Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

His words shocked everyone on board!

Gasps were echoing nonstop inside the bridge. The qi-trainers from Iron Plateau all jumped to their feet. But the few Cultivators of the Heaven’s Origin Sector were still confused. The red-haired captain stared at Li Yao on the light beam while asking Professor Mo Xuan, “What is the Blood Stripe Virus?”

Inside the light beam, Li Yao scratch his head and said in a lighthearted tone, “I was mired in a prolonged coma during the battle against the star child when my soul was hurt by his self-detonation.

“In my coma, I had a lot of bizarre nightmares. All the nightmares had one thing in common, which was that they were persuading me to give up and embrace the eternal sleep.

“After I woke up, the memories of the nightmares kept bothering me.

“I believed that I was never a person to give up easily. Besides, the way home was right before my eyes, and I was about to reunite with my family and friends in the Heaven’s Origin Sector. Was there any reason I should stop striving before victory?

“If dreams were a reflection of my subconsciousness, then my subconsciousness must have vastly changed from my normal thinking.

“At that time, I secretly grew suspicious.

“After I woke up, I felt that I was even more unusual. I always daydreamed, and the nightmares were more and more terrible. Every time I struggled to get away from the nightmares, I sensed that my lust for killing was more intense, and I was more cynical and brutal!

“Growing more and more suspicious, I started to observe those around me in secret.

“I thought that, if my soul was invaded or infected by foreign forces, they might jam my senses in a certain way and make it difficult for me to detect their existence.

“But my abnormal behavior would certainly trigger abnormal reactions from those around me.

“Then, as long as I considered those around me as ‘mirrors’, I would be able to deduce my situation.

“As it turned out, I found that Wu Mayan and Xie Anan, my disciples, changed their attitudes to me.

“In the past, they were quite at ease when they were with me. I was more like a training partner than a master to them.

“But now, they were very cautious and in fear.

“One day, I even discovered a very deep mark on Wu Mayan’s neck which seemed to have been left after somebody grabbed the neck hard for a long time.

“During those few days, Wu Mayan had only been training with me and did not fight anybody.

“Besides, if the mark was left by somebody else, he would have certainly told me.

“Since he did not mention anything, it indicated that it was done by me.

“However, I remembered nothing of the matter. It was quite strange.

“There were two possibilities. Firstly, it was done by not me, but another ‘being’, a ‘foreign intruder’, or a ‘second personality’ that was lurking in my body.

“Secondly, it was done by me, but then something wiped out, or at least disguised, the memory.

“Whatever the fact was, I finally ascertained after the incident that my soul had been infected.

“I meditated for a long time and recalled my battle experiences, trying to find out the perpetrator.

“Skeleton Dragon? Yan Xinjian? Xiao Xuance? Star child?

“Those enemies all boasted tremendous soul power, but could they have infiltrated my brain without alarming me and corrupt my soul slowly but surely?

“I did not think that they were as capable.

“Finally. I found the answer.

“The Blood Stripe Virus!

“The Blood Stripe Virus is a mysterious alien foreign species. It is invisible and unpredictable, but it can live inside the brains of living creatures, influence their behavior, and feast upon their killing intent!

“Billions of years ago, the Blood Stripe Virus took the Titan Warriors as their puppets. When the Sector of the Titan Warriors was destroyed, the virus came to the Flying Star Sector through the apocalypse and landed on Iron Plateau, planning to modify Iron Plateau and the Iron Plateau natives over tens of thousands of years and change the latter into their new hosts.

“During their invasion, the essence of the Blood Stripe Virus even invaded Yan Xibei and bewitched him into building the ‘apocalyptic body’ in order to accelerate the Bloody Stripe Virus’ erosion.

“When I fought Yan Xibei, we engaged in close-combat. Blood was spluttering everywhere. Although I was very cautious, it is possible that one drop of blood or two touched my body. Maybe the Blood Stripe Virus was lurking inside the blood and snuck into my body.

“However, the Blood Stripe Virus did not see it coming that my soul was ten times more solid than Yan Xibei’s and that it could not find an entrance at all. Therefore, it kept lurking until it found an opportunity when my soul was blown apart by the star child. During my one-year coma, it infected me with the bloody nightmares and finally successfully got into my soul and my brain!

“If that was the case, there would only be two questions left.

“Firstly, what was the purpose of the Blood Stripe Virus? Secondly, how deeply had I been infected?

“Walking in the virus’ shoes, it is not hard for me to guess its purpose. It wanted to go to the Heaven’s Origin Sector with me.

“Although the Heaven’s Origin Sector is not large, the population is concentrated on one planet. It is like a public square packed with people and perfect for the parasites to spread out.

“Besides, the Heaven’s Origin Sector is at war with the Blood Demon Sector and has to resist the minor apocalypse of the Imperium of True Human Beings later. The Blood Stripe Virus consumes lust for killing as food. Such a world is perfect for its appetite!

“As to how deeply I am infected, and how badly my brain has been corrupted… Those appeared to be questions whose precise answers I can never find.

“I could only make deductions based on the information I know.

“The most important piece of information was that I proposed to build ‘Firefly’ and train alone during the space jump.

“After I found out about the infection of the Blood Stripe Virus and looked at the ‘Firefly’ project in retrospective, I noticed a lot of suspicious points. It was not like a proposal that I would make under normal circumstances at all but like a scheme that the Blood Stripe Virus bewildered me to put forward in order to swallow my soul during the space jump.

“Then, it at least indicated that the Blood Stripe Virus hasn’t taken full control of me yet. There is still a critical step.

“Maybe, it could trigger the fear, fury, hatred, bloodthirst… and all the other negative emotions deep inside my brain and slightly manipulate my behavior when I am at the mercy of those negative emotions.

“It could also eradicate or cover part of my memories and relieve my doubts when I am strongly suspicious in a certain way, similar to hypnotization.

“However, I believe that neither manipulation or coverage can be used unlimitedly.

“The reason is simple. On one hand, the strength of the Blood Stripe Virus was limited. Otherwise, it would not have lurked for so many years.

“On the other hand, and more importantly, if it twisted my will and wiped my memory by force frequently, an entirely different me would definitely be shaped. I, and those around myself, would certainly be skeptical.

“It is the last thing that it would like to see.

“Therefore, there is still a slim chance of winning for me.

“My judgement was that, when my soul was blown apart by the star child’s self-detonation, the Blood Stripe Virus probably pried into most of my memory pieces and knows clearly about my past. It even hid some ‘backdoors’ inside my soul, possibly.

“But I didn’t think that it could know my every movement or thought.

“It’s like a person with ‘dual personality’ who would have two personalities appearing in turn. One of the personalities would not know everything that the other personality knew.

“Since I am not aware of the thoughts of the Blood Stripe Virus, there is no reason why the Blood Stripe should know what is on my mind every second. At least, I hope so.

“I began to consider how to deal with the Blood Stripe Virus.

“At first, I thought about telling everybody of the matter and cope with the Blood Stripe Virus with everybody’s help.

“But I gave up the idea immediately after I thought of it.

“The Blood Stripe Virus is mysterious and fickle. You might not have any solution even if I told you. If anything, you might have been alarmed.

“I was most worried that the Blood Stripe Virus would run away from my body.

“When it is in my body, I can think of something to deal with them. But if it flees into somebody else’s body, or even a snake, insect, rat, or ant, and lurks for another hundred years before it stirs trouble again, nobody will be prepared for them.

“Therefore, I could not ask for anybody’s else. I had to address it myself, and I had to do it in the least eye-catching way without giving myself away.

“The most critical point was that I did not know whether or not the Blood Stripe Virus could see what I saw and heard at all times.

“Without any options, I could only have a try.

“At first, I ran a minor experiment.

“On my training journal, I recorded my anomalies and stated that I was strongly suspicious that my soul had been invaded and that I must have it tested in a certain way.

“When I wrote the article, my mind was very clear, and I was certain that I was not affected by anything.

“It suggested that the Blood Stripe Virus’ interferences were not real-time. They could not learn my every thought immediately. Otherwise, they would not have allowed to write such an article.

“Then, after I wrote the article, it was even less likely that it would manipulate me to delete it, because deleting an article would leave even more traces. When there were too many traces, I would be bound to be suspicious.

“The Blood Stripe Virus could only avoid my test in a certain other way.

“Following that, I started to study the magical equipment on the examination and the attack of souls.

“A year ago, to deal with the ‘reincarnated’ ‘Bai Xinghe’, the Immortal Cultivators produced a lot of magical equipment for mental attacks, but they had already lost the war before most of the devices got to be utilized.

“I borrowed a large batch of them and studied them carefully. In the end, I crafted a tiny piece of magical equipment that could examine the soul. I named the magical equipment ‘Soul Monitor’.

“As long as I put the Soul Monitor on the back of my head, it would automatically scan my brainwaves and my soul waves to examine whether or not my soul was pure and unaffected.

“Of course, I knew that the Soul Monitor had zero effect.

“Since the Blood Stripe Virus had allowed me to produce the Soul Monitor smoothly, the device must have no effect on it at all. It were confident that it could get away from the Soul Monitor’s detection and therefore ease my alert once and for all.

“However, it might not have known my true purpose for building the Soul Monitor.

“I was not meaning to detect the Blood Stripe Virus. I was merely taking a gamble that, when I scanned my brain with the Soul Monitor, the Blood Stripe Virus would enter a certain ‘idle’ state and hide deep inside my brain in case any abnormal waves were detected.

“It meant that I would be granted temporary ‘absolutely safe time’ by the Soul Monitor. I could do whatever I want during the time without worrying that the Blood Stripe Virus might find anything.

“I could use the Soul Monitor for an hour every time, and I could not use it too many times. If I detected nothing after three to five times, I should stop the experiment by logic. Otherwise, the Blood Stripe Virus would suspect that I had other plans.

“Three to five times, an hour every time. Together, that would be three to five hours.

“What could I accomplish in such a short amount of time?”