by <unknown>
"Honestly speaking, before you came, I was only seventy percent sure about the whole plan. Or rather, I estimated that I could only invade the brains of sixty to seventy percent of the experts successfully. A fierce battle would be inevitable later.
"But with you, Fellow Cultivator Blood Stripe, the situation is naturally different. After you completely swallow Li Yao's soul, you will be able to announce your grand return to the Heaven's Origin Sector under the identity of Vulture Li Yao and join the most intense battlefield where the most experts have gathered. Ding Lingdang and Jin Xinyue will both recognize you. Nobody will doubt your identity. Isn't that so?
"Hehe. When the battle reaches an impasse and all the experts are too occupied to care about anything else, I will launch an 'invasion' from their crystal processors, and Fellow Cultivator Blood Stripe, you will corrupt their physical bodies with their blood as the medium. If we attack together, who can ever stop us?"
The mental devil rolled its eyes again and again. Finally, it laughed delightedly, as if it had completely agreed on Professor Mo Xuan's idea. "What an immaculate plan. I can't find any reason to say no. Hahahaha. Excellent. Professor Mo Xuan, I will work with you for now. Let's hope that you do not forget your promises once the job is done!"
"Why would I?" The silver ball was amused. "While there is little mutual trust between us, we are both unpardonable extraterrestrial devils in the eyes of the Alliance of the Holy Covenant and the Pangu Civilization. It is necessary for us to join hands and cope with the common foe, isn't it?"
"That makes sense." The mental devil's smile became more and more vile, and the bloody thorns flowing around its body grew more and more intense. "Fine. In that case… Huh?"
It raised its eyebrows, somewhat in surprise, and looked at Li Yao who had been tied up by him. At this moment, Li Yao was wreathed in multiple layers of bloody stripes like an enormous red cocoon, but bright golden fire was blossoming from the center of the interconnected bloody thorns and soon burnt the bloody stripes apart!
"You two *ssholes, don't ignore me!" Li Yao broke out of the red cocoon. His furious fighting will jabbed at the mental devil like golden daggers while he roared at the top of his voice. "As long as I exist, I will never let your scheme work out. The Star Glory Federation will be guarded by the people of the federation. The cunning and sordid extraterrestrial devils will never have their turn!"
"What—what kind of strength is this?" The mental devil had trouble keeping its eyes opening under Li Yao's golden daggers. "It's impossible. I clearly examined every part of your soul. How did you—"
"How can the soul of a human be parsed and analyzed so easily?" Li Yao burst into laughter. Bright golden blood was flowing out of his eyes, nostrils, ears, and mouth. His soul power surged out like a volcanic eruption, and even the illusionary world at the fundamental level could not bear the pressure anymore. The universe that felt like black velvet began to shake. Every crystal world was shivering lightly like a glass ball!
"Your virtual world has reached the limitation of its computational ability!" Fury and disdain beamed out of Li Yao's eyes and darted at the silver ball. "False is always false. It can never become real. And you were talking about 120% real? Do you know the biggest difference between an illusionary world and a real one?
"The illusionary world has limitations. It is bound by the computational ability of the crystal processors. Even the super crystal processors with the highest computational ability have their extremes in computation, simulation, and rendering. Those trapped in them are like fish in a glass tank. However big and real the glass tank is, the fish will inevitably touch an invisible barrier one day as long as they strive to swim forward!
"But in reality, no matter how ugly, cruel, and dark it is, there are possibilities of infinite wonders and a most bright future inside the ugliness, cruelty, and darkness. In reality, there is no glass ceiling that can stop mankind from striding forward!
"Even if an artificial intelligence can make the most reasonable reaction according to every situation based on the database that is as enormous as the ocean, it is not a real virtual life!
"By the same logic, however vivid your virtual world is, it is still false, in that it lacks what is of paramount importance for a civilization—the hope for the future and for the destiny of the universe!"
"Idiot!" the mental devil roared. The blood stripes waved crazily again, slapping the right half of Li Yao's body brutally like thorny whips. "Cut the cr*p, you hotblooded high-school student. Just be quiet and wait to be killed!"
"I will not die. Ding Lingdang and Jin Xinyue are still waiting for me!" Li Yao gnashed his teeth. The bright golden blades of his soul and the bloody thorns were entangled tightly, and the two parties began a fierce fight. "My friends, my family, and the soldiers… Everybody in the Star Glory Federation is waiting for me. I will certainly return to their side and fight with them!"
Li Yao and the mental devil looked like a two-headed boa, but the two heads growing on the same torso were gnawing on each other. The bloody thorns riddled the right half of the body with holes, the soul blades cut the left half of the body so hard that it was bleeding, and the bright gold flames and the crimson flames were colliding heavily, triggering thousands of sparks.
It was the most dangerous mental warfare. After only a couple of seconds, the two parties were already heavily wounded. Their colors were dim, their flames were shaking, and they were breathing hard.
The mental devil shrieked with a hoarse voice, "I—I'm going to eat you alive!"
Li Yao's voice was somewhat intermittent, too. "I will not let things go your way. I will not!"
"Ah!" The mental devil burst into fury. Then, thousands of bloody thorns suddenly burst out and tied up the right half of Li Yao's body. It turned around and shouted, "Fellow Cultivator Mo Xuan, what are you waiting for? I have corrupted most of his soul and completely controlled his body. Come on and give me a hand to swallow his soul. Then, we will go to implement your perfect plan together!"
"Sounds good!" The silver ball agreed quickly. Then…
It floated thousands of meters back within a breath.
While floating, the ball turned into an oval before it evolved into what appeared to be a peanut. A tiny cluster of liquid metal split apart from its body and slowly condensed into the shape of a human that flew toward Li Yao and the mental devil.
Li Yao and the mental devil, who were mauling each other, fell dazed at the same time.
The situation seemed to be turning awkward.
"Hey, Fellow Cultivator Mo Xuan, what is the meaning of this?" the mental devil demanded. "I asked you to help. Why did you run away? Us extraterrestrial devils shouldn't be so disloyal to our friends, should we?"
"Of course not. However, as you may know, I was a refiner in the beginning and then turned into a specialist in crystal processors and the Spiritual Nexus. I have a shallow understanding about sociology and scheming, too.
"But in any case, I am not a warrior. There's no reason for me to get close to the two of you when you are having a fierce close-distance combat, is there?"
"Well…"
The mental devil and Li Yao looked at each other in bewilderment. Their 'perilous' and 'soul-stirring' battle somewhat turned rigid.
Chapter 1781: I Am a Human, Too! |
"What's wrong?" The voice spreading out of the silver ball suddenly grew solemn. "Why are you not fighting? Keep going. Work harder and harder!"
"No…" The mental devil grew anxious. "Fellow Cultivator Mo Xuan, well, it is actually not dangerous at all. Look. I have shattered his soul and swallowed most of the flames of spiritual energy. He has been completely suppressed by me, unable to move at all! You can kill him easily by jabbing him with your little finger after you come over! Really. Come here!"
"Who—who says that I'm suppressed?" Li Yao struggled hard, only to be beaten down time and time again. He could only roar angrily, "Although my hands and feet are tied by you, my soul is overly exh
austed, my vitality is almost drained, I cannot even move my hair now, and my combat ability has dropped by 99%, I—I still have my hot blood! Ass*ole, come and try me if you have balls. Let me teach you a lesson!"
The silver ball calmly observed the two individuals who were entangled tightly and fighting each other in the same body. Then, he said, "You're right. I am as cowardly as a chicken. What can I do?"
The mental devil was dumbfounded. "You've got to be kidding me! Professor Mo Xuan, I have devoted all my strength to suppressing him. I cannot persist for too long. This is the most critical moment. Come and give me a hand for the sake that we are both extraterrestrial devils! Otherwise—otherwise, he may launch a great counterattack anytime!"
"Exactly!" Li Yao shouted. Strength grew out of nowhere inside him, allowing him to reverse the situation and suppress the mental devil below him. "Just watch and do nothing over there. After I finish this annoying, verbose mental devil, I will immediately go over and cut you apart, you scumbag that is pretending to be Professor Mo Xuan!"
The silver ball was as peaceful as before, utterly unaffected by the trash talk of Li Yao's dual personalities. The smaller ball that split apart from its body a moment ago, on the other hand, grew larger and larger still while absorbing the strength of the countless crystal worlds around. Four limbs extended out of the body, transforming it into an iron giant dozens of meters tall that looked both like a crystal suit or a Colossus!
"Are you kidding me, this thing again?"
Li Yao and the mental devil were both shocked.
"Rest assured. I said that we should cooperate sincerely. How could I idle by and not offer any help?" The silver ball that moving further and further away from the two of them and thoroughly protected by the newly-emerging iron giant smiled. "Fellow Cultivator Blood Stripe, let me introduce to you my help. This is the strongest battle artificial intelligence, Fighting God, developed after constant optimizations and purifications based on the battle data collected in the whole federation over the past hundred years, including the battle videos of experts, virtual training in the game 'Civilization', and memory pieces of battles in the heads of the vegetative patients.
"Hehehe. Although it is merely a quasi-artificial intelligence, it is the last 'hyper spirit' and the most perfect one that I have produced. The battle database that it boasts is unbelievably huge. In terms of computational ability and battle awareness, it can be compared to the unparalleled experts in the Divinity Transformation Stage or even higher levels!
"Because it is too strong, I cannot even build a 'battle shell' that can accommodate it in reality. Neither a fleshly body nor a metal puppet like the Grand Illusionary Soldier can allow it to bring out a hundred percent of its combat ability!
"But this is the Spiriters' Realm, where computational ability, battle awareness, and soul power are all that matters. The Fighting God is the guardian of the most central level of the Spiriters' Realm. It is invincible in this place!"
Sensing the overwhelming fighting will and infinite killing intent from the unbelievable 'Fighting God', which felt that a compression of a thousand Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators, Li Yao and the mental devil looked at each other in bewilderment and both gulped.
"Speaking of which, I cannot thank you enough, Fellow Cultivator Blood Stripe!" The laughter from the silver ball was even more disturbing. "You and Li Yao were right about one thing. It was indeed the moment when my computational ability and my soul power were weakest just now, because I was focusing my whole strength on attacking the firewall of the mainframe crystal processors in the highest command center in the Defense Counsel. It was certainly not an easy task to control the highest command center as well as the three space gates!
"At that time, I was so weak that I could barely summon the Fighting God. Had I summoned the 'ultimate hyper spirit', I'm afraid that the entire Spiriters' Realm as well as my soul would've collapsed completely. Hahaha!
"That's why I told you everything frankly and even invited you to visit the core layer of the Spiriters' Realm as a guest, Fellow Cultivator Blood Stripe. It was all meant to stall you for a moment until I could recover my computational ability!
"Now, everything has been accomplished. The three space gates in the Heaven's Origin Sector and the mainframe crystal processors in the most important departments in the capital city have all been hacked by me. Everything is under my control! I can finally turn back and focus most of my computational ability on the problem we have here. That's why I summoned the Fighting God!
"Fellow Cultivator Blood Stripe, you must understand my hesitation. I'm sure that you won't blame me for not helping you a moment ago, will you?"
The mental devil looked rather awful. It stammered, "Well, Fellow Cultivator Mo Xuan, it suddenly occurs to me that I have a bit more strength. As the saying goes, you don't butcher a chicken with a cleaver for the bulls. I can totally take care of him by myself. There is no need to summon such a brutal thing. Why—why don't we take it back for now?"
"A lion must try its best even if the prey is just a rabbit. There is no need for you to be so courteous with me. Hurry up and swallow him. Hurry up. The Fighting God will provide powerful fire support for you. Kill, corrupt, and swallow now! Or maybe…" The silver ball's face suddenly grew old. In a mocking tone, it observed, "You are not attacking each other at all but presenting a lousy act, hoping to deceive me?"
"You—" Li Yao and the mental devil looked at each other in bewilderment, unable to continue acting anymore. Li Yao shouted in fury, "How did you know?"
"Li Yao…" The ripples on the surface of the silver ball were scattered, as if it were sighing gloomily and thoughtfully. "This isn't the first time we've met each other. In the Flying Star Sector when we were faced with Xiao Xuance and the star child, and on Kunlun when we were faced with Su Changfa, we fought side by side. I observed with my own eyes how you took care of them!
"Even to this day, part of the memory pieces from the star child and Su Changfa are still deeply embedded within my soul. They were both fooled by you like dummies once!
"Your acting skills indeed far exceed your wisdom. However, you cannot play the same trick on an extraterrestrial devil twice. With the enormous computational ability that I have, how would I forget your ultimate skill after I learned that you are Li Yao?"
"What did I tell you just now?" The mental devil could not have been more frustrated. It screamed at Li Yao, with blood red saliva spurting out. "I said just now that all the trouble was unnecessary. This damn drama was utterly redundant. Just rush forward and cut him down, and everything would've been resolved. Simple as that! Yet, you had to resort to such folly. Look at what you've gotten us into!"
"Hey!" Li Yao grew angry, too. "It is because your acting skills were too bad, alright? Look at your movement of swallowing. So unnatural and pretentious. There's also your weird chuckles that couldn't have been more exaggerated. Even a deaf person could've distinguished that you were acting!"
"It doesn't matter," the silver battle said calmly. "Fellow Cultivator Blood Stripe, I don't care if you were acting just now, and I don't care what your original scheme was. At this moment, my offer still stands. Swallow him, and you shall still have your share in this world!"
"Well—" The mental devil was slightly dazed. Greed and cunningness beamed out of its eyes again.
"Hey—" Greatly alarmed, Li Yao felt that cold sweat was pouring out. "You are not really thinking about cooperating with the monster, are you? It will certainly not abide by its promise. It must be lying to you. It wants us to fight each other and wound each other so that it can swallow us one after the other!"
The mental devil sniffed and slowly raised the arm made of blood. The end of the arm gradually turned into a blood red blade. It said, "One must learn to bend their head when they are living under somebody else's roof. Don't blame me for turning this drama real. Blame yourself because your acting skills are too bad, Li Yao!"
"*
sshole, you have truly betrayed me. We had a pact!"
"Idiot, pacts are made to be torn apart. I've had enough of you for a long time!"
Li Yao and the mental devil became entangled again. In the Spiriters' Realm, displayed in the form of souls, they were the two sides of the same body in the first place, but the 'inner fight' this time was a hundred times more intense and dangerous than previously. The space around them was soon filled with bloody mists and flames of spiritual energy. But the mists were approaching the 'Fighting God' while they were cursing each other aloud.
Out of the blue, a sharp streak of brilliance darted out of the bloody mists at the silver giant.
The silver giant, on the other hand, was long prepared. An enormous shield appeared on the iron arm and slapped back the streak of brightness as if it were a fly!
"Aya!" Li Yao and the mental devil both screamed miserably. They rolled dozens of times in the vacuum, like a kite whose string had been severed, before they finally stabilized themselves. The flames of spiritual energy in dual colors were much dimmer than before. The left side of the body and the right side were both bruised and swallowed, barely distinguishable now!
"It seems that you have made your choice. I have to say that I am very disappointed!" The silver ball sighed, not without regrets. "Why is there such a stupid extraterrestrial devil?"
"Scumbag!" Now that their play was seen through again, the mental devil completely tore off the camouflage. Its head turned into a blood red hedgehog, and it spat out a mouthful of saliva that was mixed with blood, roaring, "Open your goddamn eyes and observe. I am not any extraterrestrial devil. I am as human as any human can be. I am Li Yao! I do not intend to become a monster whose dick hangs below his head!"
"Oh?" The silver ball was slightly dazed, and the ripples gradually formed a big eye that observed the mental devil. Then, it laughed in amusement. "Interesting. Truly interesting. Is this the legendary 'dual personality'? This is exactly the opposite of my case!
