Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Hardly had Li Yao stepped on the gas when he saw through the rear-view mirror that the black fog rushing out of the building of wealth had condensed into an enormous ghost claw that snatched at the multipurpose off-road vehicle. When the black fog covered the top of the off-road vehicle, squeaking noises were echoing on the top of the vehicle, as if it had been scratched by real sharp claws.

Thankfully, the off-road vehicle had already started moving at this moment. The roar of the engine drowned out the shriek of the sharp claws. Li Yao ruthlessly stepped on the accelerator, causing the water around the wheels to splatter as the off-road vehicle rushed out like an arrow released from a bow.

BOOM! CRACK!

It was unknown whether it was intentional or not, but dozens of lightning bolts fell from the sky and hit the SUV from afar. One moment of carelessness, and the SUV and the people inside would be burnt to ashes.

Li Yao’s face was as gloomy as still water. Every pore on his body had been expanded to the limit. He keenly sensed every electric current and ripple between heaven and earth. It was clearly a heavy and clumsy off-road vehicle, but Li Yao drove it with the agility of a racing motorcycle. In between the lightning bolts, he zigzagged left and right and finally accelerated to his maximum speed, leaving the lightning bolts and the black fog far behind. On the other hand, Zhang Daniu had no time to put on his seat belt. He was swinging back and forth in the carriage like the last match in a matchbox. He was about to throw up his bile.

It was raining cats and dogs in front of him. The sky and the earth were covered in darkness. The entire city was drowned in the endless rain. Visibility was extremely low. Li Yao drove the off-road vehicle onto the highway half by memory and half by luck. Right now, there was water everywhere on the ground. Passing through the lower roads and culverts, the engine would die down at any moment. The highway was the only place that was slightly safer.

“Hu—”

After making sure that there were no pursuers behind him, Li Yao took a long breath in relief. Then he glanced at Zhang Daniu out of the corner of his eye. “Are you alright, Master Niu?”

“I—I’m fine. Blurgh!”

Zhang Daniu leaned against the window and retched a few times. Then, he looked at the raging storm and thousands of bolts of lightning. His complexion turned even more ugly as he said in a trembling voice, “This—this damn weather doesn’t look like a normal hurricane or storm no matter how I look at it. It can’t be that the ‘hunter’ was speaking the truth and the world is really starting to ‘collapse’, right? Hey, Student Li Yao, where are we going now?”

“I don’t know.”

Li Yao frowned. Although he had awakened the strength of a monster and the mottled memory pieces, they were still not enough to help an ordinary college student like him find a way out of the ‘Ark’ and the ‘Apocalyptic’ organizations, or even the malicious world. “Master Niu, do you believe what the ‘hunter’ said? That we are all prisoners in a time prison living in an infinitely repetitive ‘reincarnation world’?”

“I don’t know, either!”

Zhang Daniu wiped his face and said pitifully, “Last night, I was still worrying about the rent for the next quarter. I was still feeling sorry that you ate 200-300 dollars worth of casserole bones. In the end, in just a short span of 24 hours, you want me to face some sort of ‘world collapsing, infinite loop’ problem... I really don’t know what to say about such a high-end and elegant problem.”

“However, on second thought, the words of the ‘hunter’ should have a lot of truth to them, because his theory is partly consistent with the Dream Traveler’s and can explain the ‘earth bug’. Besides, we have seen the existence of superpowers with our own eyes. What if the superpowered people did not awaken the memories of their previous lives?

“I think so, too. The words of the ‘hunters’ cannot all be false. Of course, they cannot all be true, either.

Li Yao said, “Master Niu, whether or not you pretended to be nice to the ‘hunter’, I’m going to ask you one more time. What are you thinking? If you have to choose between the ‘apocalypse’ or the ‘arky’, who will you choose? If you have to choose the ‘apocalypse’, I don’t need to flatter myself and save you from the ‘apocalypse’, do I?”

“Well...”

Zhang Daniu thought carefully for a long time and said, “I don’t know, either. I’d better check the status of the ‘Ark Foundation’ first.”

“Oh?”

Li Yao was dazed for a moment. He said, “I thought that you would choose the ‘Apocalyptic Organization’ without any hesitation. After all, what the ‘hunter’ said was very reasonable and tempting. If there is a ‘will of the earth’ and their organization is the messenger, spokesperson, or subordinate of the ‘will of the earth’, they will certainly look more promising than the ‘Ark Foundation’.”

“You are wrong about that.”

A sly smile appeared on Zhang Daniu’s face when he heard Li Yao’s words. He said, “If the ‘Apocalyptic Organization’ is really as awesome as the ‘Hunter’ claimed, with the entire ‘Will of the Earth’ backing them up, how could they still be a hidden underground organization? Even after the shooting at the T3 Game Show, they were still wanted by the police of multiple countries? It doesn’t make any sense at all! If the ‘Will of the Earth’ does exist and can control everything in human society, then the ‘Apocalyptic Organization’ should have replaced the United Nations and the governments of the other superpowers and launched a full-scale arrest warrant for the ‘Ark Foundation’. Is it really necessary to go this far where everyone is sneaking around and not daring to meet anyone?”

Li Yao raised his eyebrow in surprise.

As it turned out, Zhang Daniu had the same thought as him. It was just that he did not dare to say it out loud due to the intimidation of the ‘hunter’.

Although the guy was sordid, he was not stupid.

“Besides, don’t you see that the words of the ‘hunter’ are contradictory?

Zhang Daniu said proudly, “He compared Earth to a ‘reincarnation prison’, and the members of the ‘Apocalyptic Organization’ are both ‘model prisoners’ and ‘prisoners’. Isn’t that right?”

Li Yao nodded. “Yes. That’s what he said.”

“That’s hilarious.

Zhang Daniu said, “I don’t know how much you know about prisons. Although I don’t know the specific organizational structure and management pattern of prisons, I can guarantee one thing—no prison in the world is 100% managed by a prisoner, right? No matter how well-behaved, outstanding, and ‘model’ you are, the prison manager occasionally needs you to maintain the underground order inside the prison and save the manager’s manpower and resources. But no matter what, a prisoner is still a prisoner. It’s impossible for them to be promoted to a real prison guard and manager, right?”

Li Yao thought quickly and immediately understood the simple logic. He nodded and said, “Yes. Maybe in the eyes of the awakeners of the Heaven’s Origin Sector, they are the ‘model prisoners’ and the ‘prisoners’ who are absolutely obedient to the ‘will of the earth’. But a prisoner is still a prisoner. If there is a humanized will of the earth, it is impossible for them to trust any human being, be they ‘apocalypse’ or ‘arks’!”

“Yes. Only in extreme cases can a prisoner become a prison guard.

Zhang Daniu said, “That is because the prison managers are too weak. The order inside and outside the prison has gone out of control. If that is the case, the ‘will of the earth’ is not as invincible as it sounds, is it?”

Li Yao looked at Zhang Daniu seriously. “Fair enough.”

“Of course it does.”

Zhang Daniu said excitedly, “When I was talking to the ‘hunter’ just now, I’d already thought it through. A real man can bow and submit when he wants to. He can even take the insult to his groin. What’s wrong with kneeling down and hugging his thigh? The problem is, even if you want to hug his thigh, you have to choose a thick, long, and real 24-karat golden thigh to hug. For guys who call themselves ‘prisoners’ like the ‘Apocalyptic Organization’, who knows whether or not they are chess pieces in the hands of a higher power? What do you mean by ‘we are born guilty’? They look like zealots. It would be a shame not to be used by others. You and I are smart people. There’s no need to be tied to them so quickly!”

“As for the ‘Ark Foundation’, according to the ‘hunters’, they are just a bunch of prison breakers, but they are acting so arrogantly. Is there something wrong with them, or do they have the capital to be arrogant? If it is the latter, it is not a bad idea for us to join the ‘Ark Foundation’ together. After all, I’ve spent twenty thousand dollars on the resistance. It is not unreasonable to ask the ‘Ark Foundation’ to pay me back a hundred times or even two million, right?

“Of course, it would be best if we don’t go looking for the ‘Ark’. Let’s just let the ‘Ark’ discover us and take us away. This way, if the ‘apocalypse’ gains the upper hand next time and completely destroys the ‘Ark’, we can still say that we were forced by the people of the ‘apocalypse’ to end up like this. Maybe we will have a chance to abandon the darkness and seek refuge in the arms of the ‘apocalypse’ and the ‘will of the earth’. Student Li Yao, think about it, don’t you agree?”

Li Yao stared at Zhang Daniu for a long, long time.

“Master Niu, you’ve changed.”

Li Yao could not help but say, “From last night to this moment, your temperament, way of thinking, and computational ability seem to have undergone a complete transformation. You are completely different from before.”

“Now that you mention it, you do have a point.

Zhang Daniu flipped down the window cover and found a small mirror on the back of the window. He observed his appearance carefully and said, “It’s really strange. Ever since I met you, bubbles seem to be popping up in the depths of my brain. Inside the bubbles are new and strange thoughts one after another. Many super complicated questions can be solved in a flash. What’s going on?”

“Well—”

Just as Li Yao was about to respond, the hair all over his body suddenly stood on end, and his heart seemed to have been ruthlessly pinched. He turned the steering wheel violently as if it was a conditioned reflex, and the off-road vehicle almost turned 180 degrees on the elevated platform.

The complicated viaduct was made of three levels, high and low. While Li Yao was steering the steering wheel hard, another black, multipurpose off-road vehicle roared like an iron beast and flew down from a higher level, trying to crash into Li Yao and Zhang Daniu’s vehicle!