Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Li Yao thought about how he should explain it to his wife.

At this moment, a second glittering ‘crystal egg’ in the middle of the silver river was emitting distinctive colors and cracking noises.

Again, beyond Li Yao’s expectation, it was not Lu Qingchen who had broken out of the shell but the mental devil.

In the virtual space, the mental devil had its own projection, too. It was a tiny human being that looked exactly like Li Yao, but it was extremely bright and only five inches tall.

Although it was only five inches tall, the surging waves of blood when he broke out of the shell were hitting the virtual space and turning into apocalyptic deities, as if they were trying to swallow everything in the universe.

“Hehehehe, hehehehe!”

The mental devil bared its fangs and brandished its claws, unleashing its ambitions, greed, and pride unscrupulously. “I am... the dominator of the cosmos, the supreme ruler of the universe, the king of kings. Not only will I be the supreme ruler of the civilization of mankind, I will also be the supreme ruler of the endless civilizations in the multiverse. I’ve made it. I’ve finally made it. From this moment on, no power can stop me. Haha. Hehe. Huhuhuhuhu. Hehehehe!”

“...” Li Yao.

“...” Ding Lingdang.

“Huh. Why are you two here?”

When the guy finally came back to himself, he was immediately shocked by the existence of Li Yao and Ding Lingdang. He blinked hard and looked around. His face changed color as he jumped up and down. “Where’s the legacy? Where are my Primeval heritage and the primeval heritage?”

“Well, calm down first.”

Li Yao was not sure whether or not the mental devil had passed the test. It was reasonable to say that, although the mental devil had walked on the path of darkness, cruelty, and bloodthirst in the beginning, it was also a shameless man who could adapt to any situation. When it discovered that its strength was far from enough to compete with the main personality, it would submit to the will of the main personality without any hesitation and lay low until today.

Therefore, Li Yao did not think that the guy had the willpower to “hold the Dark War Flag high to the end”.

He was afraid that the Primeval Civilization would do whatever it was asked without any hesitation or hesitation.

Besides, judging from its last words, it should’ve taken over the golden key of the Primeval Civilization, which meant that the test had failed!

Hallucinations. They are all illusions. They cannot fool me!

The mental devil’s face was full of regret and disbelief. It bulged its cheeks and pointed at Li Yao and Ding Lingdang, roaring, “You are all fakes. This is still a test, isn’t it?”

Ding Lingdang didn’t say anything and started rubbing her hands.

“No, no, no. I was wrong. I believe that you are all real. Absolutely real.”

The mental devil immediately begged for mercy. Looking at its empty hands, it said aggrievedly, “What is going on exactly? Where is the legacy and the secret treasures?”

“You are really...”

Li Yao was amused. “You must’ve taken the gold key, haven’t you?”

“Gold key? You saw the gold key, too?”

The mental devil was dazed for a moment. It shook its head quickly and said, “No. I was your main personality after all, and I was smarter than you. How could such a simple trick fool me? Of course, I did not take the gold key!”

“Huh?”

It was Li Yao’s turn to be confused. “You didn’t take the gold key? You turned it down? That is to say, you should’ve passed the test and understood the true meaning of the test. Why were you so angry?”

“Of course I refused. There’s no reason such a simple trick could fool you. You must’ve refused, too, right?”

Greedy redness beamed out of the mental devil’s eyes as it stared at Li Yao and Ding Lingdang. “Therefore, where are the legacies and secret treasures that belong to us? The three of us can divide them equally. After all, there are too many of them for one person to study. Of course, there is no need to let more people know that it is a secret that belongs to the three of us. We can become the three giants of the new era with the knowledge!

“Uh...”

Li Yao did not know what to say.

“Hey hey hey, don’t tell me you two want to take it for yourselves?”

The mental devil’s eyes bulged. With its hands on its hips, it burst into fury. “That’s too uncouth of you. Can the two of you stomach so many legacies?”

“Who says we are taking it for ourselves—I still don’t understand.”

Li Yao was confused. “How did you pass the test?”

“Such a simple test is just a game of ‘Gold Axe, Silver Axe, Iron Axe’.

The mental devil sniffed and said, “You’d be an idiot if you failed, wouldn’t you?”

“What gold, silver, and iron axes?”

Li Yao and Ding Lingdang looked at each other in bewilderment. “What are you talking about?”

“Haven’t you heard of such a classic folklore?”

The mental devil explained, “A long time ago, a young woodcutter was chopping wood with a rusted iron axe. He accidentally dropped the axe into the water when he was passing by a bridge. Then, the river god floated up with a shining silver axe made of pure gold.

“The River God first asked the young woodcutter—young man, did you drop this golden axe made of pure gold?” The woodcutter shook his head.

“The River God asked—Young man, did you drop the shining silver axe? The woodcutter shook his head again.

“The woodcutter said to the River God—Grandpa River God, what I dropped was not a golden axe made of pure gold, nor was it a shining silver axe, but a rusted iron axe. Although the iron axe is not worth much money and will soon be rusted, what is mine is mine. What is not mine is not mine. Please take back the golden axe and the silver axe. Return my iron axe to me. I still need to chop wood!

“The River God was overjoyed when he heard that. He thought that the young man was an honest and kind man and gave the gold, silver, and iron axes to the young woodcutter!

“Wait...”

Li Yao was still confused. “Of course I have. So, what does it have to do with the ultimate test?”

“Are you stupid?”

The mental devil looked at Li Yao as if he were an idiot. “It’s true that the choices we made in the beginning were difficult, but compared to the enormous title of the ‘ultimate test’ and the hundreds of civilizations that have fallen here, the difficulty is much lower. In the end, there will certainly be more tests. It will be impossible for us to give away our heritage and secret treasures so easily.

“Before the successor is decided, isn’t it only reasonable to test the personality of the successor with the tricks of ‘Gold Axe’, ‘Silver Axe’, and ‘Iron Axe’?

“In ancient times, the ambitious schemers of a small imperial court on a planet had to ask the ministers to ‘persuade’ them before they usurped the throne. They had to make a lot of appearances before they climbed up to the supreme throne ‘unwillingly’, not to mention the legacy that was enough to rule the sea of stars.

“If he saw the gold key, his eyes would immediately shine, and he would eagerly lunge at it. What qualifications did such a greedy guy have to receive the legacy?

“Only the woodcutters in the story of ‘Gold Axe, Silver Axe, and Iron Axe’ who play hard to get and pretend to refuse will be able to please the ‘River God’ or the rotten old women of the Primeval Civilization who have been dead for billions of years. Only then will they be able to pass on the real knowledge to the ‘honest and kind’ testers. That must be the case.

“Therefore, faced with their temptation, I stood my ground and expressed on the spot that it was impossible to build a prosperous and great civilization with the help of outsiders. Self-reliance and hard work are the only paths for the development of civilization in the sea of stars today. Your heritage is good, but thank you, but I don’t want it!

“As for why, well, why I still went through the test even though I didn’t want the legacy, well, I was merely trying to explore the mysteries of the origin of our civilization billions of years ago and let the ancestors see that the new generation of human civilization has grown into what it is today. A young man with a noble personality such as myself has emerged!

“There’s no reason for me to do that. I’ve already performed so perfectly. I should’ve made the old fogeys of the Primeval Lord of Heaven happy and taken out all the ‘gold, silver, and iron axes’. How could I... get nothing?”

“Hey hey hey, it can’t be that the two of you played the ‘playing cat and mouse’ trick before me. You played with too many people and it didn’t work, right?”

The mental devil pouted and glared at Li Yao angrily.

“...”

Li Yao was dumbfounded for a long time before he came back to himself. Covering his mouth, he shrugged and said with a bitter smile, “Marvelous. Rich. Your deductions are indeed marvelous. Your imagination is quite vivid, too. I didn’t expect that you would break the barrier in such a way.

“Besides, it was not until I saw your behavior that I realized how shameless I could be!

“As for me, although I don’t quite understand what you are talking about—”

Ding Lingdang looked at the mental devil deeply, too. “But if I had an axe right now, be it gold, silver, or iron, I would love to chop you into pieces.

While the three of them were grinding their teeth, they heard another ominous sound.

This time, it was Lu Qingchen’s ‘crystal egg’!

He saw that the crystal egg was emitting dazzling brilliance. Even Lu Qingchen’s projection inside the egg was glittering and translucent. Surrounded by the marvelous aura, the bloody shadows that the mental devil had just triggered were all blown away.

“What?”

The mental devil exclaimed, “It’s Lu Qingchen. How did his mental power suddenly become so strong?”

Not good. It seems that the guy has found something extraordinary in the ultimate test, too!

Li Yao narrowed his eyes, not having the slightest clue what was going on. “How is it possible? The sound, light, and electricity that he demonstrated did not seem to indicate that he failed the test at all. But... how did Lu Qingchen pass the ultimate test?”

“As I said, ‘Gold Axe, Silver Axe, Iron Axe’ is such a childish test.

The mental devil sighed. “Why wouldn’t it?”