Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Li Yao’s soul power at this moment was unprecedently strong. With a telepathic thought, he released a thunderstorm inside his brain. Countless streaks of lightning were electrifying the mental devil until it was begging for mercy.

“Spare my life, mister! Spare my life, mister! Ahhhh!”

“I truly despise you,” Li Yao spat. “Are you really my ‘dark personality’? So disgusting!”

The mental devil tried to explain itself while begging. “Ask for mercy when you cannot defeat your enemy and settle the scores when you have the opportunity. That’s what a real man does. What’s disgusting about that? Twenty years ago, in the magical equipment graveyard, we often begged for our enemy’s mercy only to come back to them again later, didn’t we? That’s exactly your personality. Naturally, I am exactly like that!”

Li Yao narrowed his eyes. “So, you are waiting to ‘settle the scores’ when you have the opportunity next time?”

“Huh? What did I say just now? Not good. My mental devil jumped out and controlled me again!”

“Forget it.” Li Yao sniffed. “Our talk is useless. We are both clear that I cannot eradicate you. I am also too lazy to eradicate you now. Maybe Jin Tuyi was right. I must get used to you and even try to train myself with you!

“I have discovered that every time you tried to swallow me and I weathered through it, my soul would become stronger than before. Perhaps, after another few competitions, I will be able to advance into the Nascent Soul Stage!”

The mental devil hurried to nod and agreed solemnly, “That’s right. That’s right. I didn’t mean to swallow you at all. Not at all. I was only help you train yourself by activating your potential. As a good Samaritan, I didn’t want to speak out my kindness, but you’ve discovered it anyway. Good god. You do have a pair of sharp eyes!”

“… Get lost!”

Then, something occurred to Li Yao. He shuddered hard, and he felt that he was hit by a lightning!

“Jin Tuyi… was right. He saw this coming. I was an idiot. I was truly an idiot!” Li Yao slapped his thighs.

The mental devil was confused. “What do you mean?”

“I was recalling Jin Tuyi’s words about asking us to live in peace,” Li Yao replied quickly. “But that’s not the point. It was the sentence before that really mattered!

“I overlooked it. I completed overlooked it. That was why I made such a fatal mistake!

“Before I returned to the Heaven’s Origin Sector, Jin Tuyi told me that perhaps it didn’t matter at all who Abyss was exactly because everybody has an abyss deep down in their heart. If they were swallowed by their hatred, anger, ambition, and arrogance, any one of them could fall into the abyss and turn into Abyss!

“Jin Tuyi also said that Elder Nether Spring was nothing more than a stray dog now. His Spore Stratagem has 99% failed. The Children of the Nether World and Abyss must be panicking and looking for a path of retreat right now. How could they still be working for him dutifully?

“Therefore, Elder Nether Spring and his Abyss are nothing to be scared of!

“The Abysses who have been swallowed by the darkness in their heart are the real terrifying enemies!

“But I completely neglected the reminder!

“After I returned to the Heaven’s Origin Sector, I spent all my time and effort searching for Elder Nether Spring and his Abyss. It never occurred to me that there were other Abysses that were even more horrendous!

“Elder Nether Spring’s Abyss, restrained by age and the other factors, cannot be very strong or in a high position!

“But the Abysses who have been swallowed by the darkness in their heart are different. They are not restrained by anything, and they will leave no traces. They can be activated at any time, and there will not be any sign before they are!

“They are just like me. If I hadn’t heard Ding Lingdang’s voice at the critical moment, I might’ve turned into a terrifying Abyss, too!”

The mental devil scratched its nose in embarrassment. “It’s all the past now. I’ve acknowledged my wrongdoing. Why are you still bringing it up?”

Li Yao was deep in thought. “Let’s analyze the whole thing from the beginning. First of all, it is without a doubt that, even if Elder Nether Spring took excessive Divine Blood of Chaos and fled into the Heaven’s Origin Sector as a human being, it was definitely his last choice when there was nothing else that he could do!

“His foundations were all in the Blood Demon Sector. It was impossible for him to bring the Nether World Watch to the Heaven’s Origin Sector. Therefore, he must be alone here. His only help is the underground Children of the Nether World and Abyss!

“Also, judging from Jin Xinyue’s experience, after a demon is turned into a human being, although their strength remains, the system to make use of it will be entirely different from before. It will take quite a long time for Elder Nether Spring to be adapted to the new form.”

The drugs that could reverse the conversion from demon into human being had not been discovered yet. It meant that, after swallowing the Divine Blood of Chaos and turning into a human being, there would be no turning back.

Elder Nether Spring had clearly never taken the Divine Blood of Chaos before. Therefore, even if he was transformed into a human being and a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, it would be a new experience for him, too!

Then, during the period of adaptation, he was perhaps the weakest Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator in the entire Heaven’s Origin Sector!

How could the Children of the Nether World and Abyss, who were mostly in important posts, be willing to listen to the command of such a weak Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator who had lost all his forces?

Perhaps, Elder Nether Spring knew their secrets, but such secrets could only force them to find a shelter for him at best.

To plan a shocking operation to assassinate the Speaker and to frame up Li Yao with the most delicate trap would be too large a scheme for Elder Nether Spring right now to accomplish.

“You were right,” Li Yao said calmly. “The enemy behind curtain is definitely not Elder Nether Spring but someone in the leadership of the federation. Why?

“They don’t have any reason for betrayal. The federation is stronger than ever right now. It’s impossible that the leadership would betray the country. Even if they did, they would not join Elder Nether Spring’s cause whose prospect is nothing but gloomy.

“Come here. Since you are shameless, cunning, and sordid enough, why don’t you walk in the shoes of the dark side of the leadership of the federation and tell me what their reason is for doing all this? What are their motives?”

The mental devil thought for a moment and clapped its fists. “That’s very simple. When the birds are shot down, the bows will be hidden. When the rabbits are hunted, the hounds will be cooked. ‘Raising a war’ is not just beneficial for Elder Nether Spring. It is very helpful for a lot of other people, such as the federal army and the intelligence agents!

“If the three Sectors are going to collaborate, the federation will no longer need to maintain such a large regular army in the decades to come. Instead, the tremendous resources would be dedicated to construction and development. Won’t that put the military in an awkward situation?

“Same goes for the Secret Sword Bureau. It is unlikely that the agency will be completely canceled, but there is no need to keep it on such a scale anymore. After all, they can never infiltrate the Imperium of True Human Beings and get their intelligence!

“Also, after the collaboration of the three Sectors, there will be the problem of who is the boss and who is the lackey. But whoever makes the final call, they will be affected by the forces of the other parties. There will certainly be a lot of hindrances at the early phase, which could even jeopardize the independency of the federal army and the Secret Sword Bureau.

“Taking away other people’s fortune is like killing their parents. The peace of the three Sectors is certainly not in the interests of the federal army and the Secret Sword Bureau. Is it strange that they assassinated the Speaker in order to raise a war so that their benefits can be kept?”

Li Yao was silent.

“Was my analysis wrong?” the mental devil asked.

“Wrong. Wrong. Greatly wrong. Such an enormous scheme must be backed by experts in the Nascent Soul Stage. For every Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, their belief has been tested by themselves, and their soul is most solid. I don’t believe that they would betray the federation for the petty benefits!

“If they did, they would’ve have survived the interrogation of their belief. Before their betrayal, their belief would’ve crumbled and made them mentally deranged!

“Their endeavor must’ve been supported by some sort of firmest belief!

“Also, something is quite weird!”

Li Yao scratched his head hard and mumbled, “Elder Nether Spring had the Demon God Virus. His purpose of raising the war was to release the virus so that his so-called ‘third life form’ could be created. But during the process, most of the victims would be killed!

“Let’s assume that some of the radicals in the federation insist that the only way to save the federation is to conquer the Blood Demon Sector and enslave all the demons to collect resources.

“However, judging from the progress of the scheme, it must have something do with the Secret Sword Bureau. The leadership of the Secret Sword Bureau must know a thing a or two about the Demon God Virus, too. It is not hard to guess that, once the federal army attack on a large scale, the Blood Demon Sector will certainly be ruined, and most of the demons will be killed!

“Here comes the question. Where will the slaves for mining be if all the demons are dead? Without the slave miners collecting resources on a large scale to facilitate the rapid development of the federation, won’t the federation still be doomed when the Imperium of True Human Beings arrives in a hundred years?

“This is a suicidal approach. I don’t believe that the leadership of the federation is so stupid. There must still be a critical point that we don’t know yet.”

The mental devil snapped its fingers and said, “The scheme will be cracked as soon as the critical point is found!”

“Exactly!” Li Yao pondered for a moment and watched Ding Lingdang’s interview again with the portal crystal processors that he had picked up earlier.

Before she lost control of her emotions, Ding Lingdang told the reporters that she was working with the Secret Sword Bureau and that she would certainly catch the criminal who had committed the gruesome massacre.

[Ding Lingdang is working with the Secret Sword Bureau? Got it now. She is creating an opportunity for us to meet!

[I don’t know the first thing about the leadership of the federation, but Ding Lingdang must know a lot. So, my first step will be to meet her!]

Li Yao had stayed in the temporary medical camp long enough. The stinging pain at the back of his head was becoming ever sharper.

The mysterious sniper was drawing closer to him; it was no longer safe there.

He had to found a place, one where the role of a sniper was the least important!

He piled up the blanket painted with the teddy bear neatly on the ground. Glancing at the Rising Dragon of the Nine Stars flag flapping against the night wind for the last time, he muffled himself up with the ragged cloak and disappeared into the vast darkness.