Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“I don’t know.” Li Yao’s eyes surpassed the cube of glittering balls that constituted Hundred Flowers City and stared at the two stars far, far away.

The two stars were attracting and confronting each other, exactly like the Star Glory Federation and the Black Wind Fleet that were at loggerheads with each other.

Li Yao’s voice turned deep and profound, as if he had seen through an instruction set that was carried out in secret decades ago. “I only know that, if seventy percent of my deductions are correct, there can be one other explanation for what my professor has been doing in the past decades.

“On the surface, he publicized the birth of the Spiriters and the follow-up plans and presented everything that he knew. He even invited the best specialists in crystal processors, the Spiritual Nexus, meditation, memory transmission, and other fields to join the great cause and push the Tinder Plan forward.”

“Correct.” Long Yangjun nodded and said, “With Professor Mo Xuan’s prestige and connections in the federation, and since the studies of virtual life were a cutting-edge project and the Tinder Plan was very important itself, even if he didn’t invite them, parliament, the military, the Secret Sword Bureau, and other institutions would still have volunteered to join the project and monitor the progress!”

“Therefore,” Li Yao said, “the most distinguished specialists of the Spiritual Nexus, souls, and brains must’ve come into contact with the Tinder Plan and the Spiriters’ Realm more or less. In the past decades, they have uploaded their consciousness to the Spiriters’ Realm too many times. Or at the very least, they have opened their brains and connected them to the Spiriters’ Realm created by my professor for research and surveillance purposes.

“On the bright side, it was because my professor was frank and forthright. He was willing to release his research products to the public and receive the supervision of society and the government!

“But on the dark side, it is possible that my professor implanted something into their brains while the consciousness of the specialists was travelling in the Spiriters’ Realm at ease, like implanting viruses into the crystal processor?

“If the second possibility is true, then at this moment, the brains and souls of the most distinguished specialists in crystal processors, souls, and brains must have been more or less corrupted by my professor!”

“Wait!” Long Yangjun was greatly alarmed. “I understand it now. I know why your professor talked with you for such a long time when you were nothing more than the captain of Team Red Lotus! Not you. His target wasn’t you but those who were monitoring you!”

“What?” Li Yao blinked hard. After every blink, a few bloody streaks would burst out on his eyeballs as fast as lightning. “Are you saying that—”

“Lin Jiu, the captain of Team Red Lotus, is indeed an insignificant person. The only reason he talked so much with you and confessed everything to you was because he was buying himself more time to ‘corrupt’ the observers!”

Long Yangjun was speaking ten times faster than before. In hums that were utterly indistinguishable for normal people, she said, “The so-called first launch of the Tinder Plan is very likely a huge scam and an out-and-out trap!

“It is exactly because the Tinder Plan will have the first launch tomorrow that a lot of specialists in crystal processors, the Spiritual Nexus and the brains from the entire federation have come to the Tinder Base today. Also, together with the heads of the local garrison, the Secret Sword Bureau, and the relevant government departments, everybody has gathered and volunteered to enter the virtual cabin that Professor Mo Xuan carefully prepared for them. They are immersed in the ‘nerval interaction liquids’ and mired in the Spiriters’ Realm!

“He has fished up everybody he needs!

“If Professor Mo Xuan has played tricks on the virtual cabin, allowing him to control the Spiriters’ Realm, or at least the one he created in the Tinder Base, he will be able to confine everybody’s soul in it. Then, if he invades and corrupts their souls, as he did to us a moment ago…”

Li Yao took a deep breath, feeling as if the darkness of the whole universe was leaking into his body. “Then, it is possible for him to control a large batch of specialists in crystal processors and the Spiritual Nexus, as well as the heads of the local garrison, the Secret Sword Bureau, and the government department in the Hundred Flowers Space Zone!”

“As for you, you filed an application to visit the Tinder Plan, which happened to be exactly what he wanted!” Long Yangjun analyzed calmly. “You were the special representative of the Speaker of the Star Ocean Republic after all. Your trip in the base of the Tinder Plan, especially the whole conversation between you and Professor Mo Xuan, would certainly be closely monitored without leaving out one second.”

“Of course!” Li Yao nodded heavily. “My professor reassured us many times during the conversation that it was monitored. He was completely open and frank.”

“Frank my ass!” Long Yangjun cursed. “Surveillance is bidirectional. While you were being monitored by the secret units including the Secret Sword Bureau, it means that there must’ve been a certain ‘data channel’ between Professor Mo Xuan’s virtual world and the crystal processors of those secret units, correct?”

Li Yao was greatly enlightened. “So, when the secret units were monitoring us, my professor could sneak into the crystal processors of the secret units through the ‘data channels’ they had established, right?”

“Lin Jiu had a special identity,” Long Yangjun said. “The conversation between you and Professor Mo Xuan was very sensitive, too. The units that were monitoring you must’ve been of a high level, and their barriers and firewalls were certainly tough. That’s why Professor Mo Xuan rambled on about so many things with you. He was merely getting himself more time to hack the crystal processors of the secret units without alarming anyone!”

Li Yao was silent for a moment. Then he suddenly said, “A war is coming. Very soon. In the next twenty-four hours!”

Long Yangjun’s eyes were rolling quickly. “How do you know?”

“My professor prepared the scheme for decades,” Li Yao replied coldly. “He has control of the heads of the military, the government, and the intelligence agencies of the Hundred Flowers Space Zone. It is also possible that he has planted viruses in the crystal processors of even more secret units in the outside world to open ‘backdoors’ in them. This is exactly the time that he is pushing the plan to the end!

“His actions are too eye-catching. No matter how he hides himself, it won’t be possible to keep it a secret for twenty-four hours. The other specialists of crystal processors in the federation are not dead. They will certainly notice that something is wrong in one day!

“Therefore, the moment that my professor is waiting for, the fatal moment when all the super crystal processors of the federation are overloading to the brink of collapse, will come in the next twenty-four hours!”

Long Yangjun’ eyes shuddered again and again. Then she suddenly changed the topic and asked, “What’s your professor’s relationship with Jin Xinyue?”

The two of them wasted no time changing the topic. It was difficult for normal people to understand what they were saying, but Li Yao realized what she meant immediately. “You suspect that my professor is also involved in the plan that Jin Xinyue has carefully prepared for almost a hundred years?

“Huh, it’s quite possible!

“I don’t know what happened between Jin Xinyue and Professor Mo Xuan in the past hundred years. However, considering the social network a hundred years ago, Jin Xinyue was very close to the Fire Ant King, another of my old friends.

“At that time, the Fire Ant King and I founded Skyfire together, and Jin Xinyue was nominated as the secretary of Skyfire as my sole demon disciple. Later, the Fire Ant King and her operated Skyfire together.

“The Fire Ant King was only a second-tier demon emperor in the Blood Demon Sector previously, not even included in the Pantheon of Demons. It was with Jin Tuyi’s and my support that he became one of the most powerful persons in the Blood Demon Sector. Therefore, the Fire Ant King and Jin Xinyue belong to the same interest group. Naturally, their cooperation is quite stable!

“The Fire Ant King, Professor Mo Xuan, and I explored Kunlun for the first time together. On Kunlun, the Fire Ant King and Professor Mo Xuan became good friends. In the years that followed when Kunlun was developed, the two of them often talked to each other and conducted studies together.

“The Fire Ant King calculated many issues on biochemistry with the help of Professor Mo Xuan’s terrifying computational ability, and Professor Mo Xuan learned the mysteries of biochemical neurons through the Fire Ant King. The ‘nervous interaction liquids’ that he is using right now are a product of biochemical technology.

“When I left the federation for the dark nebula, Professor Mo Xuan and the Fire Ant King were already best friends.

“If Jin Xinyue really had a great plan to revive the demon race, the Fire Ant King would certainly be a great supporter with a lot of inside information. Meanwhile, because Jin Xinyue is my disciple and Professor Mo Xuan is my teacher, he is almost equal to her grand-teacher. Although there has never been real succession of knowledge between them, they are still nominally in a lineage.”

Long Yangjun helped him to continue. “Jin Xinyue’s hundred-year plan involves too many things. She certainly needed someone who was familiar with crystal processors and the Spiritual Nexus and who had a high computational ability to help her, say, hack the crystal processors of the ‘traditional conglomerates’. She and the Fire Ant King were very close, and the Fire Ant King was Professor Mo Xuan’s best friend. Meanwhile, Professor Mo Xuan was also her grand-teacher. So, he was certainly the best candidate!”

“Exactly!” Li Yao gnashed his teeth. “My professor was sort of a member of ‘Li Yao’s group’, too. Jin Xinyue probably did not tell him the whole plan, but as long as she revealed half of the plan to him, claiming that it was a magnificent plan to strike the Black Wind Fleet and to facilitate the rise of Li Yao’s group, did my professor have any reason to turn her down?”

“Therefore, Professor Mo Xuan became Jin Xinyue’s accomplice and part of her plan,” Long Yangjun said coldly. “It is a shame that Jin Xinyue fell victim to her own scheme. There was no way that she could’ve foreseen that Professor Mo Xuan had his own plan, too, one that was a hundred times more spectacular than hers. As a result, she turned into Professor Mo Xuan’s chess piece!”

“According to our deductions, if Jin Xinyue really has a plan, it will be detonated very soon. That’s why we are in a hurry to find her in the Heaven’s Origin Sector.” Li Yao’s voice was cold to the bones. “From what we know right now, it doesn’t matter if Jin Xinyue has prepared a trap for the Black Wind Fleet, or if the commander of the Black Wind Fleet has seen through it!

“Because the collision of the two main forces—the biggest battle in the history of the Star Glory Federation that involves all the fleets and the game that will decide the life and death of the federation and the Black Wind Fleet—has always been under Professor Mo Xuan’s control!”

Long Yangjun was about to speak when her pupils were suddenly expanded to maximum.

Dangerous starry brilliance was shining in her eyes.

She pointed at something not far away and mumbled, “What’s that?”

Countless shining stars congregated into a torrent and rushed toward her and Li Yao without a sound.

At this moment, there was thirteen hours, thirteen minutes, and thirteen seconds to go before the Black Wind Fleet arrived at the central area of the Heaven’s Origin Sector.