Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 1465
It appeared that the procedure was disrupted by the sudden assault at the most critical moment. Something wrong happened to the young man who was being purged and reborn. He was killed abruptly, and there was even no time to bring away his body.
"Haha. The Dongfang family is truly screwed this time!"
Tu Zhengdao's delighted laughter echoed from the communication channel. "We have discovered a dozen experts of the Li, Yun, and Song families from the secret institute. All of them have been transformed into training materials and samples. Quite a few of them were reported to have gone missing mysteriously on the battlefields. Also, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Even more samples, materials, and files that they failed to destroy have fallen into our hands. It seems that there are thousands of victims in this place. Let's see how Dongfang Wang and Dongfang Renxin are going to explain themselves to the four families!"
Chapter 2296: Karma Has Come! |
"But Dongfang Renxin escaped!"
Yue Wushuang's frigid voice came from the communication channel. "If he is not captured on the spot, even the most unquestionable proof will be flawed. Besides, Dongfang Renxin took the mainframe crystal processor of the secret institute away. Tremendous experiment data of the past are stored inside the crystal processor. A lot of leaders of the Dongfang family might be involved!
"That is the most important evidence. We have to completely control it in order to crucify Dongfang Wang and Dongfang Renxin!"
Dongfang Renxin escaped through a teleportation array.
But it was destined that he could not run far.
Ever since the arrest operation began, the eight "Space Ripple Generators" that the reformists secretly delivered to the underground city had been functioning at the highest power, spreading out waves that could shatter the void.
Those space ripples would not have any influence on the creatures living in the three-dimensional universe. They were absolutely harmless even if they were right next to the target.
However, if somebody were to tear apart the three-dimensional space and jump to somewhere far away by way of the four-dimensional space, they would be involved in a man-made storm.
A four-dimensional jump was a highly-dangerous endeavor after all. Neither the super long-distance space jumps that crossed billions of stars nor the short-distance teleportation that pursued accuracy could tolerate any interference.
Two consequences might happen when an accident took place.
Firstly, when a creature stepped into a teleportation array and their cells and gene strands were all dismembered, the components could not be assembled again because of the interferences of the four-dimensional storm, or jumbled in an extremely weird way.
As a result, what appeared in the target teleportation array was likely to be a pile of meat mud and plasma where hot air was popping up, or a monster whose internal organs were exposed to the air and whose limbs had turned into tentacles.
Secondly, the teleportation was successful, but the coordinates of the destination had a "minor" error. Instead of jumping to the teleportation array at the destination, one landed several meters away from it.
Then, it was very possible that the victim would be embedded into rocks, metals, or even somebody else's body. When the living cells and the cold materials were integrated, the creatures would be equally dead.
Therefore, when the eight "Space Ripple Generators" of the reformists released interferences, they were almost like setting up transparent walls at the edge of the twenty-seven district. It was impossible for Dongfang Renxin to bypass the wall and jump to the ground dozens of kilometers away. The best he could do was to jump to a certain corner in the twenty-seventh district.
The resistance in the anonymous hospital was still going on, but a dragnet had been paved in the entire twenty-seventh district.
In the operation room, Li Yao worked on the control panel anxiously; his hands turning into clusters of mists.
Whenever a teleportation array was activated, unusual space ripples would spread out from both the jump point and the destination. Although they were much weaker than the ripples of starships after a long-distance jump, Li Yao was still able to detect them keenly with the search magical equipment that he forged himself.
Before Li Yao, the transparent map of the twenty-seventh district was displayed on the 3D light beam. Deep inside the anonymous hospital, a red spot was blinking vaguely. It was a teleportation array that had just been activated.
Very soon, below the twenty-seventh district, somewhere close to the edge, a red spot of equal brightness popped up.
It was also a teleportation array that had just been activated. That should be the place where Dongfang Renxin crawled out.
Dongfang Renxin went the opposite way. Instead of going to the ground, he fled deeper into the underground city.
Most of the warriors of the reformists were gathered on the upper floor of the twenty-seventh district. The search and blockage on the area down below were not flawless.
Li Yao smiled and wiped his face before he took out a Cosmos Ring from his pocket.
Ever since he encountered Long Yangjun the other day, he had been carefully refining a piece of magical equipment for today's arrest.
…
Dongfang Renxin was supposedly a prestigious, well-respected elder of the Imperium and a great doctor, who valued his manners more than anything else. In his younger years, his handsomeness was well-acknowledged. Although he was old now, his face stayed young. He did not look like an old man hundreds of years old but a healthy and strong middle-aged man.
However, fleeing in a panic right now and sweating hard, he had completely lost his demeanor of the past. His wrinkles were bursting out at a visible speed, while his muscles were shriveling quickly. He seemed to have grown older by a hundred years within a moment.
How could the elder of the Imperium and the deputy president of the Royal Society of Medical Science not feel anxious when his enterprise that had been built for a hundred years was destroyed and his reputation could be gone forever because of that?
Explosions came from his back. Furious flames were burning from the secret research institute.
The flames burning in the underground world were not orange but creepily green.
Dongfang Renxin, however, did not have time to bother looking at it at all. He simply ran further to the abyss, because he had three secret evacuation points in the sixty-third district, the seventy-fifth district, and the eighty-eighth district respectively. As long as he could retreat with the most important crystal processor that had all the data of the Dongfang family's dominion, nobody would ever be able to catch him again.
The experts of "Thirty-Three Limits" were sent out by him to block the pursuers, but they were unable to stall the enemy for long.
Very soon, Dongfang Renxin had only the last two members of "Thirty-Three Limits" left by his side when a deafening explosion echoed from his back. Then, the fire, gunshots, and roars all fell silent.
Dongfang Renxin looked at his back in fear. Behind him, there was an expert who did not disguise his immense pressure at all. It was almost like a crystal warship had submerged into the ground and approached him in loud noises.
Dongfang Renxin's pupils were constricted to the minimum, and the two experts of the "Thirty-Three Limits" were all prepared to pour their fatal moves too.
However, the person who blinked from the darkness overjoyed Dongfang Renxin. "It's you? How did you—"
The plain face, the black hair that looked like a waterfall, and the tall and slender body figure—it was Dongfang Mingyue, the president of the Association of Demon Hunters!
"Enough talking. We've been greatly tricked this time!"
Dongfang Mingyue was not wearing a helmet. Under the dim light, it could be seen that her furrowed eyebrows were like a pair of crossed sabers and that the light crystal suit on her body was stained with blood with sparks popping up nonstop. It was obvious that she had just defeated a group of chasers in an exhausting battle. She said, "What the reformists did on the ground was just a distraction for them to concentrate all their forces to attack the secret research institute. The prime minister asked me to escort you to retreat. I didn't bring a lot of soldiers with me, and they cannot sustain for long. Let's go now!"
While talking, Dongfang Mingyue strode to Dongfang Renxin and the two experts of the "Thirty-Three Limits".
"How can it be true?"
Dongfang Renxin moaned, "How can the reformists know our greatest secret? There must be a traitor among us… Wait, prime minister. You just called Dongfang Wang 'prime minister'?"
Dongfang Renxin's pupils constricted to the limits again, and all his white hair was exploding.
The two experts of the "Thirty-Three Limits" felt that something was not right too, but there was no time for them to do anything!
The "Dongfang Mingyue" next to them suddenly unleashed dazzling gold light that blinded Dongfang Renxin briefly. Before he realized what was going on, dozens of sharp tiny flying swords had pierced through the major acupoints on his body. Releasing powerful electric arcs, they tied up his limbs and his internal organs. He felt that his bones and his nerves had all been plucked, and he couldn't have felt more painful!
The two experts of the "Thirty-Three Limits", on the other hand, were in a pain a hundred times more painful than him. The screams that they let were not uttered even when they received the transplantation of the organs of alien beasts before.
Dongfang Renxin lost his eyesight for now, and his bones and nerves were locked by magical equipment, making it impossible to escape. He could only hear cracking sounds echoing next to him. The two experts of the "Thirty-Three Limits" sounded like their bones had been crunched one inch after another and ground in a mill.
In the first three seconds, it was still possible to hear their screams, but very soon, nothing could be heard again.
When Dongfang Renxin gradually regained his eyesight, he saw the picture that had never occurred even in his nightmares.
The two experts of the "Thirty-Three Limits" were all broken and compressed into two giant balls with the special crystal suits on their bodies. They were as dead as anyone could be right now.
The person standing in the darkness on his opposite side was naturally no Dongfang Mingyue but another face that devastated the Dongfang family in the recent month.
"Vulture Li Yao!"
Dongfang Renxin screamed in desperation.
They were both in the Divinity Transformation Stage, but the combat ability between them was obvious. Besides, by pretending to be "Dongfang Mingyue", Li Yao had won Dongfang Renxin's trust briefly, which allowed him to plant the confinement magical equipment that he carefully produced into the man's body.
In the entire Imperium, no more than ten people could crack Li Yao's own confinement magical equipment.
Dongfang Renxin was obviously not one of them.
"President Dongfang."
Rubbing his face slowly, Li Yao got rid of the last bit of his disguise and put on a hideous smile. "You have committed atrocious crimes, and your karma has come today!"
Dongfang Renxin squirmed like an enormous worm, trying to move deeper into the darkness in vain. Deep inside the darkness, countless locals of the underground world were staring at them without a sound; their eyes glittering.
"You… You can't touch me!"
His face twisted, Dongfang Renxin roared intimidatingly, "I am an elder of the Imperium! I am an elder of the Dongfang family! Do you know what you are doing? If you dare touch me, you will be an enemy to the Dongfang family, the Council of Elders, and the entire Imperium!"
Li Yao sniffed and pressed forward.
"Don't touch me! Just let me go!"
Rolling his eyes crazily, Dongfang Renxin trembled. "I can give you whatever you want, Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures or unparalleled techniques. I have incessant resources. They are all yours!"
Unmoved, Li Yao went further.
"You… You are in the Divinity Transformation Stage right now, aren't you? But your body is so perfect. It is even rare even among the battle-type Divinity Transformation Stage experts!"
Dongfang Renxin roared desperately, "Do you not want to be the strongest battle-type Divinity Transformation Stage expert in history? Do you not want to break into the Divinity Branching Stage? I can help you! I have technologies! The most advanced technologies! I can plant the organs of twenty different kinds of alien beasts into your body, making you twice, five times, ten times stronger than you are right now!"
Chapter 2297: Let's See If You Can Cure Yourself! |
Li Yao frowned. Looking at Dongfang Renxin's panicked and shameless face, he couldn't help but ask, "You are still trying to allure me in such a sleazy way when death is knocking the door? In order to make you stronger and more vigorous, you did not even let go of the heavily-wounded heroes who fought valiantly on the battlefield. Do you not feel that your methods are inappropriate at all?"
Dongfang Renxin's eyes widened, and obscure laughter echoed from deep down his throat. Illuminated by the dim light, there was no telling whether he was a graceful expert in the Divinity Transformation Stage or a ferocious animal. He shouted desperately, "Inappropriate? What's inappropriate? Only by making the strong stay strong can the barriers of evolution be broken!
"You and I are both in the Divinity Transformation Stage. Men as excellent as us are the pillars of our families and our country and the hope of mankind!
"If we can keep ourselves in the peak stage, we will be able to do a lot of things and make a lot of contributions to our country and our civilization! How many enemies can you kill with your combat ability? How many lives can I save with my brilliant medical arts?
"However, the goddamn longevity limits us. The stronger we are, the faster our lives will burn, and the shorter our lives will be! The best state in the Divinity Transformation Stage is like a shooting star. It can only last several decades at best!
"How is that enough for us to bring out light and heat, to make contributions to our country and civilization?
"Therefore, sacrificing the insignificant guys, transforming their blood, wisdom, and souls into nutrition that nurtures the epitomes of the civilization of mankind that are us so that we can make contributions to the civilization for hundreds of years longer; isn't it only natural?
"Yes, it is true that I got the brains and even cores of a lot of heavily-wounded soldiers from the frontline, but so what? Those things helped me maintain my most exuberant energy and my keenest senses. They allowed me to perform surgeries one after another for ten days and ten nights in a row so that the lives of more people were saved!
"Sacrificing one to save a hundred is perfectly reasonable! After all, those people were prepared to be sacrificed since the day they walked into the battlefield. Their ending was no different from being blown up into pieces by the giant cannons on the starships. Is there any difference at all?"
Taking a deep breath, Li Yao said slowly, "What you've been doing is completely in violation of the meaning of the true path of immortality."
"No, what I have been walking on is the real and ultimate true path of immortality!"
Dongfang Renxin completely went mad. Veins protruded on his face one cluster after another, looming around his facial organs like countless earthworms. His face more twisted than ever, he declared, "Survival of the fittest is the most original and pure true path of immortality! You and I are both in the Divinity Transformation Stage. So, we are more qualified to survive than those in the Nascent Soul Stage, the Core Formation Stage, the Building Foundation Stage, and the Refinement Stage. We are the real dominators of this world. Those below the Divinity Transformation Stage are just ants! Are you really going against one—no, a group of people in the Divinity Transformation Stage just for some ants?"
Li Yao's eyes cramped hard. He observed, "President Dongfang, you have lost your mind."
"No, I haven't. It's you who never saw it through, or never dare to say it aloud even if you did! Hypocritical! You people are all too hypocritical!"
Dongfang Renxin shrieked, "We are both in the Divinity Transformation Stage. We are the new human beings above all mortals. We have even exceeded the category of human beings; we are 'supermen' that are more excellent than 'hominoids' and 'true human beings'!
"We are supermen, we are true gods. We do not need to abide by the rules and morals of the mortals. The hominoids butcher livestock, the true human beings slaughter the hominoids, and the 'supermen' will swallow 'true human beings'. Is there anything wrong with that?
"A world of Immortal Cultivators is exactly a place where men eat men! A person will be equally dead no matter if you kill them with blades, bullets, or teeth! Vulture Li Yao, I don't believe that you never killed anyone that you shouldn't have killed, looted somebody else's training resources, or trapped other people with dirty tricks on your ascension to the Divinity Transformation Stage!
"The killing is all the same. I just went one step further after they were killed and swallowed those people. In such a way, the spiritual root, the gold core, and the lifelong Cultivation that they had gained through arduous training wouldn't be wasted. Do you have any idea what a great sin it is to waste resources when resources are on such high demand?"
Li Yao sniffed and walked up close to Dongfang Renxin's face, not moved at all.
Dongfang Renxin had already backed off to a corner and had nowhere to retreat at all. His face seemed to have been ignited by the flames that had jumped out of the deepest level of hell, making it more creepy than the experiment subjects in his secret research institute. With a hideous smile, he said, "Don't you see? The life of most Immortal Cultivators is as meaningless as that of hominoids. Even if they are granted some strength, they will only use it to brutalize each other, and it will be wasted for nothing.
"However, if the strength is all focused on the people in the Divinity Transformation Stage who are the real elites and rulers, we will be able to use the strength to do things that are more meaningful, or even to break into the levels that have never been visited before. Wake up! We are both in the Divinity Transformation Stage. We should not attack each other but should find a way to rule over the ants together!"
