Li Yao was slightly dazed. “Isn’t it too dangerous to return to the base of the Association of Demon Hunters right now?”
“Wrong. The base of the Association of Demon Hunters is just a nest for ‘Dongfang Mingyue’.”
Long Yangjun said with a smile, “I’m about to lead you to the nest of myself, ‘Long Yangjun’. I spent a couple of years there when I just snuck into the Imperium and hadn’t fabricated the identity of ‘Dongfang Mingyue’. I’ve made some preparations there.”
Li Yao immediately bulged his eyes and quacked, “Some preparations? What are you up to exactly? Do you really have a scheme?”
“Of course I do. Why else do you think I’ve come to the Imperium? Just for sightseeing?”
Long Yangjun said casually, “However, after analyzing your life carefully through a hundred perhaps ungrounded biographies, and based on the long-time, close-up observation during the time I fought together with you, I have discovered a pattern.
“After you began your career, you encountered countless tricky enemies, starting from Yan Xibei, to Xiao Xuance, the Elder Nether Spring, to Lu Zui and Zhou Hengdao, and then to Extraterrestrial Devil Mo Xuan and Extraterrestrial Devil Lu Qingchen later…
“Those people would have all been called men of their time. They were sophisticated, brutal, determined, and powerful, and their final plans were accurate and meticulous too.
“However, no matter how sophisticated, brutal, determined, and powerful those men of the time were, and despite their thorough plans, they could not avoid their fate of being sabotaged by you in uncanny, unconventional, and even unintentional ways.
“The same thing happened to Blackstar the Great today. Such an unparalleled expert who is at least in the Divinity Branching Stage and has countless secrets with him has met a debacle when he is faced with you. Why is that?”
Pondering for a moment, Li Yao blinked his eyes and said, “Because… justice always wins, and I am a representative of justice?”
“Wrong. It’s because you seem to have been born with a certain weird luck. Also, the more stealthy your enemies’ schemes are, the more effective your natural-born luck will be.”
Long Yangjun said, “As a dual successor of Pangu and Nuwa, I am certainly not someone who believes in supernatural powers. The so-called ‘luck’ is nothing more than a statistical probability or a mysterious pattern that people haven’t figured out yet.
“But now that the probability and the pattern are out there, I will not follow the examples of Yan Xibei, Xiao Xuance, Elder Nether Spring, Lu Zui, Extraterrestrial Devil Mo Xuan, and Extraterrestrial Devil Lu Qingchen to act and deal with you stealthily only to be sabotaged by you in the end.
“There have already been so many lessons. I will be an idiot if I repeat their mistakes, wouldn’t you agree?”
Li Yao thought for a moment. “Well, but I’m indeed weaker than ever right now. Chances are that you can kill me with only your little finger.”
“This is not the first time you are weaker than ever. Didn’t the great men of the time try to kill you more than once? Which of them succeeded in the end? Not only did they fail, but they also made you stronger and stronger.”
Long Yangjun said, “Not that I’m being modest, but I don’t think I’m smarter than Xiao Xuance, Lu Zui, or Extraterrestrial Devil Mo Xuan. Chances are that you still have certain trump cards that even you are unaware of, and that those trump cards will be activated when I decide to kill you. That is the greatest reason why I am never determined to kill you!
“All in all, after careful thinking, it has occurred to me that those men of the time dealt with you in the wrong way. Since they all believed in their cause, there was no need for them to hide it at all. Must their beliefs be kept clandestine and away from public competitions?
“They had already lost when they decided to go stealthy and work in darkness because it meant that they were not confident in their beliefs at all. Then, your victories wouldn’t be surprising at all.
“Therefore, I will bear the lessons in mind this time. It’s true that I have a tiny plan, but I’m willing to show you every procedure of the entire plan clearly. Whatever details you want to see will be given to you. I will tell you the origins, the development, and the final purpose of my plan. Then, Vulture Li Yao, let’s see if you can stop me!”
Hearing Long Yangjun chuckle, Li Yao could not hold on anymore but fell into a prolonged dark dream.
In the dark dream, he seemed to be experiencing a long time, from the big bang of the universe to right now, and from right now to the oblivion of the universe. It was so long that he almost forgot who he was, and his soul was gradually perishing.
But whenever his soul was about to perish, the blue planet—Earth—would always pop up deep inside his soul, sending him a feeble strength, which brought him the last hope of persistence like a blue, flickering candle in a dark night.
Li Yao knew that his body and his brain had suffered unprecedented wounds in the battle versus Blackstar the Great. It was even more dangerous than the excessive radiations he suffered in the Devilish Scorpion Nebula when he broke into the Divinity Transformation Stage.
But withering was always followed by a new life. When the old brain cells decayed, new power flowed out incessantly from the gap deep inside his soul, refreshing his soul and his brain and reestablishing a mental world that was even more magnificent!
“I will accomplish the Vulture Plan. I will destroy Earth. I will… set all of you free!”
Whenever the deepest darkness was about to completely corrupt and swallow his broken soul, the feeble but unwavering voice would resonate with his soul pieces, invigorating his brand-new mental world!
Perhaps he was in a deep coma at the beginning.
But after the reestablishment of his mental world, he seemed to be in the state of metamorphosis.
In his trance, he did not know how long he had been sneaking in the deep ocean, but he felt he entered a narrow, rugged, sunless tunnel that led straight downward.
He was in darkness for a few consecutive days. Occasionally, he saw the starry lights on the rock walls around but could not tell whether they were the brightness from the minerals or the eyes of demon beasts. Later, he found himself in a massive underground settlement, where countless people in gray capes surrounded them.
Long Yangjun seemed to boast a very high position in the underground settlement as an unquestionable authority. Vaguely, Li Yao saw countless people worshipping him. There was no telling if it was just his hallucination.
After Li Yao really broke the “mental cocoon” and woke up, he discovered that he was lying in the middle of a gigantic, square pool, surrounded by a certain ivory material that looked like paraffin wax. It was thicker than the common jelly-like gels that were used for healing. Li Yao had to tear them off from his body one piece after another.
“Brother Yao, you’re finally up!”
Li Jialing was sleeping in a corner of the room, wagging his short, furry tail. Hearing the cracks from the healing pool, he immediately bulged his eyes and shouted in delight.
“Huh…”
Li Yao managed to make a sound as a reply. He struggled to stand on his feet in the healing pool before he tore off the consolidated “paraffin wax” on his body and scanned his body carefully with spiritual energy.
As he expected, his body was only generally fixed, and there were still many invisible, fatal cracks inside, like a vase that had been stuck together cautiously after it fell into pieces. Whenever his spiritual energy flowed to the cracks, it was like a waterfall running into an abyss and nowhere to be found again.
Such devastating wounds meant much more than the plunge of his level. Heaving a sigh, Li Yao scratched his puffy hair and thought, The sequela is indeed rather severe. The blow was too strong after all…
It was already unbelievably fortunate of him to have survived the disaster. He could not be too greedy. After all, there was always a solution to any difficulty. Even Long Yangjun had complimented him for his uncanny luck. So, there would always be chances for him to restore his peak combat ability or even reach a level higher!
While clearing his messy thoughts, Li Yao punched slowly, testing his speed and strength, and observed the environment.
He was in the middle of a vintage healing pool, which was established in a small medical chamber.
Judging from the texture of the wall and the precision of the joints, such a medical chamber must’ve been built by a rather developed civilization.
However, all the facilities around were rusted. The chamber was also in a mess and filled with garbage. All kinds of mosses and vines whose names Li Yao couldn’t tell had sprawled on the wall. Everything suggested that the place had been forsaken for a long time.
The air here was suffocating, mixed with the stink of putridity. Even a deep breath could not make the lung lobes expand much.
Despite the flickering lights above his head, Li Yao still felt the thick darkness pressing over.
He sensed keenly that he should be somewhere deep below the ground.
“How long have I slept? What is this place?”
Holding back the headache that almost felt like a hungover, Li Yao glanced at the side of the medical pool. His mustard-seed combat suit had been folded neatly on the ground, next to his own Cosmos Rings.
Except for the few Cosmos Rings that he had swallowed into his body, all his Cosmos Rings were here. There were even two additional Cosmos Rings that Li Yao had never seen before. Attracting them with his spiritual energy and sensing them carefully, he discovered that the two Cosmos Rings were not installed with any barrier, and he could explore them with his telepathic thoughts freely. One of the Cosmos Rings stored the broken pieces of “Gold Vulture”, while the other contained the remains of “Hellstar”. It appeared that Long Yangjun had helped him collect the detritus.
Long Yangjun is really considerate enough!
Li Yao felt delighted. Then he thought of the scheme or plan that Long Yangjun talked about before he passed out. He couldn’t help but frown again.
“Brother Yao, you’ve slept for ten days!”
Li Jialing stepped forward and said, “This is the 10,084th district, more than thirty thousand meters into the ground and almost on the border of the crust and the mantle!”