Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

The whole world began to collapse.

The flickering stars far away seemed to have become dim light bulbs. The profound universe showed its rough, black texture, too. They were no longer in the middle of the infinite sea of stars but seemed to be trapped in a tiny cave that was shaking violently. Shining cracks were appearing in every corner of the cave, indicating that it might completely collapse any second.

Losing the enhancement of the black star, the core of Lu Qingchen’s soul was like a rotten earthworm, with blood red foam packed all over his body. As each bit of foam broke apart, a stream of black air would dash out and flee in a hurry, only to be pushed back by the mental devil time and time again.

Lu Qingchen’s head was like a drop of ink that fell into clear water, slowly dispersing and losing the contours of his facial organs and expression. He moaned with the utmost regret and discontent as he was continuously disintegrated and melted.

The mental devil, on the other hand, could not have been more satisfied. Dragging the incomplete body, it shook its hands and legs in excitement and chuckled. “You didn’t see this coming, did you? You’ve been fooled! As the saying goes, when the cicada is hunting a mantis, the sparrow lurks behind to take them both. Despite all your tricks, methods, and schemes—cough, cough, cough, cough, I am the final victor!

“You want to meld with me? That’s totally fine. I’ll certainly meld with the two of you. Hehehe. After absorbing such abundant tenebrum energy from you and suppressing the personality of Li Yao No. 2, I will reclaim the control of this body and seize the federation as ‘Vulture’ Li Yao. Who else can ever be a match for me at the edge of the cosmos… Huh?”

The mental devil’s laughter came to an abrupt end. It jumped hard as if it were cramping and looked back in utmost bewilderment.

Behind him, the dying red giant whose limbs were broken and whose abdomen was torn apart got to its feet again.

Although the body size was indeed reduced significantly, and the flames of spiritual energy were dimmer and more lackluster, the core of Li Yao’s soul right at the center of the chest was still glittering. The last bit of firm strength was still glimmering!

“How—how did you get back on your feet? Wasn’t your soul so heavily wounded that it could barely keep shape?”

The mental devil gnashed its teeth hard in rage.

“Yes. But I feel that I’m more or less back to myself now after a brief rest.”

Li Yao struggled to catch his breath while he looked at the mental devil that had been covered in wounds after the battle with Lu Qingchen. He said, “I don’t think that I’m fully recovered, except that I’m slightly stronger than you right now.”

“You—You tricked me. You reserved your strength!”

The mental devil burst into rage.

“That’s exactly what you did. Didn’t you reserve your strength when you dealt with Extraterrestrial Devil Mo Xuan?” Li Yao sniffed.

“You—You guessed it?” The mental devil could not have felt more wronged. “How can we be the same? I am a mental devil. Such a sordid, shameless, and despicable method is exactly my style! But you are the renowned dominator of three Sectors and an upright hero of the federation. Yet, you reserved your strength during the fatal battle with the supervillain? That is outrageous! How did you know that I would certainly take the opportunity to ambush him? What if I didn’t reserve my strength and I couldn’t take shape in the Spiriters’ Realm because I was really blown apart by Extraterrestrial Devil Mo Xuan?”

“Bro…” Li Yao sighed and helplessly replied, “I didn’t want to guess so, either. But look at what you did in the fierce battle with Extraterrestrial Devil Mo Xuan. Like you said, your style has always been sordid, shameless, and despicable. Yet, during the battle, you acted with so much comradery and hot blood that you were charging even faster than me! Did you have to be so valiant? Could there have been a second possibility other than you intended to reserve your strength by acting and faking your death in a suicidal attack?

“This isn’t the first time you’ve made plans to seize my body. During the fierce battle with Extraterrestrial Devil Mo Xuan, the situation was still unclear. It was obvious that the extraterrestrial devils had arrangements on the Black Wind Fleet’s side. Therefore, even if you successfully suppressed me at that time and took over my body, it wouldn’t necessarily help. Chances were that you would be blown up by the Black Wind Fleet even before you were adapted to this body. That’s why you contained yourself and pretended to be obedient and docile while waiting for new changes.

“But right now, the Black Wind Fleet has suffered a crushing defeat, and the last extraterrestrial devil has revealed itself. Now that a great opportunity has been presented for you to ambush the enemy and swallow the souls of both Lu Qingchen and me, can you even refrain yourself from jumping out to stir trouble?

“We are too familiar with each other. Do I not know what is on your mind?”

The mental devil was so furious that crimson steam was spurting out all over its body, making it look like a leaky boiler.

Rendered speechless, it narrowed its eyes and stared at Li Yao, as if it were going to lunge at him at any moment.

“If you intend to lunge at me, I suggest you think carefully.” Li Yao opened his hands and said, “The two of us are on par with each other right now. There’s no telling who will be the winner. But whoever fully gains control of the body, his soul will certainly have been heavily wounded and weakened. It won’t be recovered any time soon.

“In the meantime, Long Yangjun and Yan Liren are still waiting and watching outside. You know very well how keen Long Yangjun’s senses are when it comes to souls, and do I need to describe how fast Yan Liren’s sword is? Even if you are lucky enough to suppress me and gain control over the body, should they notice any inconsistencies, do you think that they will give you a chance to explain yourself?

“The extraterrestrial devils are the masterminds of this war behind the curtain. They are ten times more dreadful than the Immortal Cultivators of the Imperium of True Human Beings. Do you think that they would care about the subtle difference between extraterrestrial devils and mental devils?”

The mental devil’s face was gloomy, and it glared at Li Yao in fury.

Li Yao, on the other hand, confidently stared back at it with firm, clear eyes.

The mental devil hesitated for a long time. Finally, it took a long breath, and flowers seemed to be blossoming on its hideous face. In a voice that was greasily sweet, it declared, “Don’t be a fool. We are good brothers living inside the same body and two sides of the same coin. How could I fight my own brother? It was just a joke!

“I only concealed part of my strength because I was preparing to ambush the enemy at the most crucial moment and give the enemy a fatal blow. As for why I didn’t tell you beforehand, that’s because… because if you want to deceive your enemy, you must first deceive yourself. You must’ve heard that before, right?”

Li Yao could not help but chuckle. He nodded and said, “I have.”

“That’s good. Everything is fine. The rain is over, and the sun is out. The trouble is no more!” The mental devil grinned. Looking at the ripples of tenebrum energy floating in the vacuum, it could not help but gulp. “Such intense negative emotions are practically the most delicious meal in the world. It is enough for years!”

“Negative emotions are all yours, but I’ll have most of the pure energy after the negative emotions are removed.” Li Yao’s eyes were glittering, too, as he revealed his true nature as a training maniac. “Let’s not rush into anything. It is indeed necessary to purge and digest the energy over several years to make sure that the evil energy entities do not cause any further trouble!”

The two of them rubbed their fists and flew toward where Lu Qingchen’s head had dispersed.

“What… are you exactly?”

The last bit of tenebrum energy waves on Lu Qingchen had not entirely gone yet. He sighed gloomily like a haunting ghost.

“Hahaha. You didn’t see this coming, did you? I am in fact the uniquely handsome, kind, and upright mental devil!” The mental devil made the most striking pose.

“No. I know what you are. You are just another extraterrestrial devil in a different form. I’m not interested in you at all. I’m asking about it.”

Lu Qingchen did not bother with the mental devil at all but focused the last bit of the tenebrum energy into an unsubstantial hand and extended it toward Li Yao.

It was not an attack. He merely tried to touch Li Yao’s soul. With a voice full of curiosity, he asked, “What are you exactly? Maybe next time…”

Before he finished his sentence, the dark hand and his gloomy sigh both vanished from this world.

Li Yao and the mental devil looked at each other in bewilderment and scratched their heads together.

“What’s wrong with the guy?” the mental devil asked. “He completely ignored me!”

Li Yao frowned. “What a pretentious man. What did he mean by ‘maybe next time’? Is he not dead yet?”

The mental devil shook its head hard. “Most of his tenebrum energy must’ve been focused in this Spiriters’ Realm and has been annihilated by us, but it is not entirely impossible that he kept a tiny part of tenebrum energy somewhere else. For example, he might’ve created a fourth ‘clone’. But there is no need to worry about it. The fourth ‘clone’ must be terribly weak. It is not going to jump out to cause trouble again without a long period of training.

“Speaking of which, he bragged about the ‘soul virus’ so eloquently as if it were a real thing, claiming that no soul of a human, be they an ordinary person or a Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivator, could escape from his ‘infection’. Why were there no symptoms in you at all?”

“Indeed.” Li Yao touched his body and said, “It didn’t seem to work on me. I think that it is probably because I am in fact an earthling, and the souls of the earthlings are of a different fundamental architecture from the souls here.”

The dark world was shaking more and more violently. Strong light shot in from the outside, making it barely possible for Li Yao and the mental devil to keep their eyes open. There even seemed to be voice in the strong light. Somebody was shouting, “Li Yao! Li Yao! Li Yao!”

Li Yao and the mental devil looked at each other and flew toward where the light was strongest together. When they were about to reach the gap leading to the real world, the two shadows gradually melded together.

…

“Hu…”

Li Yao took a deep breath and returned to reality. After passing the period where he felt that his brains were emptied, he found himself in the warm arms of Little Black under the thorough protection of the Tartarean Skeleton.

Outside of the Colossus, on the other hand, was a burning battlefield with shining pillars of light and rushing debris. They had broken away from Black Swirl.

The Tartarean Skeleton had been dragged out by Yin Yang and Big Sword, Long Yangjun and Yan Liren’s Colossi.

Not far behind them, Black Swirl had the most violent and brilliant serial explosions so far and completely fell apart.

In a daze, Li Yao saw a crystal suit that looked like fire flying at him.

He realized who was calling him in the darkness. The voice calmed him down and made him put on the happiest smile. He opened his arms at the newcomer but fell asleep again, returning to a dream from a long, long time ago in a place far, far away.