"I thought that young people like Li Yao would be more optimistic," Wei Qingqing said. "I didn't expect that master would be even more confident and optimistic than him!"
"This is not about confidence," Zhou Yifu replied disapprovingly. "We the historians are different from you. We've seen too much!
"Yes. Maybe, for the federation today, the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance are indeed behemoths. But so what?
"Think about it. Were the ancient Cultivators who occupied the three thousand Sectors forty thousand years ago not strong? But did they not experience an abrupt downfall and get replaced by the demons in the blink of an eye?
"Then, was the demon race, which reigned the universe for thirty thousand years and founded dozens of dynasties, not strong? But was it not crushed by the Star Ocean Imperium in another blink?
"The Star Ocean Imperium was the strongest force in the history of mankind. Powerful, awesome, invincible, but what happened later? It collapsed as quickly as it thrived. After staying at the peak for no more than a thousand years, it crumbled into smithereens like a sand tower in the wind!
"Right now, as formidable as the Imperium of True Human Beings and the Alliance of the Holy Covenant may sound, can they be more formidable than the ancient Cultivators, the Demon Beast Empire, and the Star Ocean Imperium? If the latter can be destroyed within a breath, will the former really be able to evade the law of history?
"Once we think it through, we will feel less intimidated when we are faced with the super forces from the center of the universe, and we will be able to look at them more objectively.
"If we get to the bottom of it, we are now looking at the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance the way bumpkins look at the city dwellers who are wearing fancy clothes and driving eye-catching shuttles. We think they are mysterious, mighty, and invulnerable!
"But their citizens are human beings after all. Same as us, they have one head that is supported by two shoulders. We've seen things better than them. What's there to be scared of?"
Zhou Yifu's words cast both Li Yao and Wei Qingqing into deep thought.
Wei Qingqing was about to ask a few more questions when Zhou Yifu patted her shoulder and hinted for her to turn around. "Qingqing, you are free you interview me whenever you want, but you might not be able to see that guy over there every day."
Li Yao looked at where Zhou Yifu was pointing and was immediately refreshed.
Surrounded by the crowd, two demons with distinctive features were walking close.
Because of the special relationship between the Blood Demon Sector and the Heaven's Origin Sector, most of the demon emperors were still suspicious. They would rather hide in the Blood Demon Sector and join the meeting remotely through the real-time transmission of picture and sound.
Those who were willing to come in person were almost exclusively those who were close to the federation.
The first of the two demons was the Fire Ant King—Li Yao's old friend, Elder Nether Spring's blood brother, the former leader of the Blade of Chaos, and a demon emperor of the Insect Clan!
In the world of politics of the Blood Demon Sector in the post-Jin Tuyi era, as the source of Jin Xinyue's power, Skyfire quickly expanded and became the largest force in the Blood Demon Sector.
As one of the founders of Skyfire, the Fire Ant King, who also boasted tremendous influence among the bottom level-demons of the Blood Demon Sector, grew more and more important.
After Elder Nether Spring sabotaged the Nether Spring Kingdom with the Demon God Virus and fled in a hurry, it was a great headache to settle the mess in the Nether Spring Kingdom and the Insect Clan.
Elder Nether Spring was certainly unpardonable, but not every member of the Insect Clan was guilty. It was impossible to kill all of them.
Technically speaking, the Insect Clan that had been made use of by Elder Nether Spring for decades was the greatest victim. The members of the Insect Clan killed by Elder Nether Spring miserably were definitely ten times more than those killed by the Heaven's Origin Sector!
Therefore, when the Insect Clan was lacking a leader and the Nether Spring Kingdom was in chaos, unsurprisingly, the Fire Ant King returned to his homeland.
Elder Nether Spring had escaped. The Fire Ant King was supported by Jin Tuyi, Jin Xinyue, and Skyfire. He had the legacy of Chaos in his control and was a demon emperor as well as one of the best specialists in the refinement of demonic plants. Who could be match for him in the entire Insect Clan?
The Fire Ant King defeated a few unworthy challengers easily and became the new leader of the Insect Clan and the controller of the Nether Spring Kingdom.
Theoretically speaking, the title 'Elder Nether Spring' was now on his head, too. He was the new 'Elder Nether Spring' now.
However, as the Demon God Virus savaged the Blood Demon Sector, the previous 'Elder Nether Spring', guilty of all the crimes, had utterly befouled the title.
In order to draw the line from the past, the Fire Ant King did not acknowledge the new title. He was still engaged in activities under his previous title, Fire Ant King.
Right now, the Fire Ant King was sort of a new giant of the Blood Demon Sector. He and Jin Xinyue were two feet that kept the balance of the world.
It was worth mentioning that the Fire Ant King was in a subtle relationship with the federation.
The Blade of Chaos under his lead had once instigated the Riot of Bloody Blade. The mutiny at the most critical battlefield caused the fiasco of Battle of Dawn, which was the demon race's first invasion into the federation.
He was doubtlessly a great contributor for the federation in that respect.
On the other hand, now that human beings and demons were integrating, and demons had been proven to be part of human beings, it was certainly inappropriate to accuse all the demons of being evil. The prevailing theory was that most of the demons were actually kind in nature. They were only fooled by a few ambitious politicians and schemers.
Therefore, the federation had defined the Blade of Chaos in the past as a resistance organization founded by the bottom-level demons spontaneously after they could not stand the deception and the exploitation of certain schemers in the leadership of the Pantheon of Demons!
As for the Fire Ant King, in the federation's propaganda, he was the demon who was the first to be awakened and to realize the evil nature of the 'Four Pillar System' and the schemes of the leadership of the demon race. It was also said that he had an arduous struggle for decades and made acquaintance with the federal soldiers in the glorious battle against tyranny. Therefore, he was 'an old friend of the federation'.
Right now, the 'federation's old friend'—the new giant of the Blood Demon Sector and one of the most powerful men in the three Sectors—was supporting another weary demon emperor respectfully.
Seeing that the Fire Ant King did not even dare to breathe hard, Li Yao might have thought that the stranger was his grandfather if their appearances had not been so vastly different.
Li Yao scratched his head. With the Fire Ant King's position today, was there any demon emperor worth so much of his respect?
Li Yao narrowed his eyes and observed carefully.
The demon emperor's back was hunched. His long eyebrows dangled down to his chest. His demonic energy was entirely concealed, and he looked like a stone statue that had grown moss.
His skin was like a broken fossil, and he was carrying an external skeleton resembling a turtle shell on his back. At first glance, he was a giant tortoise that had stood on its feet.
He was holding a stick that was also covered in moss in his hand. There was no telling how long the stick had been in service, but every burl was mixed with the flavor of time.
Helped by the Fire Ant King, the demon emperor walked up to Li Yao slowly.
Seeing that Li Yao was tilting his head and thinking hard, Zhou Yifu laughed and said in a low voice, "Stop thinking. He is Gui Suishou!"
Li Yao was dumbfounded. "He… he is? Gui Suishou is not dead yet?"
Of all the demon emperors of the Blood Demon Sector, Gui Suishou, a demon emperor of the Sea Clan, was definitely the most unique one.
In their training, demons were not classified into different types clearly like Cultivators were, but their specialties were still not entirely the same.
For example, the Fire Ant King excelled at refining demonic plants, Elder Nether Spring's specialty was producing viruses, and Jin Tuyi dedicated most of his computational ability to strategic planning.
Some of the demon emperors were good at fighting, some were good poisoning, and still some others were fond of breeding demon beasts that would only appear in the worst nightmares to fight for themselves.
But Gui Suishou, as a demon emperor from the Sea Clan was good at… none of the above!
He could neither fight, nor produce venom, nor raise demon beasts. He had dedicated all his training to a single goal, which was to live on!
The Tortoise Clan, a branch of the Sea Clan, was one of the species that boasted the longest life in the first place, and Gui Suishou had inherited a secret art called Great Dream Tortoise Hibernation Art from his family, which highlighted the importance of a healthy life and specified how to live long. He could enter the hibernation state while he was training in seclusion. When he woke up again thirty to fifty years later, he would not be affected at all. Such a technique was much more awesome than the Human Hibernation technology recently developed by the Heaven's Origin Sector and the Flying Star Sector!
This was Gui Suishou, the oldest demon emperor of the Blood Demon Sector and a legend, or a freak, who was four hundred years older than the Star Glory Federation!
Now that such an old monster was nearby, with nothing more than his age that was more than a thousand years old, no wonder the Fire Ant King was so respectful toward him.
Also, Gui Suishou did not have any grudges with the Star Glory Federation because he had been sleeping most of the time in the five hundred years after the Star Glory Federation was founded. In the past decades, he had even been training in seclusion all the time. He did not have any time to do anything bad even if he wanted to!
The ocean was too vast and mysterious. Gui Suishou was often never seen again after he found an undersea residence and hid himself inside. He was that kind of legendary, unpredictable person. Li Yao had only seen a brief introduction to him in the database before and thought that he was long dead!
It had never occurred to him that a relic from a thousand years ago would be standing in front of him for real!
No wonder even a grandmaster like Zhou Yifu was glowing with joy and excitement.
Perhaps, in the eyes of a historian, such old monsters who had lived more than a thousand years were all priceless treasures.
"Li Yao!"
The Fire Ant King greeted them delightedly. "Come here. Let me introduce you to each other. This is Master Gui Suishou, who was the Great Priest of the Pantheon of Demons five hundred years ago. He is now the oldest and most experienced demon emperor of the Blood Demon Sector!"
The Fire Ant King was obviously adulating Gui Suishou. Everybody knew that, except for his old age, this old tortoise had no specialties at all. He could neither fight nor bite and was definitely among the most useless demons.
In the Blood Demon Sector, where the strong preyed on the weak, what could seniority do? He might have been a thousand years old, but others would not hesitate to beat him if he pissed them off even if he was ten thousand years old!
However, the Fire Ant King's next sentence made Li Yao's spine constrict violently.
"Also, I only learned just now that Master Gui was also my big brother's teacher!"