Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“Since a long time ago,” Li Jialing said, “Li Lingfeng has ‘treated’ the disease for me. I was too little at the time to tell the difference between ‘treatment’ and ‘refinement’.

“Other than the weird drugs they injected into my body, the high-dose rays that illuminated my internal organs repetitively, and all the other torture that I would rather forget, Wuying Lan and him mainly focused their attention on inculcating certain things into my head.

“It is almost like… a transmission of knowledge. Voices, pictures, and data as vast as an ocean flooded into my head crazily, and I couldn’t dodge them at all. They were all skills concerning killing, plotting, and so on.

“Hehe. I must give credit to the big shot of the family for me to be who I am today. Perhaps he did not see it coming himself that I would be refined so ‘successfully’ one day.

“However, being familiarized with a certain skill of killing was entirely different from truly dissecting a man into pieces. At that time, despite the enormous physical strength and the skills of killing someone in a hundred different ways in half a second, the extreme disgust and fear still haunted me and bound my soul hard.

“If I so much as felt the intention to kill, my head would go dizzy, my heart would race, and I would have such a headache that I could barely grab a blade, much less putting my killing skills into practice.

“Therefore, in the eyes of other people, I was still a piece of wretched garbage who was born a weak coward!”

“Then, when was the ‘barrier’ removed?” Li Yao asked.

“Two years ago,” Li Jialing replied emotionlessly. “After a procedure two years ago, I discovered that the barrier inside my head had begun to loosen. There was no telling whether it was a result of the procedures or the barrier simply wore out on its own as I grew up, but all in all, I was no longer disturbed by the damn barrier a year and a half ago.

“Although I never did it for real, I could clearly sense that I no longer had any fear or disgust for killing, and I could kill anybody that stood in my way completely at my own will!”

After a brief silence, Li Yao asked, “But you didn’t tell Li Lingfeng?”

“No. Why would I?” With a cunning smile, Li Jialing added, “In the past, I was only incapable of killing, but it doesn’t mean that I didn’t have my own feelings and will. I’d been considering how to get rid of the control of Li Lingfeng for a long time. I decided that the key was to prevent him from learning about my actual condition.

“He may be talking nicely right now, but he was obviously treating me as some sort of test subject. Perhaps eighty percent of what he said was true. He has indeed dedicated a lot of effort and resources to me, but so what? A tool is always a tool, and a test subject is always a test subject!

“If I had told him the truth at that time, he certainly would’ve ushered me into the training of ‘phase two’. He probably would’ve given me various kinds of violent missions so that I would work hard and sacrifice myself for him and the Li family. The higher the combat ability that I demonstrated, the more arduous that the missions he entrusted to me would’ve been. One day, I would die on a certain battlefield for the interests of the Li family as cannon fodder. Why would I do that?

“Therefore, I chose to hide the mutations inside my brain and pretended to be a useless coward who loathed killing and could not fight anyone, waiting for the best opportunity.

“In the best opportunity that I envisaged, I shouldn’t be at the nest of the Li family, where there was absolutely no way for me to escape, and it would be best if Li Lingfeng could be trapped by certain things or experts. That was the only way that a small fry like myself could escape from the drag net.

“Today is probably the best opportunity. I can tell that Li Lingfeng has been starting to lose patience. If my seal was not cracked by the end of this year, it’s hard to tell if he would switch to crueler methods to refine me.

“In the meantime, it is obvious that Brother Yao is not on the same side as Li Lingfeng, and you two are likely to have huge conflicts. So, despite your abrupt arrival and the possible accidents and unexpected factors it will bring, I do not have any choice except to bet everything!”

Taking a deep breath, Li Yao asked, “Have you never considered the possibility that Li Lingfeng was not lying? Or rather, is it possible that he sincerely wants you to be his heir and inherit the entire Li family someday, although he lied to you about certain things?”

After a brief silence, Li Jialing chuckled.

“I’m afraid that you haven’t figured it out yet, Brother Yao.”

Looking at his burning eyes in the mirror, Li Jialing said, “From the beginning to the end, I have never considered being someone like Li Lingfeng. Or rather, I despise the idea of becoming someone like him!

“Even if he truly becomes the leader of the Li family one day and one of the four Kurfürsten of the Imperium, so what? He will only be a spokesperson that the Li family nominated and a component of the enormous machine. He is expected to give his all for the interests of the Li family and even die for it!

“I do not want to live such a life. I do not want to be restrained or controlled by anyone. I want to be… absolutely free!

“So, even if Li Lingfeng has truly planned a smooth and brilliant life for me, I do not want to live it at all just because he wants me to!”

As he approached the end, the young man was almost gnashing his teeth in fury.

Taking a deep breath, he smiled. “Sorry. I was a bit too excited. Maybe it is because I’ve been manipulated and repressed for too long. How about it? What’s your theory on everything now that you have learned the background? They say that the observers understand a game better than the players in it. As an ‘observer’, can you explain the questions that have always bothered me?

“When Li Lingfeng raised the Origin Plan, my first reaction was that it was absolutely not to be believed. But on second thought, it seems fairly reasonable that the nausea and sense of fear that disturbed me in the past were the pieces of mutated Three Fundamental Laws.

“So, if Li Lingfeng was lying and there was no such thing as the Origin Plan, I would never have been corrupted by the foul forces of the Covenant Alliance. What can my problem be ascribed to?”

“It’s very simple.”

Thinking carefully for a moment, Li Yao still decided to say it out loud. “You were never corrupted by the foul forces of the Covenant Alliance, but one of your parents was from the Covenant Alliance. That will explain everything.”

Li Jialing was stunned.

It was the first time that Li Yao had seen undisguised astonishment on the young man’s face. For some reason, Li Yao had a weird sense of joy.

His lips cramping, Li Jialing mumbled to himself, “It—It does seem to make sense.”

“Yes. If they were both from the Covenant Alliance, you would’ve been bound by the Three Fundamental Laws. All your feelings and will would’ve been eradicated,” Li Yao said. “However, if you are only half a native of the Covenant Alliance, and the man who passed the blood of the Covenant Alliance on to you was not a pure native of the Covenant Alliance because he was somewhat breaking the boundary of ‘Three Fundamental Laws’ after the many adventures he had, it will certainly be much easier for you to break the barrier that has been inherited by your genes and your soul because it is nothing more than broken fragments.”

“Brother Yao, you said just now that you were scared of me.” Li Jialing could not help but hold his abdomen. “But I’m starting to feel that you are too immeasurable and horrifying. Have you deduced everything based on the broken pieces of information just now? Why do I feel that you are so certain as if you know it is a fact?”

Li Yao’s own body blinked in the space port not far away and said, “Like you said just now, the observer knows the game better than the players do.”

Li Jialing sniffed, obviously not satisfied by the answer.

But he was too smart to waste his time on pursuing the question any further.

“The Covenant Alliance…” he said gloomily and looked at himself in the mirror, with additional feelings in his eyes.

“If it’s true, how will you feel?” Li Yao asked. “Will you feel that it is a bit… weird?”

“It doesn’t matter.” The young man took a deep breath and suddenly relaxed. “It doesn’t matter whether I’m the offspring of Cultivators, Immortal Cultivators, those of Covenant Alliance, or any monstrous creatures. I will always be a free, unstrained spirit. I don’t care about it at all as long as other people do not mess with me!”

“But it is obvious that Li Lingfeng is messing with you and even manipulating you right now,” Li Yao said. “I suggest you pay more attention to Li Linghai.”

“Right. You mentioned Li Linghai at the very beginning of our encounter.” Li Jialing’s eyes suddenly turned sharp. “Why?”

“Assuming that Li Lingfeng has been lying about the existence of the Origin Plan, and you are nothing more than a ‘perfect test subject’ that he has carefully produced, it is obvious that he did not invest so much time and so many resources into you because of the spur of the moment. He must’ve been planning to use you against someone,” Li Yao remarked. “It is also the reason you asked him who sabotaged the Origin Plan just now, right?”

Li Jialing was somewhat surprised and admired Li Yao even more. “You’ve seen through that too, Brother Yao?”

“Of course. Whoever Li Lingfeng accuses of being the schemer that disrupted the Origin Plan is likely the one that he wants you to deal with.” Li Yao smiled. “From what I’ve seen now, Li Lingfeng wants you to deal with Li Linghai.”

Li Jialing sneered. “Like I said just now, I am uninterested in the conspiracies and power struggles of the leadership of the Li family. I’ll be a fool if I intend to deal with the queen of the Imperium!”

“Uninterested is far from enough,” Li Yao said. “Has it ever occurred to you why Li Lingfeng wants you to deal with Li Linghai? Despite all the cutting-edge refinements you have had, you are no older than twenty. With your current combat ability, it’s questionable that you would be able to defeat Wuying Lan. On what grounds does Li Lingfeng believe you are capable of dealing with Li Linghai?”

Li Jialing frowned. “Hehe. Wuying Lan is not worth mentioning at all. I kept part of my strength to myself just now, but I see your point, Brother Yao. It is indeed a very important issue.”

“Consider such a possibility,” Li Yao said. “You are deeply connected to Li Linghai in a certain way. Li Linghai is confident that you can deal with Li Linghai not entirely because of your combat ability but also because of the very special ‘connection’. Is it possible?”