Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“He is going to die!”

“Inject ‘Brain Exhilarant’ and ‘Revitalization Polypeptide Protein’. Try to slow down his brain death!”

“Activate the emergency plan. Try to confine his soul now and see if it is possible to transform him into a spectral Cultivator. If he can’t, try to extract all the information in his brain into the crystal processor. Keep as much data as possible!”

The sterile room was in a complete mess. The hands of all the specialists turned into gray mist as they typed fast on the control light beams.

Very soon, Elder Nether Spring’s face on the enormous light beam twisted into a giant swirl. It seemed he was being absorbed into the crystal processor by a weird force!

However, before his brainwaves completely fell into peace, Li Yao felt that he saw… a glimmer of hope from the depths of the swirl of his soul.

Was it my imagination? Li Yao frowned.

Elder Nether Spring was a great figure after all. Eventually, he still managed to get out of his enemy’s control and give himself a quick death!

However, had he really left nothing?

A minute later, Elder Nether Spring’s brainwaves were completely gone. All the light beams turned blank.

“He is dead. His soul has entirely perished. There is no chance that he has transformed into a spectral Cultivator.”

Several Meditation Healers made the same conclusion after examining Elder Nether Spring’s head carefully.

“Thankfully, we’ve collected enough data in the last couple of months, and we managed to extract most of the data and memory pieces in his brain the moment before he died.”

A Meditation Healer tapped softly on the control light beam for a moment. Then, a metal cube the size of a fist popped up from the inside of the mainframe crystal processor.

Dense spiritual stripes, which were soul-stirring colors, had been carved on the surface of the ‘cube’.

Shou Yuxuan extended his hand and held the ‘cube’ in his hand with his spiritual energy. With a telepathic thought, the ‘cube’ was immediately unfolded.

It was made of almost a thousand metal slices that were as thin as the wing of a cicada. Every slice had been carved with tremendous information. After they dispersed, the size of the cube was hundreds of times larger than before. Astronomical information had been stored inside.

Shou Yuxuan extended his telepathic thoughts into the cube and checked it for a while. Then, he sighed and said, “It’s not bad. Exploiting so much from Elder Nether Spring’s brain before his death was beyond our expectations. With this Jade Crystal Disc, a lot of research can still proceed.”

Li Yao held his breath, his eyes glittering.

The so-called Jade Crystal Disc was in fact the most advanced jade chip.

It was made of thousands of thin record chips, each of which had a storage of a regular jade chip.

When thousands of jade chips were piled up, the storage space could be as vast as an ocean.

At this moment, most of Elder Nether Spring’s memories, including his research projects and his training techniques, were stored inside the Jade Crystal Disc.

Li Yao’s eyes were shining brighter and brighter. He pondered, since it included all the memories, the memory of the previous couple of months when he was captured and secretly interrogated would be there, too.

The files from the Blood Demon Sector that Li Yao had carried and the videos and audios that he had recorded in secret could be fabricated easily. They were not very persuasive.

However, if he could get the Jade Crystal Disc, which contained most of the memory pieces of a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, it would certainly be undeniable proof!

As long as the Jade Crystal Disc was publicized to the Cultivators, the federal army, and all the citizens of the federation, he would be able to prove that Elder Nether Spring had been captured by Lu Zui a long time ago and that Lu Zui was researching with other Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators such as Shou Yuxuan and coercing Elder Nether Spring to confess the secrets about the Demon God Virus.

Moreover, they even mentioned Chaos. It meant that the same-origin theory was not a secret for Lu Zui and Shou Yuxuan!

Then, why did they not release it to the public?

Why did they pretend that they knew nothing when they had confirmed the name list of all the Children of the Nether World, and why did they simply wait and watch the Speaker’s attempted assassination?

They would not be able to explain themselves!

Li Yao’s heart was beating faster and faster. After all the trouble, he finally got his hands on the critical part of the scheme!

In the sterile room, after examining the Jade Crystal Disc, he said to the scar-faced man, “Prepare a clean communication room for me. I’ll inform Director Lu of the matter.”

Li Yao’s heart was pounding again.

Shou Yuxuan was a virologist and appeared to be the supervisor of the secret base, a higher position than the scar-faced man’s.

His relationship with Lu Zui should be an upgraded version of that between ‘Mad Medic’ Lu Wuxin and Elder Nether Spring.

Their conversation would certainly involve a lot of clandestine things.

He had to hear it!

However—

It was too risky to continue following Shou Yuxuan. His conversation with Lu Zui would be highly confidential. Before the communication was established, he would certainly scan all the magical equipment in the secret room to make sure that everything was safe.

By ‘a clean room’, they meant a place that would not be eavesdropped.

Besides, Li Yao needed Neltharion to observe where the Jade Crystal Disc was located and even steal it when there was an opportunity. It was another reason he could not let it follow Shou Yuxuan.

Then, how could he eavesdrop the conversation?

Li Yao thought quickly about the structure of the undersea mining base.

This place was thousands of kilometers away from the capital city. If the two parties wanted to talk, they would have to resort to the wireless Spiritual Nexus established by the ‘spiritual towers’.

However, the undersea base was blocked by the deep, surging seawater. It was obviously unfeasible to build the spiritual towers at the bottom of the ocean. They were usually floating on the surface of the ocean on platforms.

Yet, a superstorm and a tsunami were sweeping across the ocean right now. It was impossible for the spiritual towers to resist such natural disasters. Even if they managed to, the conversation would be intermittent and subject to high interference.

There must be some other way. Such an undersea mining base far away from the coast cannot be only connected through the wireless Spiritual Nexus, which is too unstable.

Suppose there is a superstorm that lasts a few days, will they not report anything to Lu Zui during that time? It’s clearly impossible!

Right. The undersea cable!

Li Yao’s eyes shone, and he decided to take his chances. Like a sea snake, he swam out through the gaps of the magical equipment. Covered by the dirty seawater, he crawled out of the base through the damage in the shell again.

The fight outside the base was still going on. A large area of the seawater was polluted by the Nine-Headed Ocean Monster’s blue blood. It appeared that the animal was exhausted and would be executed soon.

Having no time to care about the Nine-Headed Ocean Monster, Li Yao quickly swam to the very bottom of the undersea base.

Hurry up. I must find the undersea cable before the communication begins!

Li Yao perceived the feeble spiritual waves nearby. He was certain that, to ensure that the undersea cable was not bitten apart by the fish around, defense rune arrays must have been deployed around the cable.

As he expected, a moment later, he found a few thick cables that were buried deep beneath the sand and mud by tracing the feeble spiritual waves of the defense rune arrays.

Li Yao narrowed his eyes and took out a tiny drill that was barely visible from his Cosmos Ring. He operated on the undersea cable carefully.

The undersea mining base was a civil one in the first place. The cable that led to the continent was several thousand kilometers long. It was impossible to set up barriers of the highest level on every meter of it.

With the skills of a master of refining and an expert of peeping, Li Yao bypassed the defense rune arrays and dug a hole the width of hair on the cable. He then extended a crystal wire into it, with the other end connected to his crystal processor.

Naturally, too many complicated data streams were being transmitted through the cable at the same time.

However, Li Yao had collected Shou Yuxuan’s and Lu Zui’s voiceprints. So, he only needed to search for the data that had the features of their voiceprints.

Very soon, Li Yao heard their conversation after a while of blurred background noises!

He heard Lu Zui saying, “You shouldn’t have woken me up. Over the past half month, in order to deal with Li Yao, Jiang Hailiu, and the rest of them, I have overly drained my computational ability. My head is in the most terrible state right now, and I cannot maintain a clear mind. I’m busy recovering.

“It is estimated that my head will be keen enough again in five hours, twenty-three minutes, and twenty-two seconds. After your interruption, it will take at least another one hour, seventeen minutes, and forty-three seconds.”

“Elder Nether Spring is dead,” Shou Yuxuan said.

“Okay,” Lu Zui remarked casually. “A brain has its limits. He should be dead anyway. Has the critical information been retrieved?”

“Yes, everything. Our research progress won’t be affected,” Shou Yuxuan said. “I can guarantee that we will be able to provide enough Demon God Virus and the corresponding antidote, both of which can be utilized in field battles, within half a month after we march into the Blood Demon Sector!”

“Excellent. Then, Elder Nether Spring’s death is not important. With the Demon God Virus and the antidote that can be manufactured, we will be able to control the plague and thus the outcome of the war!”

Pausing for a moment, Lu Zui continued. “Since I’ve already been interrupted, I might as well say something more. The research on the ‘Type-A Virus’ can be put on hold for now. Please accelerate the production of the ‘Type-B Virus’. I will need the dose to infect a hundred thousand people in one month!”

Shou Yuxuan was dazed for a moment. He asked, “The ‘Type-B Virus’ that specifically targets people of the Flying Star Sector? Why?”

“Bolstered by the soaring fighting will in the federation, the Cultivators of the Flying Star Sector are changing their attitude,” Lu Zui explained. “It is very possible that they will be persuaded and send Burning Prairie, their flagship, to the Blood Demon Sector with us.

“However, they still refuse to march into the Blood Demon Sector but only promise that they will help us guard the wormholes between the Heaven’s Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector. They will also release the Grand Illusionary Soldiers to observe the Blood Demon Sector closely first.

“Hehe. It appears that those people have been influenced by Li Yao anyway!

“However, they are too naïve after all!

“When we are in the Blood Demon Sector, the battle will be changing vastly every second. Will they be able to make the call?

“Tough men must be given tough drugs. Right now, the compatriots of the Flying Star Sector haven’t clearly seen the vileness and brutality of the demons. Let’s sharpen their vision with the ‘Type-B Demon God Virus’!”