Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Li Yao looked at the citizens of Light who were dispirited and at the mercy of others. They were like losers who had drunk too much alcohol and sunk into infinite emptiness. He was both angry and regretful.

‘They were like broken puppets whose strings and joints had all been broken. It was unlikely that they could be recovered for a long time.

However, Li Yao estimated that his master would not ‘dispose’ everyone on Eternal Brightness directly. Since they had been corrupted by the puppet king’s new virus, they should be very good ‘experiments’ that could help him figure out the origin and background of the puppet king.

Therefore, Li Yao still had time to inform the reinforcements of the Star Glory Federation and the Star Glory Federation to assault the Sector in the Well and take away Eternal Brightness.

Right now, the most important thing was to figure out the secrets behind the puppet king and Master Zhi Shan.

Also, three days. Was the final battle between the Star Ocean Imperium and the Sanctuary Alliance really in three days?

‘There was no telling whether or not Lei Chenghu and Boss Bai’s crusade fleet could crush the remaining forces of the four major families and return to the capital city in time.

‘There was no telling whether or not the Star Glory Federation under Ding Lingdang’s leadership would make the decision to march into the center of the sea of stars.

But no matter how slim the chances were, Li Yao would try his best to hold it in his hands!

‘The spider tank was rushing in the downtown area.

Li Yao’s plan was to find ‘Titan’ Yuan Kou and ‘Seven Star’ Guan Qixing before he went to find ‘Major’ Chu Zhixiao.

The communication network had been restored. The location of the four members of the yaksha squad was very clear. Yuan Kou and Guan Qixing were not difficult to locate, but their situation was quite tricky.

It seemed that both of them had experienced the deep invasion of the puppet king. Their souls had been minced into pieces.

Yuan Kuo was shivering in a comer like a little boy who had been tortured. Even Li Yao’s appearance triggered his nerves.

Guan Qixing, on the other hand, seemed to be schizophrenic. He muttered to the glass window on the street and even tried to dismantle his own body.

“Cut the crap. I’m going to tear you apart. I’m going to tear you apart!”

He growled at himself in the mirror.

Even though the puppet king’s mental control gradually retreated like a tide, it still took the two ‘yakshas’ whose souls were somewhat deformed to get rid of the nightmare.

Then, like the citizens of Light who had just woken up from a dream, they collapsed to the ground, barely able to walk.

“What am I…”

They buried their faces in their hands, their voices shivering. “What are you doing?”

“Titan, seven-star?”

Li Yao was so anxious that he was running around the two of them. He wanted to calm them down, but he was scared that he might expose himself. Therefore, he could only watch them recover on their own.

Before they were able to recover from the chaos, Li Yao dragged them to Chu Zhixiao.

To Li Yao’s surprise, the battle between Chu Zhixiao and Yun Haixin was not concluded yet.

Or rather, the outcome of the battle had been decided, but no one had been killed. ‘Black Dream’ Yun Haixin was like a deflated ball and a dead fish that had been flipped over. She leaned against the wall and lost all hope and anger.

His entire body was stained with congealed blood clots, but his breathing was very even. He didn’t seem to have suffered a fatal injury.

The wounds were not on his body but in his heart.

Li Yao thought quickly and immediately understood his reaction.

‘The puppet king had detonated his soul and abandoned all the puppets. Naturally, Yun Haixin was freed from his bewitchment.

‘The situation was hopeless. The promise of the puppet king could not be fulfilled. If Yun Haixin’s wife and children were still alive, it was very likely that they would fall into the hands of their master again. Then, what was the significance of the battle against Chu Zhixiao?

‘There was only one way in front of Yun Haixin—to return to the feet of Master Zhi Shan and beg for mercy.

It was why he was so lonely and desperate.

On the other hand, ‘Major’ Chu Zhixiao was as tranquil as an ancient well on the surface. There was no telling how high the waves in her heart were, or why she showed mercy and did not kill Yun Haixin.

“Red Pig, come here.”

Chu Zhixiao waved at Li Yao calmly. “Where did you go just now?”

“L.. don’t know.”

Li Yao pretended to be in a daze. “My mainframe crystal processor seems to have been jammed. I lost my direction and purpose. I only came back to myself when the major summoned me.

“Then, do you remember what happened just now?”

On one of his knees, Chu Zhixiao opened the control panel on the back of the spider tank and searched for the latest pictures captured by it.

In order to fit the theory that he had been seriously jammed, Li Yao had already distorted or deleted most of the sounds and pictures.

“I don’t remember.”

Li Yao replied crisply.

“That’s… good.”

Chu Zhixiao checked carefully and was relieved when he found nothing wrong.

“It seems that she does not want the leadership to find anything wrong with Yun Haixin and herself.

‘The mental devil said to Li Yao in a low voice, “Maybe, although she was not corrupted by the puppet king, her belief in the past has been shaken, and she is doubting everything around her.

“Major…”

Li Yao thought for a moment and asked, “What happened just now? Why do you look ill at ease?”

“Nothing. Nothing.”

“What are you waiting for? Focus your attention and suppress your wounds. Prepare for a new mission.”

Was the special ‘heretical squad’ still qualified for new missions?

Not just Li Yao, even the four core members of the yaksha squad did not know how to answer the question.

‘They did not even know whether or not they had been deeply corrupted by the puppet king, whether their beliefs had been shaken, and whether or not they were considered ‘deeply-hidden infected’.

Naturally, there was no telling what the higher-ups would think of them. Would they still be regarded as loyal warriors, handy tools, or… targets that needed absolute isolation and thorough cleansing?

However, just as Yun Haixin had said to Chu Zhixiao just now, the sea of stars was too vast a place. No matter how strong their techniques were or how high their Cultivation was, they were merely nobodies. What could they do even if they knew their entire destiny?

Faced with the enormous bees, the resistance of any worker bee or soldier bee was laughable and futile.

‘The only thing they could do was lick their wounds silently and try not to think about anything else. They tried their best to fool themselves and turn themselves into mindless, painless machines until the next mission.

Sure enough, the mission came.

It was the most important mission that nobody had expected—capture the puppet king!

“Let’s go to the medical center of Bright City. The real body of the puppet king should be there. He has lost the ability to resist!”

Chu Zhixiao jumped up and strode forward.

Yuan Kou, Guan Qixing, and Yun Haixin followed him closely. Their tense nerves were somewhat relieved.

Now that such an important mission had fallen into their hands again, it proved that they had not completely lost the trust of their master.

But Li Yao could not figure it out at all.

A large batch of ‘photon soldiers’ and the God Bless Army had arrived and surrounded the medical center. Besides, the soul of the puppet king seemed to be in a mess, too. It would be a vegetable if it was not killed. Why did they still rely on the… unreliable-looking yaksha squad for the final attack?

In particular, when they returned to the place where Li Yao had been lurking just now and saw the soldiers of the God’s Protection Legion wearing special anti-jamming and anti-corrosion helmets.

Why didn’t the soldiers of the God’s Protection Legion go and capture the puppet king themselves? Why didn’t they look for the ‘photon army’? Wasn’t it unnecessary to look for the yaksha squad?

It was not until Yun Haixin opened her mouth that Li Yao realized why the yaksha squad was necessary.

“We are the firewall.”

Yun Haixin smiled bitterly.

“What do you mean?”

‘The other three members were surprised to see that the medical center was too heavily guarded to be penetrated by water. They were even more confused by Yun Haixin’s words.

“Don’t you know what a firewall is? It is a barrier built with various kinds of fire-resistant materials after a certain grass or trees are entirely uprooted when the fire spreads over.

Yun Haixin explained, “It’s like the ‘mind defense wall’ in the brain of a Cultivator or the ‘defense system’ in the crystal processor network. They can also be called firewalls.

“Yes. The puppet king is inside. It is possible that he has lost his combat ability. His real body is not difficult to capture.

“But the problem is not how to capture his real body, but how to capture his real body without being infected by him.

“The puppet king is like… a super infected person who carries hundreds of deadly viruses. Anyone who comes close to him, even if they are wearing a seemingly safe anti-virus suit, might be infected.

“What kind of people should we send to capture him in order to minimize our losses?

The other three members looked at each other in bewilderment.

“People who have been seriously infected.

Chu Zhixiao said coldly, “Since you’ve been infected once, you won’t be infected again. Or rather, the outcome will be the same if you are infected by several viruses or hundreds of viruses.

“Yes. It seems that the leadership does not have any ‘suspicions’ about us but has ‘confirmed’ that we have been corrupted and infected in the confrontation with the puppet king.

Yun Haixin smiled. “If that’s the case, instead of dragging more ‘pure and flawless believers’ into the mess, why don’t you let us be responsible for the whole thing and let us get in touch with the puppet king at a close distance? Nobody else will have to get in touch with the puppet king directly. The losses

and the risks will be minimized.

“Therefore, we are the firewalls, the anti-virus suits, the one-off anti-virus suits that can be sent into the incinerator after the mission is completed, the one-time anti-virus suits that are full of viruses, hmm?”

Chu Zhixiao was silent for a moment.

“Stop talking. Let’s go and carry out the mission.”

She lightly stomped her foot and led the three, together with Li Yao, towards the depths of the medical center of Bright City.