us.”

Tang Ka waved his fist and said, ”But I’m sure that a certain someone will!”