Forty millenniums of cul.., p.684
Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 684
"Of course, it is just an emergency measure. When Elder Nether Spring is removed, the command of the troops will immediately be returned to the relevant kingdoms."
"Rebuild the army?" Yin Tianzun and Master Hollow Wind both burst into fury. Yin Tianzun rose up and slapped the desk hard, grinning hideously at Wei Tianqing. "Is this your idea, or somebody else's? Are you suggesting we hand our troops over?"
Wei Tianqing held his head high and argued with Yin Tianzun. "All for the big picture, [Acting Chief Yin!"
Yin Tianzun was so angry that he laughed out aloud. "What an absurd proposal. Let's see who will agree to it!"
"I agree!"
Bai Lianxin, the demon emperor from the snake clan, shook her tail and said solemnly, "The Blood Demon Sector is in peril. We cannot place our selfish wants on the top of our racial interests! Due to the loss of so many middle-level and high-level commanders, the troops cannot be regrouped in the same way as before. Therefore, I agree that the coalition army of demons should be reorganized. The troops of the snake clan will be the first to be reorganized!"
"Troops of the bear clan agree to be reorganized, too."
A demon emperor of the bear clan who looked like a black iron tower slowly raised his paw.
"Troops of the leopard clan also agree to be reorganized."
"The Blood Shadow Saber Mantis troop are willing to be reorganized."
One demon emperor raised their hand after another. Dozens of mysterious eyes were focused on Yin Tianzun and Master Hollow Wind.
Yin Tianzun and Master Hollow Wind were both dumbfounded. Their faces instantly turned pale, and they could not help but step back. Looking at the arms and limbs raised up, as well as Jin Tuyi's emotionless face, they immediately understood what those eyes meant.
That was the way people looked at bones in a grave or fish in a water tank!
Chapter 1037: The Second Confrontation! |
While Jin Tuyi was taking over the absolute power of the coalition army of demons slowly but surely, Li Yao was anxiously pacing back and forth in the middle part of the same warship.
Jin Tuyi did not restrict his freedom. In fact, he was even arranged to the warehouse of crystals, the most important cabin on Blood Demon!
Even if he had not installed enough crystal bombs on Blood Demon, the whole warehouse of crystals and high-energy fuel was more than sufficient for him to blow up the warship.
It was exactly because of the lack of defense that Li Yao felt that he was enveloped by an invisible net that had even pierced into his blood and soul, making him unable to move anymore!
He was more and more certain that Jin Tuyi was ten times more dangerous than Elder Nether Spring.
The most critical problem was that, although he had completely understood what Elder Nether Spring was up to, he did not have the first clue about Jin Tuyi's goal yet!
Shua!
The gate of the warehouse was slowly opened. Jin Tuyi slowly staggered in.
He did not bring any guards with him, nor did he trigger much of his demonic energy. The guy was apparently most at ease.
He was even coughing nonstop and breathing hard with his eyes closed every now and then, considering Li Yao as nothing!
Li Yao felt that he was greatly humiliated.
That had to be a joke. Even for the super experts such as Yan Xibei, Xiao Xuance, and Bai Xinghe, they had to summon all their attention cautiously and activated their every cell during their confrontations with him.
Who had ever been so at ease in front of him? Did 'Vulture Li Yao' mean nothing to him?
Chi—
Jin Tuyi closed the gate. He took out a dose of a bright green drug from his wings and injected it into his carotid artery before he moaned in great relief.
Shua—
While he closed his eyes, Li Yao turned into a streak of brightness and dashed toward him!
One was fully-prepared, and the other was not prepared at all. The streak of brightness flashed past Jin Tuyi's left side!
Jin Tuyi did not defend against him at all. He was still panting softly and did not recover until he rubbed his temples for a long time. Then, he noticed the new gadget that had appeared on his left arm.
It was a neatly-made armband in the shape of a glamorous scorpion.
"What's this?" He waved his arm, with curiosity, but not the least fury or fright, in his eyes.
"I wonder, have you ever heard of the Venomous Scorpion Bone Biting Shackle before, Senior Jin?" Li Yao sneered. "This is a device that I duplicated based on the Venomous Scorpion Bone Biting Shackle. Of course, it is far less powerful than the original version, but it should be good enough to blow up one of your arms and seriously wound your heart.
"Do not waste your time thinking how to dismantle it. Nobody can ever dismantle it without me!"
"Okay." Jin Tuyi lowered his arm emotionlessly.
"Okay?" Li Yao was dazed. "Hey, hey, hey. Senior Jin, this is truly an awesome crystal bomb. Aren't you a little bit too cool about it? Do you not believe its power? Should I elaborate on its specific structure and functioning mechanism to convince you? You see, this is how it works—"
"That will be unnecessary," Jin Tuyi said casually. "I thought that you must've come up with some smart, extraordinary moves after a night of consideration. I didn't know that you would still be resorting to your cliché. It is too simple and straightforward.
"If your poor sense of security has to be supported by such a device, it doesn't matter to me if I put on it. However, my precious time and computational ability don't deserve to be wasted on such boring stuff."
"Boring stuff…" As if somebody had punched his face right in the nose, Li Yao gnashed his teeth. "It appears that Senior Jin is very confident that I will not kill you, right?"
"Of course," Jin Tuyi replied calmly. "My confidence is not based on boring stuff such as crystal bombs but my own precise calculation. I am the only one who can regulate the coalition army of demons and seem to be reasonable enough for communication. Do you have any reason to kill me? If you kill me, the situation will be completely out of control. What benefits can you and the Heaven's Origin Sector get?
"On the other hand, you clearly know that, after the Eye of Blood Demon was destroyed, the Blood Demon Sector has lost the ability to launch a large-scale attack against the Heaven's Origin Sector. Also, until Elder Nether Spring is eliminated, we are at least partners, if not comrades on the same side.
"But still, you are not assured, and you must give yourself an illusionary sense of safety with your crystal bomb, which will only deepen the chasm between us. If we get to the bottom of it, you are still not confident about your judgement, young man!"
Li Yao narrowed his eyes. "Cut the crap. What are you trying to sell exactly? Why do I have the feeling that I've been tricked?"
"Then you should feel honored." Jin Tuyi did not care about Li Yao's aggressiveness at all. He found a large high-purity crystal as chair and sat down comfortably. "In my current status, not everybody deserves to be tricked by me with my precious computational ability. You are perhaps the last opponent whom I have carefully tricked with more than 110% of my thinking ability. Bear that in mind. It will be your greatest pride in your whole life."
Li Yao did not know what to say.
Jin Tuyi smiled. "Moreover, you were not exactly tricked. It is just a special way of cooperation where we both meet each other's needs."
"So, you've admitted it?" Li Yao mumbled. "Everyone was manipulated by you. You intentionally let Jin Xinyue and I out of Heavenly Path City. You knew about the Spore Stratagem a long time ago and believed everything we said. You were merely sabotaging it by acting as if you didn't know.
"If that's case, everything makes sense now.
"I've always felt that something was off. A man who was elected as the commander-in-chief of the coalition army of demons and came up with the Red Tide Plan certainly shouldn't have been an idiot. Then, why did he leak so much valuable information to me during the conversation and even remind me that a large batch of demon emperors was coming in the end so that I could run away?
"Also, sneaking into the Eye of Blood Demon was… way too easy. Although there was some minor trouble, no huge obstacles were in my way!
"The defense system of the Eye of Blood Demon was indeed flawless, but the experts in the patrol team were too few. If every key section had been guarded by one to two demon emperors, the result would've been vastly different. It was like an impeccable chain that was in lack of the most critical section, and I could crawl into the facility through the missing section without any actual danger!
"Also, you must've already recognized me when we met each other in the control center of the Eye of Blood Demon, didn't you? But you didn't reveal anything and allowed me to modify the stabilization system so that my chances of destroying the Eye of Blood Demon would be higher!
"The most unbelievable part was your mount, the Scorpion-Tailed Gold-Winged Falcon. Was it really a coincidence that the Demon God Virus broke out at the most critical moment?
"You must've planned everything, right?"
Jin Tuyi coughed lightly and shook his head. "I have long known some things, including Elder Nether Spring's infiltration around me. But my every move was closely monitored by Elder Nether Spring. How could I have manipulated everything?
"You should take 99% of the credit for the destruction of the Eye of Blood Demon. I only managed to give you a little help at the critical moments. That's all.
"It can't be helped. When I discovered Elder Nether Spring's ill intentions, it was already too late. The subordinates around me were already seriously compromised."
"I don't believe it," Li Yao said coldly. "I thought the same in the past. You were too dedicated to the Red Tide Plan to notice the anomalies around you. That was why Elder Nether Spring turned your subordinates against you.
"However, now that I think of it, if Elder Nether Spring's dangerous level can be rated as one star, yours must be at least five stars, Senior Jin. You have clearly calculated everything. How could you have been infiltrated by him?"
"Have you ever heard of cerebral sclerosis?" Jin Tuyi said calmly.
Li Yao was dazed and nodded.
"I was diagnosed with highly-differentiated cerebral sclerosis a year and half ago, but before that, the disease had ravaged my mind for more than five years. While I was contemplating on the Red Tide Plan wholeheartedly, the disease affected my brain and made me overlook a lot of things."
Li Yao was dumbfounded. His first thought was that Jin Tuyi was lying, but even if the guy was lying, he should have proposed a more reasonable excuse, shouldn't he?
After such a long time of competition, it turned out that Li Yao had been battling against a patient of cerebral sclerosis the whole time?
"Speaking of which," Jin Tuyi said with a self-mocking smile, "perhaps it was exactly because of my disease that Elder Nether Spring eased his alert and pushed me to the front as his puppet and the stepping stone for the Spore Stratagem. Therefore, who can say for sure whether the disease was a good thing or a bad one?
"Anyways, when I realized that I might have cerebral sclerosis, it was just two years ago. At that time, I suddenly discovered the unusual traces around myself and knew that an invisible dragnet had enshrouded me.
"However, I didn't know how huge the dragnet was or how dense the holes in it were. How many of my brothers, children, elders, and comrades had been compromised? And who exactly could I trust?
"Or rather, I didn't even know who opened the dragnet exactly.
"But there was no way that I could test it because I wouldn't get a second chance if my first test failed.
"Therefore, I had to raise new forces outside of the Feather Clan and my trusted subordinates. But because of the close surveillance, there were few things I could do, and I might not have been able to make a comeback."
"As it happened, I appeared at the perfect moment," Li Yao remarked.
"Exactly." Jin Tuyi nodded and said, "If all my family, subordinates, and comrades could not be trusted, it appeared to me that only my enemy wouldn't betray me. And it was not just any enemy but such a terrifying and excellent one."
Li Yao took a deep breath. "Therefore, since the very beginning, your ultimate purpose has been to overthrow Elder Nether Spring… No, besides Elder Nether Spring, you have also been planning to eliminate everybody standing in your way so that you will be able to seize absolute power and become the actual supreme commander of the Blood Demon Sector!"
Chapter 1038: Discussion of Dao! |
"To achieve your purpose, you have wasted fourteen demon emperors and countless elite troops of the Blood Demon Sector. Even the Red Tide Plan, your lifelong work, has been thrown out as bait and ruined!"
Li Yao felt that his heart was cold. Jin Tuyi's ruthlessness was beyond his imagination.
However, there was still something wrong!
Li Yao thought for a moment and shook his head. "No. Something is still not right here. If you are really a patient of cerebral sclerosis, you would not be able to keep it a secret for long. What's the point of being the monocratic leader of the Blood Demon Sector?
"If I were you, I would certainly have tried to implement my lifelong plan at any cost when I was diagnosed with a terminal disease. Why would you trade the work of your life for power that will be gone very soon?"
Jin Tuyi burst into laughter, but he coughed so violently in the middle of his laughter that tears were congregating inside his eyes. He rolled his wings and rubbed his temples with his feathers to soothe his headache. Nodding his head in approval, he said, "Young man, you are quite right. That is exactly what I am doing right now!
"In your eyes, the Red Tide Plan is equal to the Eye of Blood Demon, and the destruction of the Eye of Blood Demon means the destruction of the Red Tide Plan, right?"
Li Yao frowned, "Is it not?"
"Of course not," Jin Tuyi said casually. "How can the plan that I have considered for decades and put into practice at the cost of my life be as simple as an unexpected assault?
"Even if the unexpected assault worked out, and the capital city of the Star Glory Federation was occupied, so what? Growing from the resistance organization five hundred years ago into a vast country that has governed the entire Heaven's Origin Sector, the Star Glory Federation has enough tenacity and determination. Even if your capital is occupied, you will certainly not surrender. At the last moment, you may even drag the Blood Demon Sector toward hell together!
"Even if you do surrender, the Star Glory Federation is completely ruined, and the demons become dominators of the both our sectors after the two worlds are merged, so what? Will it mean anything?"
Li Yao was confused. "Crushing the Star Glory Federation and ruling the new twin world, thereby doubling your territory. Is it pointless?"
"Yes. Absolutely pointless," Jin Tuyi said cruelly. "Even if the Heaven's Origin Sector is completely conquered, we will merely be turning from one lone island at the edge of the universe into two. How can two lone islands devastated by war expect to resist the attacks from the Imperium of True Human Beings?"
Li Yao was even more shocked. "You believe in the existence of the Imperium of True Human Beings? No. No. No! You started planning the Red Tide Plan decades ago. At that time, there was no way that you knew the existence of the Imperium of True Human Beings. Absolutely no way!"
"Of course, I didn't know anything about the Imperium of True Human Beings. In fact, even now, you still haven't offered valid evidence to prove its existence." Jin Tuyi smiled. "However, no evidence is required. You only need to consider with the simplest thinking ability to realize one thing.
"If a barren, desolate area at the edge of the universe has produced the Heaven's Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector, two forces who have passed on the tinder of the civilizations forty thousand years ago, then at the center of the universe, where the resources are densely concentrated, one or more stronger, more advanced forces must've been born in the past ten thousand years, right?
"Maybe the Imperium of True Human Beings, maybe the Imperium of False Human Beings, maybe the Imperium of New Human Beings… Whatever their name is, the most important fact is that such a strong force must've been born a long, long time ago!"
Li Yao pondered for a moment and nodded. He found it odd that he did not figure out such simple logic earlier.
Jin Tuyi continued. "Since said force was born at the center of the universe, which was the prosperous area of the imperium in the past, it was only a matter of time for the force to discover the arsenal, the collection of techniques, the star maps left a long time ago, and eventually the other Sectors, right?"
Li Yao nodded solemnly.
"After locating the other Sectors, they would certainly launch an expedition, hoping to recover the territory of the imperium in the past and even expand it to the vaster universe. It is in the nature of our species, which claims to be 'the best fighting species in the sea of stars', right?"
Li Yao noticed that Jin Tuyi said 'our species', but he simply frowned and did not interrupt.
Jin Tuyi's voice was calmer than ever, with the peacefulness deep inside his eyes indicating that he had seen through everything. "I didn't know the truth about 'Chaos' and the origins of the demon race until a month ago. However, the theory that human beings and demons share the same origin, as an opinion in the academic world, was not new to me. I never had any doubt about it.
"More importantly, after exploring the history in the past ten thousand years and studying the rise of the Star Glory Federation and the wars between the Heaven's Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector, I gradually firmed my belief, which was that the glory of the demon race in the old days had passed and would perhaps never be back. The era of the 'demons' has ended. The future belongs to 'human beings'!
