by <unknown>
Li Yao suddenly shuttered. Firefly was gone, and he was floating in front of a blue planet in a foreign space zone again.
A frustrated, depressed voice was echoing inside his ears. "We've failed. We've completely failed!
"It's too strong and too dark. We cannot destroy it. Can't!"
Then, Li Yao heard himself roaring, "No. The Vulture Plan has not failed yet. Even if I drift to the end of the universe, I will go on fighting and return one day!"
BAM!
The picture blossomed like broken glass. He found himself back in the cabin of Firefly faced with dozens of himself, who were all deep in thought.
"It seems that the Vulture Plan is indeed very important for us. So important that we could not forget it even though we were reincarnated after a long journey. We even gave ourselves the nickname 'Vulture' subconsciously in order to keep us from not forgetting it."
The dozen Li Yaos merged together one by one. They mumbled, "Does the so-called 'Earth' exist in reality? If it does, is it really a regular planet without the slightest spiritual energy?
"I vaguely recall that there are legends of Pangu, Nuwa, and the Primeval Lord of Heaven on Earth, too. There are also dinosaurs, fossils, and prehistoric creatures. But they are vastly different from ours when it comes to details.
"On Earth, dinosaurs were just pure ferocious beasts. They were not intelligent creatures, and they never created a brilliant civilization.
"How is Earth related to the worlds of Cultivators? Was the earthling Li Yao really a common mechanic? How were we banished or escaped from Earth to the Heaven's Origin Sector?
"Mysterious. It's really mysterious!
"Do you not want to unveil the Vulture Plan and even return to Earth someday to find out the ultimate truth?"
After every sentence, two Li Yaos would meld into one. When the last questions were posed, there was only one identical self left in front of the real Li Yao.
Li Yao licked his lips and almost nodded on instinct, but a stinging pain suddenly came over from the depths of his soul. He was alarmed and suddenly blurted out, "Who are you exactly?"
The Li Yao in front of him smiled. "You know it. I am you, except that I am the part in your soul regarding the 'Vulture Plan' that has been locked and sealed!
"I have no idea why the part was sealed. Perhaps some people did not want us to know the truth?
"All in all, when you were striving for the Nascent Soul Stage just now, you caused a crack on the indestructible seal. That was why so many pieces of your soul leaked out and raised a series of questions for you!
"Now, you've found so many inexplicable points. Do you not want to find out the real answer?
"Come on. Let's join together and break the seal. We will unravel the secrets of the 'Vulture Plan' and find out what exactly the so-called 'Earth' is."
The stranger was talking in a bewildering way while he extended his right hand.
Li Yao held his breath, his eyes full of confusion. He could not help but raise his right hand and touch the stranger's fingertips.
With a casual smile, the stranger mumbled, "Yes. Just like that. After we are completely melded, we will definitely find out the truth of every—Ahhh!"
His last word was disrupted by a miserable scream.
As it turned out, intense electric arcs suddenly burst out from Li Yao's fingertips and pierced at the stranger. Caught unprepared, the stranger was immediately wreathed in electric arcs!
The stranger shrieked in outrage, "What—what are you doing? Do you not want to find out the truth?"
Li Yao sniffed. The confusion in his eyes was all gone, and they were now as clear as water and as sharp as blades. "Are you planning to fool me with such petty tricks? I don't believe in your locks and seals!
"Let me think carefully about what you are exactly!"
Li Yao thought quickly. Pictures of the past quickly sild in front of his eyes, and he concentrated all his computational ability on scanning for the anomalies.
So, he found one!
It was during his fierce battle against Yan Xibei who had an 'apocalyptic body' on Iron Plateau. The two of them had fought so hard that they were stained with a lot of each other's blood!
Li Yao's pupils shrank violently. "You are the Blood Stripe Virus."
When he said 'Blood Stripe Virus', the stranger shrieked even more twistedly than just now. The electric arcs ridded him of his disguise bit by bit, revealing a person identical to Li Yao, except that his face was as crimson as blood, which made him looked like a weird statue covered in a layer of red lacquer.
The Blood Stripe Virus, a mysterious alien species in the universe, boasted terrifying mind control and body transformation techniques. They were the masters of the Titan Warriors and the launchers of the apocalypse of the Flying Star Sector five thousand years ago!
Cold brilliant was spreading out like ripples in Li Yao's eyes, as he sneered, "So, this explains a lot.
"Decades ago, you snuck into the body of Yan Xibei, the best warrior of Iron Plateau at that time, and bewildered him in secret so that he became one of the four kings of the Temple of Immortals. You then influenced him to refine the apocalyptic body and carry out your plan.
"Eight years ago, during the fierce battle between me and Yan Xibei, you saw that Yan Xibei was on the losing side. Therefore, you hid yourself in one drop of his blood and infected me when the blood touched my body!
"However, at that time, you were still very feeble. Therefore, you simply lurked and accumulated your strength.
"Right. When I was training in Yan Xinjian's residence below Spider Den, there was a time when I was agitated and having hallucinations. That must have been you testing me because you had recovered part of your strength, wasn't it?
"However, the result of your test was that my soul was still very solid, and it was not a good time to start swallowing me yet. Therefore, you settled down again.
"In the end, when I clashed with the star child from the Imperium of True Human Beings and my soul was seriously wounded by his self-detonation, you finally got your chance!
"When my soul was shattered and I was cast into a coma, you built the illusions of the Heaven's Origin Sector deep inside my head, trying to stop my soul from struggling and push me into an eternal sleep. If so, you would have been able to occupy my body, which does not belong to you!
"But at the critical moment, you accidentally triggered the 'Vulture Plan', which had been hidden in the deepest part of my soul and woke me up!
"There was nothing you could do, and you feared that an attempted possession might alarm me. Therefore, you changed your methodology and continued influencing me in secret.
"Now that I think of it, the decisions I made recently are so weird!
"I have reached the superlative height of the Core Formation Stage in my twenties, and my combat ability is equivalent to that of the Nascent Soul Stage. My training speed is not slow. Instead, it is too fast!
"As the saying goes, more haste, less speed. My foundations are not steady, and my beliefs are not firm. The priority for me right now should be stabilize myself in my current level instead of making breakthroughs blindly. Is it really necessary for me to train in the four-dimensional universe?
"The war of two Sectors depends on the comprehensive capability. Even if I advance into the Nascent Soul Stage, I'm afraid that I still won't be the decisive factor of the war at all!
"Besides, even if I wanted to train myself in the four-dimensional universe, I could have established a training room in Sparkle. Why did I have to build a starship for myself?
"Right now, I've finally realized that I was bewildered by you when I made those decisions!
"You meant to possess my body when I was trying to make a breakthrough by force in the four-dimensional space, when my soul would be most vulnerable!
"If I were on Sparkle, Professor Mo Xuan and the others would have been monitoring my training status closely. Should anything have gone wrong, they would
immediately have broken into the room to rescue me, and they certainly would have discovered the anomalies in me!
"But on Firefly, I am all by myself. If an accident happens to me, I will have absolutely no one to turn to, isn't it so?"
The bloody Li Yao in the front was gradually melting with mists of blood spreading out like the icy sculptures under the sun.
But his countenance was becoming more and more evil and weird. He smiled and said, "We are indeed smart. We got most things right, but we are afraid that we are wrong about one thing.
"It's true that we have contracted the Blood Stripe Virus, but the life form of the Blood Stripe Virus is totally different from human beings, or any other creatures. They do not have self-awareness, thinking ability, or a soul!
"Therefore, I am not the Blood Stripe Virus; I am you. More precisely speaking, I am the other side of you."
Li Yao's eyelids were bouncing quickly. He could not have been any warier.
The bloody Li Yao opened his hands and smiled wickedly. "Don't be nervous. When there is brightness, there is darkness. Brightness and darkness are just two sides of the same coin. You have always pretended to be chivalrous, determined, persistent…
"But, do ask yourself, are you really as righteous, resolute, and unwavering as you appear to be?
"When you struggled to survive in the magical equipment graveyard, did you never have the intense want to kill someone?
"Faced with your classmates' mockery and watching them riding their luxury shuttles, were you not strongly jealous of them?
"While the overwhelming beast tide was coming at you, was there never a moment when you thought to give up everything and run away immediately?
"When Yan Xibei and Xiao Xuance preached their ideology to you, did you never have a second thought and wonder whether or not the path they'd been walking on was the right one?
"When you learned that the apocalypse from the Imperium of True Human Beings was about to hit the Heaven's Origin Sector, did you never have dark thoughts in your mind and complained to yourself that the Heaven's Origin Sector was burdened by the Flying Star Sector?
"Was there never a moment when you even thought that it would be best if the apocalypse changed its direction right then and lunged at the Flying Star Sector instead?
"It was the dark thoughts that you once had, your hatred, jealousy, fear, suspicion, wavering, fury, and confusion which gradually brewed, grew, and proliferated, that gave birth to me in the end.
"Who am I? I am just a tiny reflection of your soul in the abyss of darkness."
Chapter 827: Roaring Bloody Tide |
Li Yao gnashed his teeth in contempt. "I got it. The Blood Stripe Virus is like a key that opened the zone deep inside my brain that stored the negative emotions and the dark thoughts. The devil in my heart was triggered and transformed into a scumbag that is you."
The bloody Li Yao smiled casually and replied, "What can the devil in your heart do? It is just redundant thoughts during your training. When there are too many irrelevant thoughts, the normal functioning of your brain will be greatly hindered. Not only will your computational ability plummet, your telepathic thoughts will sometimes even overflow, which will cause you to be mentally deranged. Your soul will collapse, and you will turn into a retard!
"How can such a devil be compared to me?
"I'm merely helping you consider things from a different point of view.
"There is no need to be so resistant to the infection of the Blood Stripe Virus. The life form of the Blood Stripe Virus is entirely different from that of human beings. The two parties have no conflict of interest. You may consider their relationship as a symbiotic one, which is ubiquitous in the universe. There is no need to talk about other species. Take human beings for example. Inside the bodies of the human beings, many beneficial germs such as lactobacillus are living.
"Even though you are in the Core Formation Stage, as long as you cannot get rid of the body of flesh and blood, you will have to live in harmony with the lactobacillus. Since you do not reject lactobacillus, why do you loathe Blood Stripe Virus so much?"
"My lactobacillus do not utter sounds in my head to bewilder me every day, nor will they affect my will!" Li Yao said coldly.
"How do you know?" the bloody Li Yao asked. "How do you know that the lactobacillus living in your body are not influencing your brain without you knowing in a mysterious way that you cannot comprehend?
"Moreover, is the resistance you are showing right now actually made by the lactobacillus, who are manipulating your brain because they do not want a new competitor to enter the body?"
Li Yao was suddenly lost for words.
The bloody Li Yao laughed and opened his hands. "Don't be nervous. It is pure jibber-jabber. See? I'm good at considering problems from the points of view that you ignore. When we are combined, we will be able to analyze problems in a much more comprehensive way. We will understand the essence of training. Our computational ability will be much higher, too!"
Li Yao could not help but take a step back. "No matter how marvelous your speech is, I will not be controlled by the Blood Stripe Virus!"
"What's bad about merging with me?" The bloody Li Yao opened his arms and said sincerely, "Do you not want to find out the truth of the 'Vulture Plan'? Do you not want to know why you ended up in the Heaven's Origin Sector? Do you not want to return to Earth and reveal the secrets behind everything?
"Stop lying to me. I know you do. Ever since you had memories, and ever since you had those bizarre, uncanny Earth dreams, the questions have been baffling you, harassing you, and torturing you!
"I am you. The questions I asked a moment ago were the ones that have popped up in your mind millions of times before. Do you dare say that you do not want to find out the ultimate answers?
"But it is not an easy task to look for the answers!
"If Earth does exist, it is perhaps in a world independent from all the worlds of Cultivators. Going there will not be as simple as returning to the Heaven's Origin Sector from the Flying Star Sector. If anything, it will be a hundred times more difficult than directly jumping to the Empyrean Terminus Sector, the capital of the Imperium of True Human Beings, from the Heaven's Origin Sector!
"With your current aptitude, you will not be able to go to Earth and find out the answers in your entire life, even if you live for three hundred years, five hundred years, or even a thousand years!
"Right now, only the Blood Stripe Virus can help us!
"Do you remember Yan Xibei's 'apocalyptic body'? Yan Xibei was a low-level qi-trainer who was crippled and heavily wounded, but with the apocalyptic body, he boasted the strength close to the Nascent Soul Stage!
"Right now, you have created an undocumented approach of training by breaking into the superlative height of the Core Formation Stage. Your combat ability is close to that of Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators!
"If you have the strength of the Blood Stripe Virus under your control, you will be able to build your own 'apocalyptic body'. Just think about it. What a horrifying level it will be! Chances are that the monsters in the Divinity Transformation Stage of the Imperium of True Human Beings will be no match for you!
"Your Cultivation has always been on the road less travelled. It is already so troublesome to form the core. How long do you think it will take for you to generate your Nascent Soul by normal training methods? It is even possible that you will never enter the Nascent Soul Stage in your life!
"Therefore, you might as well walk on the Blood Stripe Virus' path. You will build an 'apocalyptic body' and then condense a unique 'Bloody Soul'!
"After you build an apocalyptic body and condense a Bloody Soul, not just the threats of the Blood Demon Sector, even the attack of the Imperium of True Human Beings will be nothing in our eyes. By then, we will save the Heaven's Origin Sector and boast the strength of a higher level that can allow us to barge into the territory of the Imperium of True Human Beings or explore Earth, which is beyond all t
he Sectors of the Cultivators!
"Isn't it the best choice right now?"
The bloody Li Yao's voice was enchanting and gentle.
As his spell went on, his hands grew longer and longer still while they extended to Li Yao's face. "Come on. Accept the strength of the Blood Stripe Virus. This is the only path…"
Confusion was written all over Li Yao's face. He seemed to be mired in chaos. It was not until the bloody hands almost touched his face that his eyelids suddenly jumped, and he roared resolutely, "No!
"I will not be fooled!
"Yan Xibei's lesson is as fresh as yesterday for me right now. You are just trying to spread the Blood Stripe Virus through me so that you can enslave all human beings!
"By then, the human beings will be monsters who know everything about destruction but nothing about construction, just like the 'Titan Warriors' once enslaved by you!
"In your dreams! I will never let you occupy my body!"
Li Yao waved his hands hard, raising a storm of spiritual energy, which ripped the bloody person into thousands of small pearls of blood, each of which seemed to be displaying a weird face deep below their surface.
In a series of twisted laughter, the blood pearls vanished into thin air like bubbles in sunlight.
The next moment, a voice that was both familiar and stranger suddenly echoed inside Li Yao's brain. "But I've already occupied your body."
Li Yao was greatly alarmed. He seemed to have woken from yet another weird dream.
The journey in the four-dimensional universe was about to come to an end. His infinitely unfolded body was gradually returning to the three-dimensional state.
But the left side of his body was twisting weirdly, utterly beyond his control!
His left eye was both like a furious burning coal and a shining spotlight. He did not need a mirror to know that his eyeball must have been dyed the most dazzling red.
The redness was spreading to his internal organs and limbs like a virus. After it controlled the left side of his body in the blink of an eye, it went on to the right side of his body!
"You woke up too late!" The voice deep down his brain seemed to be talked to himself. "Why do you think you recovered so fast from the heavy wounds due to the star child's self-detonation?
