Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

East Seagull Port was a small city. There were few residents existing in the form of ghosts. Naturally, there was not a special service station for the spectral Cultivators.

However, the owner of the biggest magical equipment store in the local area happened to be a spectral Cultivator.

After talking with the owner, Li Yao learned that the guy used to be a mechanic on a large fishing boat that had run into a super tsunami during one of the fishing jobs. The boat had turned upside down, and everybody had drowned.

But at the moment of his death, he had been hit by lightning. For some reason, although his physical body sank into the ocean, his remaining soul had condensed and drifted on the ocean for a couple of days before the rescue team found him.

After he was turned into a spectral Cultivator, he did not want to go to the ocean again for fear of the wind and tide. So, he simply ran a magical equipment store with his compensation.

Since the boss was a spectral Cultivator, and some of the ghost tourists happened to fall into the water, resulting to the damage to their artificial bodies, when they were visiting East Seagull Port, his magical equipment store was like a service station. There were quite a few spare units for artificial bodies in the warehouse. He even had a secondhand artificial body that was almost completely intact, which was meant for the temporary use of spectral Cultivators in need.

Li Yao was very satisfied with the artificial body that was almost two meters tall. He bought it as well as tremendous units and components by the way.

“Li Yao!”

When he was paying for his purchase, he suddenly heard somebody shouting his name.

Li Yao’s pupils constricted violently, but he soon relaxed.

He did not sense any Secret Sword Agent, but he did sense that several young kids were playing around at the door of the magical equipment store.

As it turned out, the seemingly hideous boss was actually a kind man. He often assembled toys with scrap components for the kids.

So, the magical equipment store became the playhouse for all the kids in the small port.

A chubby, speckled boy with curly hair was wearing quite a few cardboard boxes on his body, which he apparently pretended to be a crystal suit. He played with his companion with a wooden flying sword. “Come on, you filthy demon beast. I am Li Yao. I am not scared of you!”

His companion was shooting at him with a toy gun, with snot coming out his nose. “You are not Li Yao. Li Yao is dead already. You are a demon beast. A big and fat one!”

The chubby boy blushed. “I—I am not dead. The federation is in danger. I am back again to beat the skeleton-like demon beast that is you! Prepare to die!”

The few kids rolled on the ground and soon turned into muddy monkeys. They were shouting together.

“I am Li Yao!”

“I am Li Yao!”

“You are not. I am Li Yao!”

Leaning against the door, Li Yao looked at them in a daze, his lips curling.

His mood was suddenly better now.

After returning to the Heaven’s Origin Sector, he had constantly been feeling gloomy.

He had gone through life and death in the Blood Demon Sector and been hunted by dozens of demon emperors before he finally destroyed the Eye of Blood Demon!

He had considered how he should refuse the public speech when he was back home. Never had he expected that he would be chased after by the federal army and the Secret Sword Bureau!

Rationally, Li Yao knew that it was because the Children of the Nether World and Abyss had fooled most of the ordinary people, federal soldiers, Secret Sword Agents, and Cultivators.

But emotionally…

Gloom, frustration, and anger—all kinds of negative feelings were building up.

Li Yao vaguely felt that the capability of the mental devil was almost doubled after only a couple of days.

It meant that the dark side in his heart was getting stronger.

But at this moment, hearing the innocent children shouting his name, for some reason, Li Yao felt that the dark cloud looming over his head suddenly split apart, revealing the golden sunlight. He was given a new strength!

Ultra-Level Federal Hero…

It was such an awkward and embarrassing title.

He blushed every time he thought of it.

Li Yao had never wanted to be a hero.

Even at that moment, he did not consider himself to be a real Ultra-Level Federal Hero.

In his opinion, the title should only belong to the formal, solemn pictures in textbooks.

He was not qualified, nor did he intend, to be listed next to the heroes.

However…

At dusk, the ocean was glittering like golden dragon scales. In the peaceful port, the laughter of the little kids was soaring to the sky like wind chime, which was occasionally interrupted by the angry exclamation of their parents who snatched the muddy monkeys’ ears and dragged them home for dinner.

It was such a beautiful picture that Li Yao could not bear to imagine it being destroyed by war and virus at all.

He did not want to be a hero. Being a hero was exhausting, annoying, and stupid, not to mention that a hero could be wronged.

However, if the little kids considered him to be a hero, how could he disappoint them and even watch them be killed?

Rest assured!

Seeing the kids jumping up and down and disappearing in the alley, Li Yao clenched his fists and said to himself, [No matter who is behind all this, I am going to unveil every one of them!

I will not let you be consumed by a meaningless war!

Definitely not!

He spent the night in a wasted boat near the ocean.

This place was more than a thousand kilometers away from the capital city. The investigation of the Secret Sword Bureau had yet to include the area. It was peaceful all night. Nobody went close to the wasted boat.

At two o’clock in the morning, he assembled the magical equipment to be used in the capital city.

His devices mainly included an artificial body for a special Cultivators as well as a very powerful spotlight. The appearance of the artificial body was the same as before, but its interior had been completely remodeled.

The spotlight could shoot out colorful mystic rays and project ‘I am Li Yao. I am still alive’ into the sky a thousand meters from the ground. Every word would be dozens of square meters in diameter, which would be perfectly clear for everyone on the ground.

As long as he shot the eight words at the sky, preferably on the stomach of Burning Prairie, right in front of the Speaker, the Iron Commander, the director of the Bureau of Intelligence, and the rest of the audience, everything would be settled!

The Children of the Nether World and Abyss could do nothing except to watch. How could they stop him? Interrogate him into a confession right in front of everyone? Nobody would agree!

At three o’clock in the morning, Li Yao snuck into the processing boat of the White Sea Sect, a local sect of East Seagull Port.

The White Sea Sect was an insignificant sect with few Cultivators. Such regular processing of seafood did not require the supervision of Cultivators, either.

After all, who would bother to steal a few fish or sea snails?

All the workers on the boat were ordinary people. There was only one non-battle-type Cultivator on board who was responsible for maneuvering and maintaining the magical equipment on board. He was not very wary, or rather, he was not wary at all.

The processing boat had a large quick-freezing cabin that could freeze seawater in half a second through a specially-made solution while ensuring the intactness of the cells of the seafood inside so that the meat would be kept fresh.

After being classified and selected by the workers, the seafood would be frozen into a huge ice block and stored in special refrigerators.

The solution was blue in the first place. After the water was frozen, everything was deep blue. The visibility was quite low. It was impossible to tell what was inside at all.

Different refrigerators were delivered to different hotels and seafood markets. The batch of seafood of the highest qualified would be shipped directly to the Junhao Hotel of the capital city through the dedicated quick crystal airship and unfrozen in the warehouse of the hotel.

Li Yao knew that such urgent refrigerators were usually exempt from inspection. Even if there was a check, they would only open the refrigerator and look inside. Then, the check would be considered done.

At 4:09 a.m., Li Yao played a tricked in the engine compartment on the boat.

At 4:21 a.m., a minor fire took place in the engine compartment.

The only Cultivator on board mumbled in discontent and crawled into the engine cabin.

It was a simple accident of overloading because of the aging of the crystal wires.

But it happened that several key stabilizing units were ruined, which would be quite troublesome to repair.

The quick-freezing hour was about to come. If the fault was not dealt with in time, hundreds of tons of fish could rot.

Having no choice, the Cultivator squatted in the engine compartment and performed repair work for more than half an hour.

During the period, there was not a single Cultivator in the quick-freezing cabin. The workers were all yawning fishermen.

An hour later, the Cultivator finally addressed the problem and returned to the quick-freezing cabin.

At this moment, several refrigerators were already prepared, including the one about to be delivered to the Junhao Hotel in the capital city.

At 6:33 a.m., the refrigerator was loaded on the crystal airship. The mark of ‘Junhao’ was glittering under the morning sun.

The airship flew toward the capital city.

At 7:25 a.m., the investigation in Green Plateau City finally produced a result. The abandoned shuttle that Li Yao had stolen from the old neighborhood had been found. The surveillance picture of him leaving Green Plateau City in the shuttle was located, too.

However, there were no further leads when they reached the suburbs of Green Plateau City. The shuttle had disappeared like a piece of ice melted in water.

At 8:55 a.m., the alert at the periphery of the capital city was further increased.

Nine perimeters had been established. All the pedestrians, shuttles, short-distance buses, crystal trains, and civil carriers were examined in the strictest way!

The problem was that the Secret Sword Agents were made of flesh and blood, too. They were not omnipotent gods. The resources at the Secret Sword Bureau’s disposal were not infinite, either.

When the dedicated all their manpower to the investigation and search of the vehicles, naturally, they did not have time to bother about a cargo airship from a minor place such as East Seagull Port.

At 9:45 a.m., two Secret Sword Agents boarded the airship. They were very close to victory.

However, after scanning every gap on the airship and making sure that no suspects were hiding on board, they looked at the sign of the Junhao Hotel, scratched their noses, and let the victory slide through their fingers.

At ten o’clock in the morning, right above the Junhao Hotel in the downtown area, the airship slowly landed.

There was one day to go before the hundred-day memorial ceremony.

He was zero kilometers away from the capital city.

Vulture Li Yao had snuck into the capital city.