Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

After treating their wounds, they found a lot of wine and cans, played the most beautiful music, and had a small party in the living room.

Maybe it was to celebrate Bai Xiaolu’s narrow escape, or maybe it was because the journey through the desert was coming to an end and they needed a moment of rest, or maybe it was for nothing except a moment of pleasure before the grim reaper caught up to them.

After so many days of trekking side by side, the boundary between them had become blurred. It did not matter whether they were enemies, friends, demons, or underground creatures, masters and slaves, or beasts that were wary of each other. Right now, they were just three people who wanted to survive and were still alive.

Needless to say about the boy and the young man, even the leader of the Gold Teeth Brotherhood put on a sincere smile after he went to the other corner of the wine cellar and fiddled with it mysteriously for a while.

He told Bai Xiaolu that she did not need to worry about the pursuers anymore. He had found something better than a car, a radio station!

He had already sent a message to someone he could trust. Reinforcements would arrive to rescue them very soon. The reinforcements boasted brand-new apocalyptic technology and were fast enough to ignore the harsh terrain and the traps in the desert. Therefore, all they had to do was hide in the desert comfortably.

Just like that, Boss Gold Tooth drank a lot of delicious wine and sang a lot of ugly songs. He forced the two kids to sing and drink with him again, which was quite unrestrained.

Bai Xiaolu even suspected that, if he continued drinking, the wine would spurt out of all the wounds on his body like a large fountain.

Boss Gold Tooth finally collapsed on the couch. He waved his hands and asked Bai Xiaolu to get Wan Zanghai out.

Wan Canghai was drunk, too. He chuckled and hugged Bai Xiaolu’s shoulder affectionately like an octopus. He said that Bai Xiaolu was his best brother and that he would never forget her when he distinguished himself one day. A brother’s business was his own, and a brother’s life was his own. He would definitely help his brother no matter what.

Bai Xiaolu did not forget her mission. It seemed that this was his last chance to ask for the password with hypnosis.

But Wan Zanghai was as slippery as a gyro that had been smeared with oil. Even though he was deeply hypnotized, he was still avoiding all questions related to the password subconsciously.

Bai Xiaolu tried again and again, but Wan Zanghai was drunk, too, and soon fell asleep. Helpless, Bai Xiaolu could only stuff him into an empty wine barrel and report to Boss Gold Tooth.

When he returned to the living room, Boss Gold Tooth was already somewhat sober.

The floor was full of empty cans and wine bottles. Ancient, warm music was playing in the room. The cheerful laughter from a moment ago had faded away, making the room even more desolate and lonely. The dominator of the desert was leaning on the sofa with a cigarette in his hand. The smoke blurred his facial features. His eyes were lackluster. He coughed and stared at a picture.

It was a picture of Old John’s family.

Bai Xiaolu hesitated for a moment and walked to the opposite side of Boss Gold Tooth. She sat cross-legged and said softly, “I’m sorry. He still hasn’t told me.”

“It doesn’t matter. Forget it.”

The leader of the Gold Teeth Clan replied casually without raising his head. He continued looking at his picture, as if he could see a lot of things from Old John’s family.

“Well, about the day, thank you.”

Bai Xiaolu thought for a moment and thanked him solemnly, “You are the first person in my life who has treated me sincerely and sincerely. You are also the first person who can make me trust you completely—except for my brother.”

“Don’t say such corny words, smart-ass brat. Do you think such flowery words can move me? Do you really believe your ‘belief’?”

The gold-tooth leader spat on the thick, bloody phlegm. “Shut up. Don’t stop me from enjoying music and wine.”

Bai Xiaolu was embarrassed. She could only rub her nose and look at Boss Gold Tooth silently.

The awkward silence between the two of them gradually grew larger. Maybe there was something inexplicable in the silence.

Maybe because of the repeated impacts of alcohol on his brain cells, Boss Gold Tooth’s dark and rough face turned red within five minutes. He put down the photo and glared at Bai Xiaolu, asking in a low voice, “Why are you looking at me like that?”

Bai Xiaolu smiled. She hunched her shoulders and asked the dominator of the desert in embarrassment, “Boss, what is this chess piece?”

He pointed at Old John and his son’s unfinished chess piece.

“That’s ‘Strong Chess’, also known as ‘Millionaire’.”

The gold-tooth leader glanced at them and said unhappily.

“Was it fun?”

Bai Xiaolu had nothing to say.

“Who knows what you want to ask exactly?

Boss Gold Tooth frowned.

“I—I don’t know.”

Bai Xiaolu curled up even smaller. He was drunk, too. “I don’t want to ask anything. I just want to talk to you.”

“Why?”

Boss Gold Tooth stared at Bai Xiaolu.

“I don’t know.”

Bai Xiaolu shook her head again. “I don’t know.”

“Stupid brat.”

Boss Gold Tooth sniffed and spat another mouthful of blood. This time, both the blood and the saliva were black.

“I’m probably going to die. If the reinforcements arrive in time, I might be able to live a few days longer. God knows.”

Looking at the black blood that he vomited, Boss Gold Tooth said slowly, “That’s not important. What’s important is that this is your best chance of escape. There’s a 30% chance that you can kill me and take away all the assets here. There’s a car in the underground garage in the back with enough fuel and other assets. You already know how to drive, right? Maybe you have a chance to run away. Maybe.

“If you don’t kill me right now, your fate will be decided by the reinforcements. Foolish brat. If I were you, I would definitely take action and not entrust my fate to anybody else.

“Probably.”

Bai Xiaolu bit her lips and shook her head. “But I’m not you. I can’t do what you can. You are Boss Gold Tooth, the dominator of the desert. I am just—just Bai Xiaolu.”

The leader of the Gold Teeth Brotherhood laughed. He was coughing and vomiting blood at the same time.

“Kid, open another bottle of wine for me.”

Resting his head on the arm of the couch, the gold-tooth leader lay down comfortably. He squinted and mumbled, “Anything else you want to know, just ask!”

Bai Xiaolu opened another bottle of wine.

A familiar melody rang in the room, “Yesterday Reappears”.

Bai Xiaolu poured a cup of wine for herself, too, and took a big gulp. Then she summoned her courage and asked, “Boss, I would very much like to know… Who is this ‘Urey Aix’? Is he an ally? How did his ‘mental notes’ end up in your hands?”

Boss Gold Tooth’s hands trembled for a moment, but he still gulped down the wine and said in a mechanical voice, “Of course, Yuri Aix was not an ally in the beginning. He was not even a Russian. Many sources said that he was from Romania. There were also rumors that he was the secret heir of the Transylvanian family. He was an out-and-out devil and an out-and-out genius. He was one of the top aptitude users at that time and the well-deserved king in the field of ‘strength of the heart’.

“It’s a pity that even my motherland did not have a thorough understanding of superpowers at that time. We thought that ordinary weapons were enough to deal with the devil. After a long time of intelligence collection and thorough planning, a team of fully-armed, well-trained elite Navy Seals snuck into Eastern Europe and prepared to capture Yuri Aix. I was their vice-captain.

Bai Xiaolu exclaimed in surprise.

Seeing that Boss Gold Tooth had been transformed into a ghost, Li Yao had a vague feeling that the outcome of the operation would not be good.

“Of course, the capture failed.

As he expected, Boss Gold Tooth paused for a moment, with pain and indifference flashing on his face. He said, “It was not a capture but a game. Yuri’s game, or rather, the first experiment that Yuri conducted on his ‘strength of the heart’.

“Most of the seals were killed. My three brothers and I stayed to cover the retreat so that the heavily wounded captain could run away. In the end, my three brothers and I became Yuri’s captives.

“Urey brought us to a place named ‘Battalion X’. We were not his first batch of experiment subjects, but the strongest ones who had been tortured the most miserably. He explored our bodies with various superpowers and brainwashed us with his ‘power of the heart’. He turned us into obedient claws and killing machines and helped him do a lot of sordid things.

“My three brothers sacrificed themselves in the experiments and the killing. I was the only one who was most adaptive to the superpowers. I gritted my teeth and persevered. My self-awareness was awakened, and the marvelous abilities of the legions were developed.

“Later… you know, when the thermonuclear war broke out, Yuri’s Camp X was completely destroyed in the carpet bombing. I was lucky enough to escape and even stole his most important notes. I wandered and struggled to survive until the war was over. I returned to this place and established the Citigroup. That’s all.

“However, to this day, I still don’t know whether I escaped on my own or Yuri let me out on purpose for a larger-scale and longer experiment. What a scumbag!

Bai Xiaolu was fascinated by the story. Looking at the wounds on Boss Gold Tooth’s body, she felt that her body was aching, too. She continued asking, “Is Yuri Aix still alive right now?”

“Of course.”

Boss Gold Tooth sniffed. “He is a high-level consultant of the ‘Alliance’ right now. That’s why I don’t want to go to the ‘Alliance’.

“I see.”

Bai Xiaolu took a long breath in relief. The question that had been bothering her for days was finally answered. He should’ve felt happy, but for some reason, he still felt that something was wrong.

Seeing that Boss Gold Tooth was pinching the picture of Old John’s family so hard that his fingers were turning white, Bai Xiaolu suddenly asked, “Boss, can I ask you a personal question? Is this your hometown? Do you have a family here? A wife and children?”