Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Whether the mysterious young man had discovered him or not, Li Yao decided to get in touch with him despite the risks.

Now that there were experts in the Divinity Transformation Stage on the Immortal Cultivators’ side paying attention to the young man, it was evident that he must be a key to a certain program or project.

Judging from the mysterious young man’s torture a moment ago and the strong desire of survival that he was trying to hide right now, he did not seem to be particularly fond of the owner of Manjusaka or the place itself.

The mysterious young man and Li Yao were natural allies.

Li Yao’s time was limited. Right now, the Immortal Cultivators ‘epic quest’ was being implemented step by step. If Starlight really walked into the trap, it would probably happen within a couple of days.

Manjusaka was an enormous, complicated, super space fortress that looked like a maze. Li Yao was not sure that he could locate and sabotage its fatal weakness in only a few days.

Perhaps the mysterious young man could give him valuable intelligence.

Also, the man seemed to be deeply associated with Li Yao’s foster father…

Leaving the intimacy between him and his foster father aside, it was also his foster father’s request to look for Li Linghai in the Imperium of True Human Beings. As a native of the Covenant Alliance, it was unlikely that his foster father had made friends with many people of the Imperium. So, was it possible that the mysterious young man was related to Li Linghai or was even their secret child as the mental devil said earlier?

Li Yao had not snuck into the Imperium by himself to destroy the Imperium, and it was impossible for him to do so. Like it or not, the federation and the Imperium would coexist for a very long time and would even be faced with the threats of the Alliance of the Holy Covenant, the Pangu Civilization, and even the extraterrestrial devils together.

It was an undeniable fact, which all the Cultivators respected!

Whether the two parties fought or not, if he had an opportunity to meet Li Linghai, the queen of the Imperium, Li Yao would certainly be able to widen the federation’s choices in the future.

Is the mysterious young man related to Li Linghai, the queen of the Imperium?

If he is, how did the almighty queen allow him to demean himself here as a miserable test subject?

Or rather, are the Immortal Cultivators so inhuman that they do not let go of their own children as long as there is enough value in them to be exploited?

With a headful of questions, Li Yao maneuvered Neltharion to slowly sink to the young man’s head at a speed that was almost still. He then sent an extremely feeble spiritual wave to the young man’s brain, which was equivalent to ‘private talk’ of the highest level.

“Hush. Don’t talk. Don’t move,” Li Yao said.

The young man trebled slightly. The glamorous and violent sparks appeared and flashed deep inside his eyes again.

Li Yao had never seen such flames in his foster father’s eyes, but he did often see his own eyes burning furiously like that in the mirror.

Maybe, the young man was the same type of person as him.

At the very least, the young man absolutely was not as meek and cowardly as he appeared!

“Sense the vibration of my spiritual energy, and then vibrate your soul at the same frequency. Then, our brainwaves will be able to communicate,” Li Yao said. “Judging from your performance just now, your soul is rather strong. Such a simple trick to play with brainwaves is not a problem for you, is it?”

The young man blinked and mumbled something inaudible before he turned around.

There was no telling whether he did not hear Li Yao or simply was unwilling to respond, but he did not send out his own soul waves for a long time.

“Who are you? Why are you locked here? What kind of studies have those people been running on you?” Li Yao asked patiently.

The young man was still staring at the ceiling in a daze, his eyes completely frozen. The flashing flames just now seemed to be only Li Yao’s imagination.

Li Yao smiled. It was truly an interesting and tricky young man, but he was still too little to deal with a Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivator!

“It seems that you are quite satisfied with your current situation and do not want any change. So, just forget it,” Li Yao said unhurriedly. “I’ll be gone in three seconds and never show up again. You know how heavily guarded this place is and how difficult it is to sneak in. There won’t be a second chance.

“Three… Two… One!”

“Who are you?”

When Li Yao dragged his tone and counted to ‘one’, the ice inside the young man’s eyes was finally broken. The brilliance of extreme hope flooded out like magma again as he sent out a brainwave somewhat clumsily.

Li Yao smiled. “Why were you silent just now? Were you suspicious of me?”

The young man hesitated for a moment but said dutifully, “Yes. I suspected that you worked for Li Lingfeng and were testing me in such a way.”

Li Lingfeng?

Li Yao was slightly dazed. He naturally knew that Li Lingfeng was also one of the most powerful and influential celebrities in the Imperium of True Human Beings right now. He was Queen Li Linghai’s brother and would likely be the next leader of the Li family and one of the four Kurfürsten!

Li Lingfeng, Li Linghai, the mysterious young man, and his foster father. What had the four of them been up to exactly?

Thinking quickly, Li Yao asked, “Then, why are your suspicions gone now?”

“They are not, but I don’t seem to have a choice except to take a gamble.”

The magma flowing blatantly on the surface of the young man’s eyes was frozen again, and he appeared to be a sorrowful and hopeless zombie again. But there was a slight hint of determination in his brainwaves, like a gambler that had wagered all his money.

“If you are not sent by Li Lingfeng, you must be from ‘Starlight’. I did not know that Starlight had such experts who could hide one wall away from Li Lingfeng without being noticed by him!”

Li Yao was greatly alarmed. It was not until then that he realized the powerful life energy just now belonged to a future Kurfürsten. No wonder it was so intimidating that he did not even dare fart.

The meticulousness of the young man’s thinking and the calmness of his mind were also far beyond his expectation.

“Who are you?” Li Yao asked for a second time. “Who are you locked here, and why do you assume that I am from Starlight?”

“I can tell you that,” the young man said expressionlessly. “But shouldn’t you tell me some intelligence, too? If you are indeed from Starlight, there is no reason why we can’t cooperate. Or to put it more simply, we can save each other’s lives.”

Li Yao scanned every tiny change on the young man’s face and pupils carefully. Denying the possibility that it was a trap, he thought for a moment and said, “Alright. Tell me your identity and origins first, and let’s see how we can cooperate.”

The young man blinked. Perhaps realizing that his situation was much worse than the situation of the mysterious Neltharion, he did not haggle with Li Yao on the issue but replied dutifully, “My name is Li Jialing. I am just a common member of the Li family.”

“Wait.” Li Yao interrupted him and confirmed something with him. “The Li family, one of the four Kurfürst families, right?”

“Yes,” Li Jialing said.

“You mentioned Li Lingfeng just now. He is a big shot of the Li family. How are you related to him? Are you his descendant?” Li Yao asked.

Li Jialing shook his head. “No. After a thousand years of development, the Li family has plenty of branches and offshoots. There are hundreds of thousands of people in the family. My parents were just common inferior warriors of the Li family. After they died fighting for the family, I became an orphan and was adopted by the big shot of the family according to the tradition. I lived under somebody else’s roof henceforth. Later, I was sent to a private school of the family, where I have been bullied and living a miserable life.”

Pausing for a moment, he went on with faint mockery flashing in his eyes. “But that is just my identity on the surface. In fact, I don’t even know if the couple of inferior warriors are my birth parents. That’s just one of the things that other people told me and I pretended to believe.

“As for Li Lingfeng, he has been observing and monitoring me in secret this whole time. He also brings me to this place for all kinds of strengthening modifications in secret every year, turning me into… a monster that even the green-haired gorilla couldn’t kill, as you saw just now.

“I might really be Li Lingfeng’s offspring. I’m told that many big shots of the Imperium use their blood descendants to run all kinds of strengthening and modification experiments and apply the procedures on themselves after the results prove stable. They choose their blood descendants because their genes and soul forms are very similar, and the experiment data is of a higher referential value.”

The young man told his appalling past casually.

Li Yao, however, felt that there was more to the story. Considering for a moment, he asked straightforwardly, “Have you seen Li Linghai before?”

“Li Linghai?” Li Jialing turned around again and lay on the ground, extending all fours. “As the queen, she spends most of the time in the royal palace in the Empyreal Terminus Sector and has no interaction with a nobody of the family like me. Of course, I’ve never had the chance to meet her in person.

“But why did you suddenly bring her up? Who are you exactly? Why did you sneak into Manjusaka?”

Li Yao really did not know how he should explain himself. It was not like he could tell the keen kid that he looked like his pop who passed away more than a hundred years ago, and said pop probably used to be in a relationship with Li Linghai.

After thinking for a long time, he decided to change the topic. “What did you mean by saying we can save each other lives through our cooperation?”

“So, are you a member of Starlight or not?” Li Jialing asked back instead of answering. “If you are, I have bargaining chips to trade you with. If you are not, I’ll just admit that I made a terrible choice and can die in peace.”

Li Yao could not help but feel amused by the young man’s self-important tone.

He recalled when he had competitions of wisdom and bravery with the cunning old monsters such as ‘Bai Xinghe’ in his younger days.

At that time, he was often scared out of his wits in his heart, but he had to pretend to be calm and casual, fearing that the old monsters would see through him.

But time had changed. It was his turn to play the role of the ‘old monster’ now.

“What if I am a member of Starlight?” Li Yao said with a smile.