Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

While talking, Theresa dragged Princess Summer behind her and burst into laughter, facing Black Jack.

“Hurry up!”

Theresa was laughing so hard that tears were rolling down her cheeks. She prayed in her heart, ‘Black Jack, ask me why I’m laughing. Don’t come at us without saying anything—we will really be screwed!’

Faced with Theresa’s weird and presumptuous laughter, Black Jack hesitated.

He frowned and looked at Theresa, who was full of flaws and looked like she could be stabbed to death at any moment. He asked solemnly, “What are you laughing at?”

“I’m laughing at you for being a pathetic worm.

Theresa eyed Black Jack up and down with contempt and pity. She clicked her tongue and shook her head. “I just figured it out. As it turns out, you are the most pitiful one among us. From the beginning to the end, you never tasted the feeling of being a real man for even one second. You are a pitiful worm. You were in the past, you are in the present, and you will always be in the future.

“Me? Pitiful?”

Black Jack couldn’t help but laugh. He opened his tentacles that looked like the arms of a demon and unleashed raging flames of war, while he declared, “I boast unparalleled strength. Even the so-called best expert of the Blood War Demon Sector, Grand Master Cooper, has been stomped on by me. Even you are no match for me when you receive the legacy of the Crimson Queen.

“Soon, I will be able to unite the Blood Demon Sector, command the glorious world, and finally unite the entire Emerald Universe. At that time, everyone will tremble in fear under my roar. Every word I say might cause the heads of thousands of people to fall to the ground and raise a storm of blood. I am pitiful.

“Not to mention that so many beautiful women have submitted to me and even offered their lives and souls to me… I am simply a man among men. Am I pitiful? Hahahaha. This is simply the biggest joke in the world!”

“You’ve said the same thing to Sister Summer just now, but we didn’t realize a problem.

“Even if you can conquer the Emerald Universe, even if you are invincible, even if you can attract half of the female mammals on the Emerald Continent, who is this ‘you’ exactly? Is it Black Jack or the Devourer?”

“Think about it carefully. Everything is the work of the Devourer and the target of the Devourer. It has nothing to do with you at all, does it? At the end of the day, you are just a puppet randomly selected by the Devourer. Or rather, you were lucky enough to run into the Devourer by accident. Even if it weren’t for you, any Tom, Dick, or Harry could have done everything with the help of the Devourer, right?”

The burning flames around Black Jack suddenly dimmed as if it had encountered a bucket of cold water.

His face was twisted as if he had been whipped by Theresa’s words.

His mouth opened and closed, as if he were a fish struggling on the beach. He failed to come up with a rebuttal for a long time.

“The one who has the strength is the Devourer. The one who conquered the ignorant girls with his special abilities is the Devourer. The one who crossed the time line to come here with the ambition of ‘reconstructing the Devouring Empire’ is the Devourer. The one who defeated Grand Master Kuba and beat me so miserably, the one who accepted the praises of thousands of devils, the one who was in awe and the one who was in fear… is the Devourer. What about you, Black Jack? What are you exactly?”

Theresa continued dissecting Black Jack’s mind with the sharpest words. “The ‘Master Devourer’ is indeed a mysterious and dominating name. Let me see. Even if you kill me right now and realize the ambition of the Devourer one step after another, you will rebuild the so-called Devouring Empire on the foundation of the Emerald Universe and even expand the Devouring Empire into the entire universe, thereby creating a completely different history.

“So what?

“Will the name ‘Black Jack’ be left in the history books of this brand-new period of history? It won’t. There’s no need for that at all. The only thing that will be left in the history books will be ‘Master Devourer’. Those who are praised, cursed, loved, hated, supported, and opposed will always be the Master Devourer. As for ‘Black Jack’? Who will remember, who will care, and who will love or hate you? You are just a pitiful worm, a host that the Master Devourer once used when he was weak, a forever… nameless rat.”

“Shut up! Stop talking! Shut up!”

Black Jack’s face was completely twisted. His tentacles were struggling like earthworms in the sun and releasing black smoke.

There seemed to be a force inside his body that was trying to control the tentacles to attack Theresa, but another force stopped it and counterattacked feebly with words. “Are you saying that I only got all this because of the power of the Devourer? What about you? Didn’t you only stand in front of me because of the legacy of the Crimson Queen? What makes you think you are qualified to be the pot calling the kettle black?”

“You are wrong. Even without the legacy of the Crimson Queen, I dare to stand in front of you and fight for the one in a billion chance.

Theresa raised her head and bulged her muscles. Her face was beaming with joy as she declared resolutely, “Even without the legacy of the Crimson Queen, I am still Theresa. I still have unparalleled pride and courage. I can still hold my saber and fight side by side with my sisters, you, fate, and the universe until the end!

“But what about you?

“Black Jack, what is the real you without the devouring beast?

“Ask yourself, Black Jack. If it weren’t for the Devourer, would you have the courage to fight against Grand Monarch Cooper until the end? Would you have the confidence and ability to attract so many girls? Would you dare to dream of conquering the world and controlling your own destiny? Would you be a real man?”

“I…”

Black Jack was sweating hard, trembling in anger or shame.

“You don’t need to answer that question. Even if you try to fool me, you will never be able to fool yourself.

Theresa said, “I’ve seen a lot of men like you… Well, not many, but I’ve seen one. Therefore, I know exactly what men like you think.

“For people like you, the more you say things like ‘real man’ or ‘man among men’, the more it means that you have no confidence in yourself and don’t understand the true meaning of ‘man’.

“The more attractive you are, the more girls you attract, and the larger your harem will be, the more guilty you will be. You won’t be able to find your own path, and you will have to prove yourself in such a way before you doubt yourself again and again.

“The more intimidating you appear to be, the more cowardly you are in fact. You claim that you are going to conquer this and that, that you are going to be kings and kings, and that you are going to be the Master of Swallowing or the Cannon King of the Star Ocean. But in fact, you have never really seen through and grasped the throat of fate. You are merely floating aimlessly in the hands of fate.

“Black Jack, open your eyes and take a look. Is this really the fate that you want? Even if it is exactly what you want, do you really want to get everything in such a way, in the way that you are a puppet of the Devourer, instead of boiling your blood and burning your life in the way that a real man does?