Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Like a haunting ghost, Neltharion stayed on top of the green-haired gorilla and the eight Immortal Cultivator guards and followed their floating disc into the immeasurable darkness.

On their way, they transferred between floating discs twice and changed guard shifts twice. The six guards who showed up at the end were all in the Core Formation Stage.

The trainers in the Core Formation Stage were more than enough to work as a mayor of a city, a dean in a college, or a major in the army in the Star Glory Federation.

Even though the Imperium of True Human Beings was a hundred times stronger than the Star Glory Federation in terms of the comprehensive national power, the experts in the Core Formation Stage and the Nascent Soul Stage were still rare.

Now that six Immortal Cultivators in the Core Formation Stage had been deployed to escort the green-haired gorilla, the place that they were going to must be very important.

But when it came to the green-haired gorilla itself, even though he was a ‘body fundamentalist’ above average, he did not seem to boast that much value or require so many security measures.

So…

While Li Yao was pondering, more than ten round metal balls flew out of the darkness nearby and shot out dark red rays, scanning the floating disc from every perspective.

“It seems to be some sort of ‘anti-stealth magical equipment’.” The mental devil grimaced. “It is just a petty trick to us right now.”

Li Yao and the mental devil both boosted their computational ability to the highest, like a ‘dual cores’ system in super crystal processors. They analyzed the wavelength and frequency of the incoming rays and adjusted the invisible flames of spiritual energy from Neltharion to the same frequency.

It was like a drop of water melting into an ocean. The enemy’s detecting rays passed Neltharion again and again but noticed nothing wrong.

The six guards in the Core Formation Stage and the green-haired gorilla who had fallen asleep were thoroughly scrutinized to make sure of their identities and that they were not carrying any forbidden objects with them.

Then, the dozen metal balls began to revolve at a high speed and emit ultrasound that human ears could not hear, posing severe interference.

“Those guys are indeed meticulous. They still have such powerful interferential soundwaves!” The mental devil was as relaxed as before. “If our Cultivation were lower by a level and we had maneuvered Neltharion in the Nascent Soul Stage, it would’ve been impossible to resist such intense interference. The crystal chips would’ve certainly exploded and revealed where we were.”

As for the reality, a Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivator would not be discovered so easily.

It was not because Manjusaka did not have enough security checks.

For the entire civilization of mankind including the federation, the Imperium, and the Covenant Alliance, it was already the best they could do to resist the infiltration and the infiltration of the experts in the Nascent Soul Stage right now.

As for those in the Divinity Transformation Stage, they were the most powerful and influential celebrities of a country. How many of them were fond of acting stealthily like a thief?

Building a defense system that could resist the experts in the Divinity Transformation Stage was like building a dam that could resist a once-in-a-million-year flood. The technological problems were one thing, but the cost alone was enough to bankrupt any sponsor.

The weapons that could resist Colossi were Colossi. By the same logic, those who could cope with someone in the Divinity Transformation Stage were experts in the Divinity Transformation Stage, too.

It was absolutely impossible to resist them with a cold, rigid defense system.

Besides, neither Wuying Lan, the owner of Manjusaka, nor Li Lingfeng, one of the four ‘Kurfürsten’ of the Imperium in the future behind Wuying Lan, was good at prophecies.

They thought that everything was under their control. It had never occurred to them that an unexpected Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivator had snuck into their heart.

The defense system that could catch a Nascent Soul Stage expert was already of the highest level. Li Yao was more and more curious about their destination.

The floating disk sank to the bottommost floor of the beehive prison. Gliding forward along a pathway for three minutes and passing countless branches that looked like a maze, it finally came to a stop.

The six guards in the Core Formation Stage loosened all the shackles on the green-haired gorilla. One of them fell to one knee and shot the back of the green-haired gorilla’s head with a gun-like inoculator. Then, the six of them all retreated into the darkness on one side of the pathway.

The green-haired gorilla’s even breath became heavy again. Roars were echoing from his chest, and his eyeballs were shivering more and more violently, showing signs that he could wake up at any moment.

The floating disc slightly shivered before it sank again, sending the green-haired gorilla and Neltharion into an ivory chamber. The pathway up above slowly closed.

The walls and the floor of the secret chamber were all emitting gloomy glows, giving the feeling that there was nowhere to hide. Except for the surveillance cameras in the eight corners, there were no adornments in the room. But at the center of the secret chamber, a seemingly slim and weak young man was crouching.

“What’s going on here?”

Li Yao could not have been more befuddled, wondering if it was a new test.

But he could not sense any air of an unparalleled fiend from the young man who was holding his arms.

The mental devil suddenly sent a very feeble message to Li Yao. “Attention. There’s an expert here!”

Then, instead of waiting for Li Yao to reply, it controlled Neltharion to enter the absolute stealth state, floating in midair without moving at all.

Li Yao’s heart palpitated. He also sensed that the wall that they were faced with should be tempered glass that was transparent one way. Although they could not see the other side of the ‘wall’, those on the other side could see the young man and the green-haired gorilla clearly.

On the other side of the ‘wall’, there were two clusters of very powerful life energy, one of which was very likely to be completely beyond Li Yao!

You’ve got to be kidding me. I have run into Divinity Transformation Stage experts from the Imperium so quickly? And not just any of them, but one in the high level or even the peak of the Divinity Transformation Stage?

Li Yao secret gnashed his teeth.

Damn it. I haven’t even gone on a killing spree and enjoyed myself with the combat ability of the Divinity Transformation Stage before meeting such experts. Am I terribly lucky or unlucky?

However, it did make sense on second thought. Manjusaka was an important place, and an epic quest was underway. It would not seem right if the place was not supervised by a few experts in the Divinity Transformation Stage.

Thankfully, the enemy was in the daylight, and he was in the darkness. Unaware of his existence, the enemy would not intentionally release their telepathic thoughts to search every inch of the space. There was still room for Neltharion to hide.

Li Yao and the mental devil did not dare move at all. They simply hid in a corner dutifully and observed the mysterious young man who was crouching at the center of the secret chamber.

During his observation, Li Yao had more and more questions.

It was a rather handsome young man who could not have been older than eighteen. He should be at the most vigorous and unrestrained age.

But the look of vague sorrow and desperation on his face made him seem like an old man that had lived a hundred and eighty years and only wished to die sooner now that he was faced with an illness that he could absolutely not resist.

His weary eyes seemed to be saying, The greatest sorrow is hopelessness

He was wearing a large surgery gown. While his skin was as smooth as jade and perfectly flawless, Li Yao discovered many pinky traces all over his body.

Li Yao was no stranger to such pinky marks, which were the unique signs when the skin and the muscles were healed after they were severely torn apart.

The pinky marks that covered the young man indicated that he had been ripped into shreds like a ragged doll not long ago, before he was jumbled and repaired again through some foul technology.

With the medical and biochemical technology today, even ‘death’ was not something that someone who was kept in a prison could get if they wanted.

But all that was not what baffled Li Yao most.

The young man was likely yet another test subject of Manjusaka. Li Yao would not be surprised however cruelly the Immortal Cultivators tortured him.

What did surprise him was that Li Yao vaguely felt that the young man looked… somewhat familiar.

The familiarity bordered on intimacy, as if he had lived with the young man for a long time a long, long time ago. Just a quick look at the face made him grow subtly fond of the young man.

“The face… I must’ve seen the face somewhere before, or someone who carried some of his features.”

But Li Yao could not figure out who it could have been at all.

“But isn’t it too creepy? I was born and raised in the Star Glory Federation, which is billions of lightyears away from here. I also hibernated for a hundred years in total. The young man here looks no older than twenty, and he is from the Imperium of True Human Beings at the center of the cosmos. How on earth could I possibly be related to him?

“However… Hey, does he look familiar to you?”

“He does,” the mental devil replied. It shared the same memories as Li Yao. Naturally, Li Yao’s acquaintances were its acquaintances. “But it’s impossible. Did we accidentally see him in the Land of Sins before, and he was captured just now and delivered here?”

“No. Certainly not.” Thinking for a moment, Li Yao was even more sure of his conclusion. “It’s a mottled memory from a long, long time ago. He is like… an old friend.”

Seeing that the hideous and terrifying green-haired gorilla had been sent into the room and showed signs of waking, the young man finally stood up.

His eyes were like a frozen pond, with no ripples spreading out at all.

“Who could it be?” Li Yao continued thinking hard. “Even if I’ve never seen him, I must’ve seen someone very similar to him before. Perhaps it is not about the similarity of their faces but their unique vibe, the feeling of losing all hope. I saw it from somebody else a long, long time ago, and I saw it a lot!”

The green-haired gorilla was finally completely awakened.

The waking drugs that the guards had injected into his body were probably mixed with tremendous excitants to simulate his brutality. The moment he caught the scent of a human, he immediately pricked all the green hair on his body, turning from an enormous gorilla into a gigantic hedgehog.

There was no fear on the mysterious young man’s face at all. He simply smiled bitterly and opened his arms at the green-haired gorilla, as if he were braced for whatever might become of him.

“Aooo!”

The green-haired gorilla, however, was completely infuriated by the mysterious young man’s casualness. With a roar, he opened his giant hands, ejected the sharp claws, and slapped at the mysterious young man brutally!