Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Li Yao could not have admired Jin Tuyi more. “I don’t know why your father kept it a secret to all the other demon emperors. Perhaps it was because the struggle for power among the demon emperors of the four major demon kingdoms was too fierce. Since neither the Gold Crow Kingdom nor himself could not be called the strongest, he would certainly lose the initiative of the whole plan.

“But there is an explanation that I think is more likely. Your father is a very proud man from the bottom of his heart. He despises the simple and straight tactics that the Kingdom of Lion Butchers and the Nether Spring Kingdom have adopted, which is to sweep across everything on the continent after invading the Grand Desolate Plateau through the Dark Desolate Domain. He feels that all the other demon emperors are idiotic teammates. Therefore, the Red Tide Plan, which requires absolute confidentiality, could not be known or carried out by them!

“Your father wants to win the war and conquer the Heaven’s Origin Sector by himself!”

Li Yao recalled Yan Xibei, the schemer on Iron Plateau of the Flying Star Sector.

Jin Tuyi and Yan Xibei seemed to be the same type of person. They both wanted to reverse the situation purely on their own.

To some extent, Li Yao was such a type of person, too, was he not?

It was exactly because they belonged to the same type of person that Li Yao had guessed what was on his mind precisely.

“However,” Li Yao continued, “although the Eye of Blood Demon was ready, your father was still facing another issue, which was the mobilization of the army when the Red Tide Plan was implemented.

“To assault the capital city of the Star Glory Federation, the soldiers and the strategical assets required couldn’t have been few. It was very difficult to keep the rendezvous of a million soldiers and almost all the demon kings and demon emperors a secret!

“Therefore, to cover up the real Red Tide Plan, your father threw out the seemingly intimidating but in fact deeply flawed ‘false Red Tide Plan’. He misled everybody by talking about the ‘secret wormholes and counterattack bases of the Far East Demon Kingdom’.

“As a result, even if the Star Glory Federation discovered that the elite troops of the Blood Demon Sector were being gathered in an unusual way, they would only concentrate all the forces on the eastern coastline, hoping to resist the enemy at the border of the nation. They were determined to stop the coalition army of demons from going on a rampage in the important cities in the southeast of the nation!

“But they did not know that the coalition army of demons would not land on the beaches or attack the major cities. Instead, the army would be directly teleported into the heart of the capital city!

“The capital city of the Star Glory Federation is not only the political center of the nation but also an important base of training and magical equipment production. Of the top five hundred sects of the federation, more than two hundred and twenty are headquartered in the capital city. The capital city also boasts the largest warehouses for crystals and factories to produce crystal suits, as well as four of the Nine Elite Universities!

“Should be capital city be taken by force, it would certainly be a major blow for the federation!”

Li Yao took a deep breath. The glimmers in his eyes were bouncing nonstop as he envisioned the coalition army of demons sabotaging the capital city of the federation, which was wreathed in furious flames.

Squinting, he mumbled, “Everything is set except for some luck. Your father has lain low for decades until today when all the favorable conditions have appeared!

“Firstly, after years of melding, the distance between the Heaven’s Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector is much shorter than ten years ago. Enough cracks have been crushed on the thin ‘eggshell’ to make the Eye of Blood Demon play its role and teleport all the troops to the capital city of the Star Glory Federation precisely.

“Secondly, the failure of the Battle of Dawn forced the diehards who favored continentalism to back off for now. Your father was finally elected as the commander-in-chief of the coalition army of demons and authorized to mobilize all the resources and troops of the Blood Demon Sector!

“Thirdly, the arrival of the Flying Star Sector made the Blood Demon Sector more united under your father’s command than ever. He now has even more reasons to launch the false Red Tide Plan!

“Perhaps, everybody will think that the so-called Red Tide Plan is nothing but an insane last attempt of a gambler who has lost all his leverage.

“But they do not know that the ‘gambler’ who seems crazy on the surface in fact boasts the calmest, most meticulous mind. The ‘national war’ is definitely not a last attempt when there are no other choices but a shocking attack which has been carefully calculated and thoroughly planned for decades!”

Jin Xinyue listened so attentively that her pupils shrank violently when she heard ‘shocking attack’, as if a sword had really pierced through her heart!

Li Yao sighed. “As a citizen of the federation, I feel quite fortunate that such a formidable enemy as your father was born in the Gold Crow Kingdom, which was only mediocre among the four major demon kingdoms, instead of the Kingdom of Lion Butchers or the Nether Spring Kingdom, which were much stronger. I feel fortunate that he was not elected as the commander-in-chief of the coalition army of demons until today.

“If he were the master of the Kingdom of Lion Butchers or the Nether Spring Kingdom, if he were the commander-in-chief of the coalition army of demons twenty years ago, perhaps the Star Glory Federation would be no more at this moment!”

Li Yao finished his speech and licked his lips in great satisfaction. His eyes seemed to have pierced through Jin Xinyue and reached the sky of Heavenly Path City a hundred kilometers away.

He felt that he could see the man who was lurking in the commander-in-chief’s residence, the most terrifying demon he had ever seen!

Entertaining!

It was truly entertaining to spar with such an expert!

Jin Xinyue frowned harder and harder. She felt that there was a swirl in her head that was about to swallow all her braincells.

Before her head was completely befuddled, she extended her hands and slashed them in midair!

“Wait! Wait, wait. Wait, wait!

“Master, you are talking so vividly and impressively as if you have been following my father over the past decades and witnessed everything in person!

“But on second thought, I realized that it is nothing but your speculation, Master, which is not supported by any valid proof!”

“Good point!” Li Yao nodded and replied solemnly, “Everything I said just now is purely fictional. I was merely telling a story.”

Jin Xinyue gawked at him, speechless.

“However,” Li Yao continued, “although it is fictional, I deduced everything by choosing the most plausible possibilities based on the given information. It was not entirely made up.”

“That is the problem,” Jin Xinyue said. “Let’s say that you’ve chosen the most plausible possibility in every step of your deduction. But ‘possibility’ is just a ‘possibility’ after all. Even if every possibility has a 5% error from the truth, when dozens of ‘possibilities’ are multiplied, the error will be still be shockingly huge. Are you even 50% sure about your entire extrapolation?”

“Not exactly.” Li Yao shook his head. “I was only 30% confident about everything I said just now. That is why I paid a trip to Heavenly Path City on purpose and confirmed with my father.”

Jin Xinyue was dazed. “You did? How could you have confirmed with my father? It is not like you can ask my father directly.”

“Yes, I can.” Li Yao nodded matter-of-factly. “That’s exactly what I did.”

Jin Xinyue stood on her feet. “Excuse me?”

Li Yao turned on a light beam and replayed the conversation with Jin Tuyi a moment ago. “Take a look carefully.”

Jin Xinyue craned her head close, bulged her eyes, and stared at her father on the light beam.

In the picture, Li Yao was shouting with the utmost fury and anxiety, “You are planning to ask part of the main force of the coalition army of demons and a great amount of cannon fodder to pretend that you are marching on a full scale from the regular route, namely the Dark Desolate Domain to the Grand Desolate Plateau and then to the Giant Blade Pass. But it is actually a fake army. They are not the real main force but decoys!

“Your real plan is to teleport the elite troops of the coalition army and all the demon emperors to the offshore counterattack bases left by the Far East Demon Kingdom in the past through the Eye of Blood Demon before you stab into the heart of the federation, right?”

Shua!

Jin Xinyue froze the picture and replayed the clip again. She mumbled, “That is exactly what you asked, master. You mentioned the Eye of Blood Demon to my father directly!”

“Of course!” Li Yao said. “I am always outspoken, and I ask everything I don’t know about. What’s there to be shy of?”

“However—”

Jin Xinyue held her breath and continued watching, only to discover that Jin Tuyi did not even bother to blink. His every facial nerve seemed frozen, and there was absolutely no change in emotions. He said casually, “Don’t try to elicit anything from me. I will not talk about any detail of the war plan.”

Jin Xinyue narrowed her eyes, with a circle of golden brilliance glittering and spinning around her pupils rapidly, while she focused her attention on the video clip and watched it multiple times.

“My father didn’t give a response!

“I know that an expert such as Master must be adept at reading micro-expressions. When I was in the Pantheon of Demons, I also learned how to determine whether or not somebody was telling the truth by examining the twitching muscles on their face, the enlargement and reduction of their pupils, the frequency of their breath, and even the speed of their sweat being secreted.

“But as a demon emperor, my father had perfect control over his every muscle. I am very certain that, after master threw Eye of Blood Demon toward him, his micro-expressions did not change at all. His face and his body were like a frozen lake where there were no ripples at all.

“Therefore, what kind of answer have you read from my father’s unchanged face that confirms your deductions, Master?”

Li Yao smile slyly. He held his arms and enjoyed Jin Tuyi’s frozen face on the light beam one more time. He shook his head. “Same as you, I read nothing.

“Your father deserves to be the expert of experts. His manipulation over the muscles on his face was incredible, and his micro-expressions were completely under his control. Even the shivering of his eyelash and the tiniest movement of his pupils were highly controllable for him.

“From his face, I would either read nothing or read a wrong answer or a misleading one that he released deliberately!”