Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

It all happened too fast. The Gold Vulture, which seemed to have been hit brutally all the time, suddenly opened its mouth, spitting out a cluster of bloody mist that pierced at the face of the “Heavenly Crystal” like a blade that could tear everything apart!

The two parties were very close to each other, and the Gold Vulture’s movement was very fast. Caught unprepared, the Heavenly Crystal was hit in the forehead precisely!

The materials that the Heavenly Crystal was made of were not any regular metals but the cores and skeletons of dozens of kinds of primeval beasts after they were squeezed together deep inside the crust and refined by the high temperature and pressure for millions of years. They were extremely rare even in the primeval battlefield where the debris of the Colossus could be found anywhere.

The bloody mist’s physical form was merely just “Neltharion”, a training model of the Star Ocean Imperium. Naturally, it was impossible to break in.

However, just because Neltharion could not penetrate into it did not mean that the mental devil could not invade it.

With the creepy laughter that was getting louder and louder, the mental devil turned into a raging phantom, trying to crawl into the Heavenly Crystal through the gaps on it.

However seemingly flawless the Colossus was, there were bound to be joints and gaps on it as long as it could move agilely.

The mental devil’s body suddenly exploded into thousands of bloody threads, exploring the weakness of the Heavenly Crystal inch by inch!

Long Yangjun finally exclaimed in shock.

Even though she had foreseen that Li Yao had more trump cards, she did not expect the trump cards to be as effective.

Li Yao bellowed and cooperated with the mental devil. While Long Yangjun’s mind was greatly disrupted by the mental devil, tidal exhaust flames surged out of the back of the Gold Vulture, blowing apart the fault behind him completely. Despite the heavy pressure of the ocean, he unleashed the terrible momentum above the speed of sound and crashed into the Heavenly Crystal brutally!

BOOM!

This time, it was the Heavenly Crystal that was blown to the other side of the fault by the Gold Vulture and swallowed by the furious flames. Li Yao’s attacks did not stop when the entire fault collapsed as a whole and buried the Heavenly Crystal into it.

Soon, the mental devil and the Heavenly Crystal dashed out from the two sides of the fault.

The Heavenly Crystal was no longer as brilliant and colorful as it was a moment ago. It was now mottled, with narrow, long red lines vaguely slithering below the crystal shell like tapeworms.

The mental devil, on the other hand, stood on Neltharion and glared at Long Yangjun.

“Do you still want to fight?” said Li Yao coldly.

“Hu… Hu… This is more like it. This is what ‘Vulture Li Yao’ should do!”

Long Yangjun panted hard but chuckled in a low voice. “So, this is your secret weapon. I think I’ve seen it from somewhere? Right, this little guy was there when we dealt with Extraterrestrial Devil Mo Xuan in the Star Glory Federation. How cute. Is it your second soul?

“I did not expect that you had trained your second soul to such a terrifying level. Except for the lack of a real entity, its combat ability is as good as any regular expert in the Divinity Transformation Stage, and its weirdness is significantly greater than them. What is it exactly? Some sort of underdeveloped version of the ‘Divinity Branching Stage’?

“No wonder you’d been playing weak all the time. You intended to trick me with your second soul. That was indeed in line with your style. Thankfully, I knew that you were sordid and shameless since the very beginning, or I might’ve really been hit. Hehehehe!”

“Allow me to introduce you.”

Li Yao said emotionlessly, “This is indeed my second soul named mental devil. Mental devil, this is Long Yangjun. You should get to know each other.”

“I won’t. I hate this sexless, creepy monster!”

The mental devil sniffed at Long Yangjun. “Hey, I do not object to you at all if you want to kill this stupid idiot. But this body is mine. If you dare to break one hair on it, I will certainly fight you until I die!”

“How interesting. It seems that your second soul has developed an independent character!”

Long Yangjun chuckled. “No, it is much more than a second soul. I’ve smelled something more ancient and distant from it. It seems to have come from somewhere far, far away beyond the three thousand Sectors a long, long time ago. At the very least, I cannot feel too much of the air of Pangu and Nuwa in it.”

Li Yao was somewhat surprised. The “Blood Stripe Virus”, the mental devil’s antecedent, was indeed from an extremely distant space zone beyond the three thousand Sectors.

Li Yao did not even know if the Blood Stripe Virus’ hometown and the world that the Pangu Clan, the Nuwa Clan, and mankind lived in were in the same universe.

“That explains why you look so familiar. So, we share similar identities and experiences!”

Long Yangjun continued with a smile, “I am a member of the Nuwa Clan, but I was corrupted by the forces of the Pangu Clan. You are a human being, but you have been corrupted by the mental devil. We are both carrying double destinies and bloodlines. No wonder you and I feel like old friends at the first meeting.”

“We do?”

The mental devil stared at Long Yangjun in wariness. “What is your scheme? What do you want exactly?”

With a smile, Long Yangjun retreated the Heavenly Crystal on her body. She was simply wearing a regular anti-pressure crystal suit. Opening her arms, she showed that she did not have any hostility.

Li Yao sneered, “You’ve had enough fighting?”

“Since you boast such a weird and powerful second soul, it is impossible for me to take down the both of you at the same time. It is possible that your second soul will invade my brain and cause serious damage when I kill you. Even my body might be heisted.”

Long Yangjun admitted straightforwardly, “In that case, why do I need to waste my time and energy? Like I said earlier, this is not a life-and-death battle but just a way for us to bond since we haven’t seen each other for a long time.”

Pondering for a moment, Li Yao said, “Fine. Now that my trump cards have all been put on the table and seen clearly, you can finally tell me what you want now, can’t you?”

“I don’t want anything in particular. I’m just traveling at the center of the cosmos to get a closer look at this world as well as myself.”

Long Yangjun said, “However, during my journey, I have indeed discovered some interesting things. Do you remember that I told you to be wary of Queen Li Linghai last time?”

Li Yao narrowed his eyes. “Why? Have you discovered any important evidence?”

“I wouldn’t say evidence, but it is nonetheless very interesting.”

Long Yangjun suddenly changed the topic. “Do you want to meet Dongfang Wang? He is about to die. Also, his soul is withering together with his body, and there is even no chance for him to turn into a spectral Cultivator. As the saying goes, ‘when a man is dying, his words will be wise’. What he says at the end of his life will perhaps be very reasonable and interesting!”

“What?”

Li Yao was slightly shocked. “Dongfang Wang is with you? And he is dying? Why?”

“Because his brother’s secret research institute was destroyed and the supply of his ‘soul nutrition liquid’ was cut off!”

Long Yangjun said, “Don’t look at me like that. That was the biggest secret between the two brothers. I did not know it at all until you exposed the whole issue. After Dongfang Wang’s unavoidable failure, he told me everything. If he had told me sooner, everything perhaps would’ve been different!”

Thinking for a long time, Li Yao still found it hard to believe. “A prime minister of iron and blood is about to die just like that? He seems… too weak from the beginning to the end!”

“It is exactly because he is the prime minister of iron and blood that he is so weak and he dies so fast.”

Long Yangjun made a statement that sounded utterly unreasonable. Then she asked back, “You should know how many worlds, planets, starships, Immortal Cultivators, and civilians are under the effective control of the Imperium of True Human Beings, right?”

Li Yao nodded his head. He knew the series of boring astronomical numbers, but he knew nothing more.

“If you were the prime minister of the Imperium, are you confident to manage the hundreds of Sectors, thousands of resource planets, millions of starships, and billions of people and Immortal Cultivators, not carrying out their greatest potentials but only ensuring the normal functioning of the enormous system?”

Long Yangjun asked, “Or maybe, another question. If a prime minister of the Imperium is really capable of doing that, how much computational ability will it consume? And how much soul power and vitality will he have to burn?”

Li Yao had never considered the question before.

He was never good at management and administration but preferred gratifying battles and erratic refining work.

But as Ding Lingdang’s husband, he knew very clearly the complicated questions and the tough dilemmas that Ding Lingdang was faced with every day when she was only managing the ten or so worlds at the edge of the cosmos.

The questions and challenges that the prime minister of the Imperium was faced with were certainly a hundred times more than those of the Speaker of the federation!

Every human being had their limits. Not just an admin-type Immortal Cultivator in the Divinity Transformation Stage; even if they were in the Divinity Branching Stage or even higher levels and had the help of countless super crystal processors, they would still feel overwhelmed when they were faced with the vast universe.

“Do you understand it now? The Imperium is simply too huge. Anybody who intends to govern the entire universe on their own will inevitably burn up their head completely, just like all the chips inside a crystal processor will be burnt up when it performs a mission that is too complicated and enormous.”

Long Yangjun said, “Besides, Dongfang Wang is not a common prime minister but a ‘wartime prime minister’ and a ‘prime minister of iron and blood’. Under his leadership, the Imperium started a supermassive war that was unprecedented in the past five hundred years. Although he was not a commander in the frontline, as the helmsman of the entire Imperium, he had devoted inestimable efforts, energy, and even vitality into the war.

“I didn’t know it until a long time later after I got in touch with Dongfang Wang, but the seemingly majestic ‘prime minister of iron and blood’ had long been exhausted by the Imperium’s counterattack. By logic, his soul should’ve been drained, and his body should’ve been crippled. He only managed to sustain himself with the ‘soul nutrition liquid’ provided by his brother.

“But the ‘soul nutrition liquid’ had side effects too. The most important one of all was that the dosage requirement would be higher and higher. At first, one dosage a day was enough. But later, even ten dosages a day were insufficient to moisten the dried brain cells.

“It was also an important reason why Dongfang Renxin’s secret research institute did not close even when the situation in the capital was so intense. It couldn’t be helped. Dongfang Wang could not live without the medication.

“Once the medication was cut off, his body conditions immediately deteriorated. He had collapsed on his own even before your attacks—collapsed by the entire universe and by his own ambitions.”