Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Every muscle on Li Yao’s face was twitching violently. He mumbled profanity for a long time before he finally spat on the ground. “What the f*ck is this all about?”

“My Fellow Cultivator, please report your name, sect, and ID number and accept our security check immediately!”

Li Yao’s abnormal reaction made the captain and all the guards raise their wariness. Every soldier placed their hand on their weapon. Some of the soldiers even triggered a translucent arc of light from the gadgets on their ears, which covered their eyes like virtual sunglasses.

Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!

Streams of data were jumping out of the translucent art of light and pouring down like a waterfall.

Li Yao sensed the unfriendly scanning of quite a few mystic rays.

The guards were scanning his body figure and searching for it in their database.

Of course, Li Yao would not be so stupid as to land with his real face. If he had, he would have had no way to find a work around if anything went wrong. His current appearance was subtly adjusted for a certain purpose. Nobody would ever find him in any database.

Li Yao’s attention, however, was distracted by the translucent arc of light in front of the eyes of the guards. “Is this… the latest generation of the Demon Beast Detector? Very cool!”

“No matching information has been found in the database. He is not a registered Cultivator of the federation!”

Greatly alarmed, all the guards turned off the safety on their weapons. Sharp brilliance from their blades was dancing in the crowd, too.

Solemnly and angrily, the captain unsheathed his chainsword and almost jabbed it to Li Yao’s face. “Stay where you are and submit all your attack magical equipment. Prepare for a full physical examination by the federal army. Your every movement, including your adjustment of spiritual energy and release of telepathic thoughts, will be regarded as an aggressive action toward the federal army. So, do not move !”

Looking at the black barrels of more than ten guns, Li Yao raised his hands obediently while his computational ability soared to the maximum, sorting through the current mess.

Based on the intelligence that he had gathered from the Blood Demon Sector, after he was teleported to the Flying Star Sector eleven years ago, the federal government had not confirmed his death in the ten years that followed.

The memorial park was still under construction. Judging from the progress, it should have been started one to two months ago, approximately at the same time when the war base thirty kilometers away began to be built.

Why?

He had left a message for Professor Mo Xuan and the Cultivators from the Flying Star Sector including Luo Xingzi. They should have known where he went to and would not presume that he was already dead.

What had happened during the few months that made the federal government confirm his death?

Li Yao smelled the stink of a plot. A very, very intense stink.

“Tell me. How did Vulture Li Yao die?”

Li Yao raised his hands high and asked the captain of the guards coldly, “Why are you certain that Vulture Li Yao is dead? What proof have you got?”

“Don’t move. Who are you exactly? How can you not know Li Yao’s death? You can’t find anybody in the entire Heaven’s Origin Sector who doesn’t know that! Where are you from? What are you here for exactly?”

The captain was shouting more and more desperately. His hand, which was holding the chainsword, was shaking. He gestured for the guards to surround the stranger, but one of the guards dashed to a cottage nearby.

Li Yao knew that he was going to ask for reinforcements from the war base.

Fulminations were already echoing from the direction of the war base. Four crystal warships had taken off and flown to the Dark Desolate Domain in search of the demon that had snuck into the Heaven’s Origin Sector.

Very soon, they would learn what had happened in the memorial park and arrive to suppress him.

Li Yao’s eyes were getting sharper and sharper, too.

If the soldiers’ eyes were as cold as icy cones, his eyes were iron sticks that smashed all the ice.

“Tell me!” he demanded, one word after another, with a daunting aura. “How did Vulture Li Yao die? What’s the evidence for his death?”

“Stop there! Stop there!”

The guards were barely able to breathe under his intimidating aura, but they did not forget their duty and shouted with their faces and necks red.

Their reaction somehow touched Li Yao. After all, they were all his compatriots and dutiful soldiers. Li Yao could not treat them as a real enemy.

Hesitating for a moment, Li Yao retreated all his aura.

However, Li Yao underestimated the fighting will of the federal army.

“Open fire!” the captain shouted the moment he withdrew his pressure. More than ten storm bolters were triggered at the same time, spurting out brilliant sparks!

“Damn it!”

Li Yao spat on the ground hard. He suddenly turned into a streak of brightness and brushed past hundreds of bullets before he extended his index finger and tapped the forehead of every guard, sinking every one of them in a deep sleep.

He glanced around. On the left side of the memorial park were a few two-floor buildings. On the gate was a sign that read ‘Museum of Martyr Li Yao’.

Li Yao beamed with joy and rushed into it like a tornado.

The museum was not completed yet. It was only just taking shape. In the gallery on the first floor, items that he found very familiar with were being exhibited. They seemed to be the crystal processors and training facilities that he had once used.

It feels rather strange to visit your own museum when you are a martyr .

Li Yao saw a combat suit riddled with holes. The description below the item was ‘Martyr Li Yao’s combat suit for his training in college.’9

Next to the combat suit were the kettles, chairs, and some of the tools that he had used in his refining work. At the center of the gallery was the debris of a broken Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, which appeared to be the one that he had piloted before.

But none of the items were what he was looking for right now.

He searched around and very soon found a few thin brochures from the wooden boxes piled in the corner.

They were the advertisements for the museum. On the cover was his photo more than ten years ago when he was still a proud young man. The photo might have been taken after the bidding meeting of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, but he was not certain.

Opening the brochure, Li Yao read his life story with great interest.

“Li Yao, an Ultra-Level Federal Hero, was born in Floating Spear City, an important town of training in the east, in 484.

“Li Yao was born in a poor family, but even as a child, he had grand ambitions. He always worked hard for the goal of marching into the Blood Demon Sector and demolishing the Pantheon of Demons…”

Huh?

Li Yao scratched his hair and read on. But soon, he was greatly embarrassed by the adulations that described him as an ambitious, chivalrous, patriotic, selfless… or in a word, perfect human being.

Li Yao simply flipped to the end of the brochure. There, he read about the end of his life.

“In 514, after discovering the human beings of the Flying Star Sector, Li Yao returned to the Heaven’s Origin Sector on a single starship, only to be caught by the space turbulence when he was teleported home. Unfortunately, his single starship crashed in the depths of the Grand Desolate Plateau because of the accident…”

Something is wrong!

Li Yao read the content three times and considered carefully.

My single starship was teleported to the Blood Demon Sector successfully and could not have left any trace in the Heaven’s Origin Sector at all. How the hell did it crash in the depths of the Grand Desolate Plateau?

There’s still a bigger question. According to the captain of the guards, everybody in the federation knows of my death. If so, the insiders such as Ding Lingdang, Professor Mo Xuan, and Luo Xingzi must have heard the news, too. Why didn’t they stand up and question the discovery?

Right then, footsteps could be heard above the stairs.

A short-haired female soldier who was in her twenties ran down the stairs with panic written all over his face. She must have been frightened by the gunfire just now.

Judging from the emblem she was wearing, she belonged to the public relations branch of the federation. She was probably one of the workers in the museum or an interpreter.

Li Yao narrowed his eyes. He had learned his lesson. Instead of wasting his time talking to her, he simply poured a dominating telepathic thought into her head after apologizing to her in his heart.

The female soldier was just an ordinary person. Under Li Yao’s guidance, she soon confessed everything.

As a regular soldier, she naturally did not know the details of the first contact between the Heaven’s Origin Sector and the Flying Star Sector or the news that Li Yao had been teleported to the Blood Demon Sector.

Half a year ago, the regular soldiers only knew that ‘Vulture Li Yao’ had gone missing at the periphery of the Heaven’s Origin Sector, but the authorities had never confirmed his death.

Two months ago, because of the unexpected assault of the Blood Demon Sector on the capital city, which caused great losses, everybody in the Star Glory Federation was infuriated and decided to fight a final battle with the Blood Demon Sector.

Therefore, they pushed the frontline forward from the Giant Blade Pass to the edge of the Dark Desolate Domain, where they established five enormous bases for the long march to come.

When one of the war bases was being built, however, a large area of debris of a starship was found. After thorough investigations, it was found to be the starship that Li Yao had boarded.

Also, it was said that the scraps of Li Yao’s body were found in the debris of the starship. Therefore, his death was confirmed.

Since the starship was already shattered and it was impossible to sew the ‘scraps’ into a whole body, all the remains were buried on the spot, and a memorial park was established on the crash site.

This is too uncanny!

My starship clearly crashed in the Hundred Desolation Mountain in the Blood Demon Sector. There is no way that it would show up in the depths of the Grand Desolate Plateau. As for the ‘scraps of my body’, that’s pure nonsense!

However, the discovery has been publicized, and everybody in the federation was shocked. It is also said that a grandeur commemorative event was held in the capital city a few days ago. So, my death must’ve been confirmed by Ding Lingdang, Professor Mo Xuan, and Luo Xingzi!

Who was it that directed my ‘death’ behind the curtain and even convinced Ding Lingdang and Professor Mo Xuan of it?

Whoever the guy was, he must be a very capable man!

Right then, Li Yao felt the quakes that came from the clouds.

All four crystal warships had changed direction and were flying right toward the memorial park!