Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“A serial explosion took place in the prison cell where Professor Mo Xuan was locked. The bombs were so powerful that almost half of the minus thirteenth floor was blown up!”

“Supervisor Guo was heavily wounded in the explosion, but he luckily escaped in time. There were no other casualties!”

“According to Supervisor Guo, Blood Devil Li Yao snuck into the headquarters of the Secret Sword Bureau and intended to sneak Professor Mo Xuan and the rest of them out. However, Supervisor Guo discovered him in time. Desperately, Blood Devil Li Yao detonated the crystal bombs hoping to die together with them!”

“Supervisor Guo also said that Blood Devil Li Yao had probably planted crystal bombs all over the headquarters of the Secret Sword Bureau. So, he issued the ’emergency evacuation’ command and asked everybody in the headquarters to move out!”

“Director!”

Several Secret Sword Agents who were directly under his command were overjoyed. “Supervisor Guo took down Li Yao!”

“Don’t talk!” Lu Zui snapped. “Let me think. Let me think carefully. Fly Hidden Star back to the headquarters right now!”

The crystal warship was amazingly fast. After only one moment, it arrived in the east suburbs of the capital city, where the Secret Sword Bureau was headquartered.

The headquarters of the Secret Sword Bureau were an utter mess right now. Countless people were running out in a panic like ants whose nest had been drowned.

For an enormous intelligence agency such as the Secret Sword Bureau, only a tiny proportion of its members were warriors fighting in the frontline.

Most of the Secret Sword Agents were responsible for data analysis, signal tracing, intelligence collection, and other office work. They did not have the ability to fight.

Moreover, to capture Blood Devil Li Yao, the Secret Sword Bureau had invited a lot of crystal processor specialists to help the battle. Those specialists were not Secret Sword Agents in the first place. Naturally, they were even less willing to be buried in the headquarters of the Secret Sword Bureau!

Therefore, after the great explosion in the prison, and when Guo Chunfeng, whose head had been burnt and blackened, claimed that the entire headquarters were likely to have been planted with powerful bombs by Blood Devil Li Yao and everyone must be evacuated, the tens of thousands of workers in the place all fled in a hurry.

It was definitely not a joke. Even Guo Chunfeng, the strongest Core Formation Stage Cultivator of the Heaven’s Origin Sector, had almost been swallowed by the explosion. Would they not be blown into ashes if there were another hundreds of bombs?

After all, Blood Devil was already dead. There was no reason they should stay here and be buried in the same grave as him!

Therefore, all the workers flooded to the surface as fast as they could and dispersed. It was an utter mess that nobody could control!

Lu Zui narrowed his eyes while he observed everything through the surveillance camera. His eyes were colder and colder.

“Director, surveillance footage from Professor Mo Xuan’s prison cell after the explosion has been recovered!”

A Secret Sword Agent projected the footage to a light beam. All the ‘patriots’ held their breath.

There were three people on the picture, namely Professor Mo Xuan, who was locked by the barriers; Li Yao, who was pretending to be the Secret Sword Agent ‘Black Panther’; and Guo Chunfeng, who was standing by the door.

When Li Yao retrieved the Jade Crystal Disc out of his Cosmos Ring, even Lu Zui’s breath was disordered.

However, the next second, Guo Chunfeng suddenly attacked!

Nobody saw how Guo Chunfeng drew his sword. Nobody even saw where he kept his sword, just as nobody knew where he had been keeping an old, ragged tea cup.

Even when the picture was played at one tenth the original speed, Guo Chunfeng’s sword was still like the gentlest breeze in spring that one could not notice until their face was kissed.

Li Yao was caught unprepared. It could be clearly seen from the surveillance picture that, when he turned around, he was too shocked to maintain his disguise. His muscles all went out of control, and he revealed his real face!

It seemed that Li Yao had never expected that Guo Chunfeng would attack at the last possible moment.

Even if he did, due to the heavy wounds caused by Diwu Jian’s ‘Five Disintegrations of Heavens and Human’, it was impossible for him to dodge the critical strike of Guo Chunfeng, the strongest Core Formation Stage Cultivator of the Heaven’s Origin Sector!

The sword aura flashed. Li Yao cried miserably, his arm flying up and his blood spurting out!

Without a word, Guo Chunfeng slashed immediately after the first attack. In a glimmering arc that resembled a ring of stars, he cut from Li Yao’s shoulder to his abdomen!

The attack was so fast that there was nothing wrong on the surface although the aura of the blade should have torn apart Li Yao’s internal organs.

Only the indescribable expression on Li Yao’s face could tell the heavy wounds that the previous attack had caused him.

Shock, sadness, devastation. Li Yao’s soul seemed to be slashed apart by the sword!

He seemed not desperate about his own death but about the dark future of the federation!

Then, while the upper half of his body was still able to move, he made a gesture and detonated all the bombs!

The explosion happened.

The blast swept across everything. All the surveillance pictures, including those in the corridor, vanished at the same time, melted in the ocean of flames.

All the ‘patriots’ were at a loss after watching the video.

“Vulture Li Yao… has truly been slain by Supervisor Guo!”

One of the ‘patriots’ took a long breath in relief and said, still not entirely calm, “Thankfully, Supervisor Guo was not bewildered by him and executed him before he told him everything. He was forced to kill himself in the explosion!

“Although the price was high, the nuisance is finally resolved now!”

The other ‘patriots’ also beamed with joy. “Now, nothing can stop our plan!”

But Lu Zui was still frowning, deep in thought. A moment later, he replayed the video and jumped to the moment before Li Yao detonated the crystal bombs.

“Look!” Lu Zui pointed at a vague, black spot in front of Li Yao when the fire and blast just rose. “Li Yao tossed an object to Guo Chunfeng before he killed himself. What is that?”

The Secret Sword Agents leaned closer and observed. After enlarging the picture countless times and enhancing the quality with the mainframe crystal processor, they finally distinguished that it was a cubic item the size of a fist.

Everybody gasped. “The Jade Crystal Disc!”

“Exactly!” Lu Zui gnashed his teeth, his face more twisted than ever. “Li Yao threw the Jade Crystal Disc to Guo Chunfeng before his death. But even now… Guo Chunfeng hasn’t reported the matter!

“Where is he now? Contact him!”

Instead of waiting for the reply of his subordinate, Lu Zui dialed Guo Chunfeng directly. “Ah Feng, where are you?”

“Cough. Cough. Cough. Cough!”

Guo Chunfeng sounded extremely feeble. “I—I am on a temporary ambulance. It is very chaotic here. The explosion seemed to have affected…”

The communication was cut off, maybe due to the aftershock of the explosion, or maybe because Guo Chunfeng cut it off himself.

He did not mention anything about the Jade Crystal Disc. Not even one word.

Lu Zui turned off the crystal processor solemnly and glanced at everyone, before he said, one word after another, “Now, our target is no longer Li Yao but Guo Chunfeng. Activate the emergency plan and bring Guo Chunfeng as well as the Jade Crystal Disc to me!”

…

Near the headquarters of the Secret Sword Bureau, tens of thousands of people were being evacuated. Guo Chunfeng, who was blackened by smoke, was also staggering to the outside in a dirty blanket.

He seemed to be absent-minded, and this thick blanket was soaked in blood, leaving a red trace behind him.

A temporary ambulance was right next to him, but he did not bother to look at it and simply watched the entrance of a sewer not far away.

Fulminations echoed in the sky. Two heavy armed shuttles were hovering above his head.

Emotionlessly, Guo Chunfeng suddenly walked faster.

“Supervisor Guo!” Several fully-armed Secret Sword Agents jumped off the shuttles and surrounded him. “Director asked you to go to Hidden Star and report everything in person.”

“Alright.” Guo Chunfeng swallowed a mouthful of blood and smiled. Waving the crystal processor on his wrist, he said, “However, let me check my mailbox first and see if there are any messages from my family. I’ve been overworking for days. I don’t know what’s going on with my daughter.

“Shoot if you want, but I guarantee that whoever stops me from reading my mail will not see the sunrise tomorrow!”

Glaring at them, Guo Chunfeng raised his wrist slowly.

All the Secret Sword Agents directly under Lu Zui’s command were awed by his toughness. Including their captain, none of them dared to stop him!

Guo Chunfeng glimpsed at them with obvious despise. He withdrew his gaze and checked his latest mail, holding his breath.

He saw the most mind-stirring two words.

It was the name of the sender—Guo Xiaohe.

Faced with almost twenty storm bolters and crystal cannons, Guo Chunfeng opened his daughter’s mail, somewhat shivering.

“Dad!”

His daughter in the picture was still wearing the aberrant leather clothes. However, with her sunny smile, even the tattoo on her face seemed more agreeable than it should have.

“I’m out of the hospital now and just got home,” Guo Xiaohe said. “Look at me. I am as vigorous as ever again now. Hahahaha!

“There’s no need to worry about me. In the next couple of days, I’ll definitely, well, maybe, try to behave and stay at home and not cause any trouble. You can focus on your work now!

“Mom talked about a lot of things with me while I was in the hospital. I’ve figured it out now. Since it is your hobby, and your lifelong career, to study storms, as the daughter of the great ‘Lead Researcher Guo’, of course I should support you, just like you supported me in joining the army. That’s what a family should do!

“Right. Let me tell you a little secret. Mom has shredded the divorce agreement. She said that she will give you another chance. Try to behave better in the future!

“Hehe. She forbade me from telling it to you, but as far as I can tell, she was too embarrassed to talk to you in person and simply told me so that I could be a mouthpiece for her. Haha. I’m smart enough to know what is really on her mind!

“Alright. That’s all for now. Si Mao asked me to demonstrate, no, do homework at his place. Yes. Do homework!

“Be home as soon as you are not busy anymore, Dad. Me and Mom will be waiting for you at home!

“Right. A free reminder for you. It will be your wedding anniversary in a few days. Don’t forget to prepare a ‘surprise’ for Mom. Only an idiot would sit and watch such a beautiful, caring woman run away without doing anything, right?

“All in all. Keep it up, Dad. I’m totally going to be on your side in your battle to save your love!”

His daughter’s merry face was frozen on the tiny light beam as well as the deepest part in Guo Chunfeng’s pupils forever.

He turned off the light beam and crushed his person crystal processor into pieces.

“Let’s go and meet the director now.”

Slapping his hands, Guo Chunfeng walked over to the fully-armed Secret Sword Agents at ease.