Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

After having a sincere conversation with her father, Jin Xinyue went to Li Yao to dutifully report the situation.

Li Yao was in an awkward position right now. Although most of the soldiers of the coalition army of demons understood that he had saved everyone’s life, fourteen demon emperors had died because of him, and countless elite troops and devilish warships had been obliterated during the destruction of Eye of Blood Demon.

Before Jin Tuyi completely took control of the situation, it was best for him to stay in the warehouse of crystals on Blood Demon in case somebody lost their mind and attacked him.

On her way there, Jin Xinyue had summoned all her brain cells to consider how she should communicate with her master.

However, the moment she saw Li Yao, the speech that she had prepared was shattered, and she was so shocked that her jaw nearly hit the ground.

“Ma—master, how did you end up like this?”

The upper half of Li Yao that extended out of the door gap could not have been more miserable.

His clothes were ragged, as if he had just climbed on a thorny mountain. His face was full of bruises, and his head was as big as that of a pig. His left eye was so swollen that his eye was narrowed into a gap, and he could barely see anything.

It appeared that he had been savaged brutally for a long time!

Jin Xinyue was shocked!

Who was her master? A super expert in the top tier of the Blood Demon Sector, the Heaven’s Origin Sector, and the Flying Star Sector! How was he so terribly beaten?

Who did it?

Did some demon emperor come to look for her master’s trouble in discontent? That was not very likely. If it were a battle between her master and another demon emperor, the entire Blood Demon might have been torn to the ground.

Jin Xinyue thought quickly and realized something. “Master, somebody sent by Elder Nether Spring ambushed you?”

Li Yao’s lips were as swollen as two sausages. Air was escaping through his teeth while he spoke. “No. I was beaten by myself.”

“Huh?” Jin Xinyue was confused. “Master… Why did you beat yourself out of shape and make yourself… look like a pig?”

Li Yao dragged her into the warehouse and shut the door heavily, before he staggered back and smeared the balm in front of the mirror while grimacing in pain. “Leave the minor issues alone. Let’s talk about your father’s Red Tide Plan!”

“Okay.”

Looking at the mess in the warehouse that seemed to indicate that hundreds of demon beasts had just stampeded through here, Jin Xinyue took a long time to hold back her curiosity. She calmed herself down and forwarded everything her father said just now to Li Yao.

In the end, she concluded, “My father said that, although this is the Red Tide Plan in his head, it is a huge project that will last a hundred years. There will be too many variables and difficulties. Many things are just his wishes or even fantasies that have no realistic support.

“All in all, he has planted the seed of the dream into the ground. But whether or not the seed can grow up, blossom, and yield fruit will not be controlled by him but depend on us, especially you, Master!

“Only with your support can the Red Tide Plan possibly proceed. If you refuse it now, it will only be a tantalizing dream.

“Master, would you like to support me, support the Red Tide Plan, and support my father’s dream?”

Jin Xinyue looked at Li Yao somewhat nervously.

However, her attention was distracted by Li Yao’s left eye, which was like a rotten peach, and his sausage-like lips.

Li Yao was holding a cluster of round, translucent gel the size of an egg in his hands. After rubbing it softly in his palm, something deep inside the gel seemed to break apart, allowing the gel to emit coldness.

He covered the gel on his swollen left eye carefully while he grimaced and screamed in pain.

Her heart pounding, Jin Xinyue could not help but have other thoughts.

Would her father hand over the future of the Blood Demon Sector, the Heaven’s Origin Sector, and the Flying Star Sector to her master if her father saw her master’s ‘respectable’ appearance right now?

It was not until the coldness of the gel found its way into his left eye that Li Yao put the gel down and looked at Jin Xinyue with his remaining right eye.

Jin Xinyue tried her best to stop her eyelids from twitching.

It was supposed to be a serious discussion about the future of the three Sectors, but why was the vibe so weird when her master’s pig-like face was present?

It was so funny that she almost laughed out loud.

Putting on a solemn expression despite his pig-like face, Li Yao said carefully, “In fact, I already guessed what you father might say to you. I’ve been in a dilemma since your father said that he was going to surrender to me. Today, I have been hesitating for an entire day.

“Honestly speaking, when I learned your father’s whole plan, my first reaction was not surprise but fury. I was angry that I had become your father’s chess piece.

“My second reaction was embarrassment. I was embarrassed that I walked onto your father’s chess board without even knowing.

“When my fury and embarrassment slowly dispersed, the third negative emotion, which was more intense, slowly surfaced. It was worry.”

Li Yao observed his deformed face in the mirror, but his right eye was as clear as the past, if not more so. “Your father is indeed too awesome. I couldn’t help but have other thoughts.

“I was thinking a lot of things. Was your father plan as simple as that? Did he really hope for the integration of the two races? Was everything part of a larger scheme? Is it possible that the Star Glory Federation would be swallowed by the demon race in the end?

“The more I thought about it, the crazier I became. All kinds of dark thoughts were occurring to me. In my insanity, I even considered the possibility that your father was actually a spy of the Imperium of True Human Beings and everything he did was a scheme to pave the way for the invasion of the Imperium of True Human Beings!

“A voice in my head told me again and again that I absolutely shouldn’t agree to Jin Tuyi’s plan. If I did, it meant that I had lost the game, and I would become his chess piece!

“Another voice was saying that Jin Tuyi was a player that was too formidable for me to defeat. He certainly had incessant, subsequent schemes. Once I helped him accomplish the peace negotiation and the conditional surrender, I would certain regret it someday in the future!

“I must suffocate him in time. I must suffocate him no matter what the price was!

“The voices were echoing nonstop in my head. They were biting my soul like vipers. In the end, I was almost completely devoured by the darkness and embarked on a vastly different path!”

While Li Yao was talking, his soul glimpsed at the deepest part of his brain.

Inside his brain, below the tree of Ou Yezi’s memory pieces, the mental devil, who had wounds all over its body and looked more like a pig that he did, cried pitifully. “It was just a joke. Why so serious?”

“Get lost!” Li Yao spat.

Jin Xinyue listened attentively. Although she did not know the existence of the mental devil, it was not difficult for her to tell that her master had just gone through a nervous crisis.

It was not unusual for high-level Cultivators due to their super high computational ability. To put it more frankly, they were often overthinking until they reached a point where they could not turn back.

If the nervous crisis was not resolved in time, it was very possible to lead to the mental derangement.

However, it appeared that the nervous crisis had already been cracked by her master.

With an ugly smile, Li Yao said, “When I was having a lot of evil thoughts and I was ninety percent consumed by the darkness, I suddenly recalled a certain someone.”

Jin Xinyue could not help but ask, “Who was it?”

“Ba Yanzhi,” Li Yao said, “the predecessor who created the demon race, and the first real Cultivator forty thousand years ago!

“Your father was not wrong. He is a politician, and you will be one, too, in the future. You are the same type of people, good at playing chess games with the magnificent sea of stars as the board and the billions of creatures in them as the chess pieces.

“But I am not.

“I cannot play such a splendid chess game. I am not willing to play it, either.

“On many occasions, I prefer to consider myself as an ordinary person and reflect on the issues at hand from the perspective of the billions of ordinary people.

“After all, they are all living souls instead of chess pieces!

“Therefore, I simply jumped out of the mess and pondered what ‘Chaos’ Ba Yanzhi would do if he were in my shoes.

“Forty thousand years ago, Ba Yanzhi chose to transform ordinary people into demons with the Divine Water of Kunlun for nothing else except that he wanted the ordinary people to live better, more stable, and more peaceful lives in the world plagued by war.

“I remember that, in Ba Yanzhi’s memory pieces, there was an ordinary person whose name was Zhang Niuer. The only reason he was willing to turn into a demon was that his wife and his children would be fed and would be able to build a tiny home in a new world that was away from war.

“Today, aren’t all demons in the Blood Demon Sector the descendants of Ba Yanzhi and Zhang Niuer?

“Forty thousand years ago, they turned from human beings into demons for such a simple wish. Forty thousand years later, do their offspring not have the right to realize the wish by transforming into human beings again?

“I have thought everything through. I may eventually lose the game with your father, but so what? My belief when I chose to become a Cultivator was to protect the ordinary people. As long as I am walking down the path, what will an insignificant victory or failure matter?

“Therefore, before you arrived, I beat back the amalgamation of the negative emotions and made my choice!

“I believe that Ba Yanzhi, Zhang Niuer, and the billions of ordinary people who chose to become demons forty thousand years ago will second my choice if they are still watching us from heaven.”

Jin Xinyue was both surprised and excited. She exclaimed, “Master, are you saying that—”

Looking at his third disciple, Li Yao said carefully, “One last question. Do you feel that you are a demon or a Cultivator?”

Biting her lips, Jin Xinyue pondered for a moment before she solemnly replied, “Although I have transformed into the appearance of human beings now, the marks that have been etched into my heart will never fade away. I am a demon, and I always will be.

“However—”

She smiled, with brilliance beaming out of her eyes. “Which law states that demons cannot become Cultivators or protect ordinary people?”

Li Yao smiled, too. He smashed his round, puffy fists hard and declared, “Alright. I will do my best to support the Red Tide Plan and help you become the Speaker of Parliament in the Star Glory Federation in a hundred years!”