Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“Control and strengthen the Black Wind Fleet?” Li Yao was rather anxious. “Will the Black Wind Fleet trust Lu Qingchen so easily? Even if they do, how can he control an entire fleet just by himself?”

“It’s very simple. I absorbed tremendous soul pieces from Su Changfa,” Professor Mo Xuan quickly explained. “When I got in touch with the Black Wind Fleet via the Spiritual Nexus, I pretended to be Su Changfa. In fact, it was not exactly pretension because Su Changfa was part of myself.

“Su Changfa was a member of the Imperium of True Human Beings and an authentic Immortal Cultivator. Besides, I intentionally delivered a lot of critical intelligence, including the distribution of the federal army, the files about the latest starships, and the disruption frequency of the spiritual shield to the Black Wind Fleet. Such intelligence was all real. Naturally, the commander of the Black Wind Fleet did not have any doubt about the existence of ‘Su Changfa’. Therefore, they permitted Lu Qingchen, Su Changfa’s disciple, to enter Black Swirl as a liaison!

“The Immortal Cultivators are born to be suspicious. They definitely couldn’t completely trust ‘Su Changfa’ and Lu Qingchen. Lu Qingchen would be apprehended the moment he arrived on Black Swirl. He would even be tortured. The enemy would also dig deep into his brain, hoping to find the real situation!

“But their reaction was within our expectations. Lu Qingchen went there to be tortured. The purpose was to connect his brain to the battle network of the Black Wind Fleet!”

Li Yao bulged his eyes wider and wider. “After the brain and the network are connected, it will be possible to—”

“To release the ‘virus’,” Professor Mo Xuan said, half in pain and half in fear. “In terms of the integration with the extraterrestrial devils, Lu Qingchen is even better than me. On one hand, it is because my liquid metal life form was too weird for the extraterrestrial devils. On the other hand, I was already two hundred years old when the Virtual Spirits Sector crashed. Not only were my beliefs firm, the intensity of my soul had passed its prime and was gradually declining.

“To age and die is the law of nature. A Cultivator two hundred years old cannot stop his soul from slowly decaying however hard he trains himself. The extraterrestrial devils, which consider the soul fluctuations their energy source, naturally do not like an ‘old man’ like me.

“Lu Qingchen was different. When the Virtual Spirits Sector collapsed, he was only in his fifties. For a Cultivator, it was almost the most beautiful teenage years. His soul was burning furiously, and his belief was not completely stabilized. One might even say that he was still confusedly searching for his belief!

“The extraterrestrial devils took advantage of his weakness and thereby obtained the perfect ‘host’. Lu Qingchen walked much further than me although he was much younger. Regarding the integration with the extraterrestrial devils and the maturation later, he made much more progress. He had even grasped… certain secrets of the extraterrestrial devils on the deepest level!

“The flagship of the Black Wind Fleet carried such a dangerous ‘extraterrestrial devil bomb’, but they did not know the first thing about it and still performed a space jump confidently. Don’t forget that during a space jump, all human brains and crystal processors in the fleet are in a certain weird unfolded state in the four-dimensional space. They are easily invaded in such a state!

“According to the plan, Lu Qingchen would implant something into the mainframe crystal processor of the Black Wind Fleet and the brain of their commander, Heiye Ming, during the precious window of the space jump.

“When the battle reaches the most fierce phase, and when the computational ability of Heiye Ming and the mainframe crystal processor is exploited to the limits and about to crash because of overloading, Lu Qingchen will launch a final attack and release the ‘extraterrestrial devil’ or ‘virus’ inside his head!”

“Wait!” Li Yao shouted. “Is the Black Wind Fleet idiotic enough to not perform the most thorough physical examination on him? In order to control an entire fleet, there must be a great number of ‘extraterrestrial devils’, mustn’t there? How could they have not noticed the anomaly?”

“You don’t understand how the extraterrestrial devils arrive,” Professor Mo Xuan explained. “The extraterrestrial devils are not hidden inside Lu Qingchen’s head. In fact, Lu Qingchen’s brain and body are as clean as anybody’s. Even the most brilliant soul-searching technique wouldn’t find anything suspicious.

“However, he has an ancient secret technique of the extraterrestrial devils, which allows him to build a certain… object that is like a space gate inside his head in order to summon the extraterrestrial devils that are between the three-dimensional and the four-dimensional space!

“Do you still recall the arrival of the extraterrestrial devils on the tenth space ring in the Flying Star Sector? Those extraterrestrial devils did not fly over from somewhere in space but directly showed up in our world upon the calling of the altars of extraterrestrial devils!

“The so-called altars are, in effect, star beacons for the extraterrestrial devils that help them to lock onto the coordinates in the three-dimensional world and arrive directly!

“Ever since the arrival of the extraterrestrial devils on the tenth space ring in the Flying Star Sector, they haven’t invaded the edge of the cosmos for a hundred years. However, they did not idle by for the past hundred years. Instead, they continued expanding and proliferating, waiting for a good opportunity!”

Li Yao was completely confused. “Professor, how many extraterrestrial devils are out there? Three or countless?”

“The extraterrestrial devils’ life form is entirely different from that of human beings. They cannot be measured by the number of individuals,” Professor Mo Xuan said. “They are more like some sort of ‘collective intelligence’, like a swarm of bees and bugs. A single ‘devil’ is like a cell inside the human body, which does not possess self-awareness, thinking ability, or any moral standard. Just like how countless cells constitute a conscious human being, countless ‘devils’ can add up into a greater devil that has primitive instincts. However, at this point, the extraterrestrial devil still does not have complete self-awareness and thinking ability. It only has the natural instincts to corrupt and become a parasite. After it infects an intelligent life, for example, a human being, it will evolve into the ‘ultimate form’. That is exactly the state of me, Lei Yuqin, and Lu Qingchen!

“So, in the Star Glory Federation, there is only one extraterrestrial devil in the ultimate form left, Lu Qingchen. However, he still controls countless devils in the form of ‘cells’. Such devils are also highly contagious and can significantly boost the desire to kill, fight, sabotage, and destroy in their hosts!

“Due to the time constraint, I cannot explain the specific mechanism to you now. In short, you can think of it as there being an enormous ‘hole’ inside Lu Qingchen’s head. As long as he wishes, countless ‘viruses’ or ‘cells’ will break the barrier between the three-dimensional and four-dimension space through the holes and erupt to infect everybody in the Black Wind Fleet!

“The Black Wind fleet plus extraterrestrial devils, it will definitely be a cataclysm that will sweep across the entire edge of the cosmos!”

“The hole in his brain is as enormous as that?” Li Yao exclaimed in shock. Then he suddenly recalled something and shook hard, almost stunned.

He realized that there seemed to be a great hole inside his brain that led to the mysterious ‘Earth’.

What was that all about?

Professor Mo Xuan coughed violently. The smoke of dispersion had already reached his chest. He mumbled, “I cannot atone for the catastrophe that I have brought to the federation even with my death… I had already been grasped by desperation until you showed up again! Listen, Li Yao. I don’t know if there is still enough time, but there may still be a slim chance of survival. Maybe you are the only one who can save the federation now!”

“Of course!” Li Yao nodded heavily. “Rest assured. That’s my thing!”

“The experts from the Ancient Sages Sector, those Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators…” Professor Mo Xuan breathed quickly. “They all follow you, don’t they?”

“…Well, I suppose so. I will certainly move them with my powerful charisma!”

“Then go to the Heaven’s Origin Sector immediately!” Professor Mo Xuan shouted desperately. “The elites of the Burning Prairie Fleet and the Black Wind Fleet have been gathered in the Heaven’s Origin Sector and engaged in a fierce fight, but the three space gates that connect the Heaven’s Origin Sector to the outside world have been completely sabotaged by the extraterrestrial devils. Both our foes and us are now isolated and must fight to the death like caged beasts!

“Now, all that matters is whose reinforcements arrive first.

“The side whose reinforcements arrive earlier will be able to swallow most of the elite troops on the enemy’s side and seize control of the three space gates, thereby claiming victory!

“Without the space gates, even if they know the coordinates of the Heaven’s Origin Sector, the follow-up troops of the federation will not be able to jump over randomly. That way, they will only be scattered into a mess by the cosmic storm and destroyed by the enemy one after another!

“However, as for a dozen super experts, you can still jump over, reverse the situation, and launch a counterattack even without the navigation of the space gates!

“I—I have sent the carrier back to Hundred Flowers City with the last bit of my strength. The experts from the Ancient Sages Sector only have a minor shock in their souls. They are slightly weakened but utterly unharmed. Eighty percent of their combat ability can be recovered if they take some tonic pills!

“Everything from now will be in your hands. Li Yao, I’m glad to have seen you again. I’m sorry… I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”

Professor Mo Xuan smiled, dimmed, and gradually disappeared into flowing, glittering smoke.

“Professor, wait. Professor, there is one last question that I want to ask you!” Li Yao’s mind was in a mess. There was one thing that had always bothered him, and he was certain that he would never have the chance to ask it if he did not ask it now. “Why did you divorce Professor Yuan at the beginning and even have an affair with someone else? Such scandals were not real, were they? It was highly unnecessary if the purpose was to transform Lei Yuqin into an extraterrestrial devil, wasn’t it?

“It does not fit your past personality, which makes it the biggest loophole of the whole scheme. It was exactly because of this incident that I noticed something wrong and traced all the leads back to you. That was the beginning of everything that followed!

“If you hadn’t divorced Professor Mo Xuan in the beginning, chances are that the extraterrestrial devils’ plan would’ve worked out!”

“That explains a lot. So, that was the loophole.” Professor Mo Xuan was slightly dazed. The most touching smile appeared on his face that was gradually melting. “There was no romantic relationship between Lei Yuqin and me. That scandal was indeed planned too lousily. However…

“I’ve only loved one person in my entire life. In any case, I would never involve the one whom I love most into such a dangerous swirl. I would never give the extraterrestrial devil a chance to infect Manqiu. Never!”

Li Yao was stunned.

It was not until a long time later that he finally laughed. He laughed so hard that tears were flowing. “So, the extraterrestrial devil failed a long time ago. Its plan was destined to be a failure fifty years ago!”

Professor Mo Xuan laughed, too.

His vitality had been drained, and the fire of soul had perished. The only things left were the sparks that looked like fireflies. They made up a shallow smile before they gradually spread out and dispersed into darkness, bringing vague brightness to the universe. “Goodbye, Li Yao.”

“Goodbye, professor!”

“Good luck, federation. Good luck, mankind!”