“What about your mission?”
Long Yangjun asked calmly, “You are here in the Imperium of True Human Beings as a full-fledged representative and a special envoy of the Star Glory Federation, aren’t you? You are here to strive to earn more national interests for the Star Glory Federation or at least to help the Star Glory Federation to survive, aren’t you? You are even hoping to change the war between the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance on your own and to achieve a certain subtle balance, aren’t you?
“Instead of focusing on the insignificant battle before your eyes—no, it can barely be called a battle and is just a messy riot that is destined to fail—don’t you feel that you have more important missions and more lofty destinies that need fulfilling? Should anything happen to you, what about your mission, and what about the Star Glory Federation?”
Li Yao hesitated for a moment. Then, the brilliance in his eyes was even more dazzling, and his smile became sunnier. “Yes, it is exactly because I’m here to promote the ideas of the Cultivators as a representative of the federation that I have even fewer excuses to retreat.
“Here, I am the Star Glory Federation, and I stand for all the Cultivators. How can a real Cultivator just get up and leave under such circumstances?
“If we can ignore the lives of so many ordinary people just because of certain ‘more lofty destinies’ or ‘more important missions’, will we, the Cultivators, be any different from the Immortal Cultivators? If you can turn a blind eye to the death of hundreds of thousands of people for ‘loftier destinies’, you will certainly not hesitate to sacrifice the lives of a million for ‘loftier, loftier destinies’!
“If I really do that, how can I be confident to promote the ideas of the Cultivators in the future? Nobody will trust me, nobody will believe the Star Glory Federation. Even I will not believe in myself anymore!”
Long Yangjun frowned so hard that water seemed to be dripping from her eyebrows. She said sullenly, “The federation really shouldn’t have sent such an idiot like you for such an onerous, complicated, and critical mission. You will screw it up 100%!”
“Perhaps, but this is exactly what the Cultivators of the federation are like.”
Li Yao retrieved three crystal suits and all the attack magical equipment from his Cosmos Rings and conducted the final maintenance while he grinned. “I believe that even if it were not me but my wife, Ding Lingdang, who was sent, she would undoubtedly make the same choice. She wouldn’t even have wasted so much time talking and would have charged at the enemy at the very first second.
“As for other people… I believe they are the same. The federation would certainly send a real Cultivator for such a mission, and a real Cultivator does not have a second choice when they encounter such a thing.
“Even if… I really screwed up the mission, it will not be the end of the world, will it? The universe will not stop existing because I’m gone. Didn’t the federation operate neatly in the hundred years while I was away searching for the Ancient Sages Sector?
“I trust Ding Lingdang, I trust Guo Chunfeng, I trust Senior Brother Peng Hai, I trust ‘Solar Eclipse’ Jiang Shaoyang, I trust Wu Mayan, Xie Anan, and Jin Xinyue. I trust all the Cultivators and all the citizens of the Star Glory Federation, who must be working diligently for the ideal of the Cultivators and the future of mankind! Even without me, the ideas of the Cultivators will be spread to the center of the cosmos and the entire universe someday. I have no doubt about that!”
Long Yangjun could’ve refuted what Li Yao said from a hundred perspectives.
But looking at Li Yao’s unbelievably scorching eyes, she was somewhat lost for words.
It was like a debate between someone smart and an idiot. No matter how many philosophies the smart guy knew, how adept he was at debating, and how unquestionable his rebuttals were, it was just useless.
The smart guy would only admit his debacle in the idiot’s ignorant but sunny smile!
“I also believe that even if I cannot change the big picture, I can at least influence the people around me and plant the seed of ‘Cultivators’ in their cold, barren hearts!”
Li Yao stared at Long Yangjun passionately. “As long as the seed roots and sprouts at the bottom of their hearts, it may boil their frozen blood and make them take over my responsibility and fulfill my destinies for me!”
Long Yangjun felt crept out while she was being stared at. “Hey, hey, hey. You can talk whatever you want, but don’t look at me like that, alright? I’ll certainly not join you and act like an idiot… What are those?”
Astounded, Long Yangjun looked at the three jade chips and two Cosmos Rings that Li Yao stuffed into her hands.
“Inside the jade chips are the methods of communication with the federation, as well as the production and assembly procedures for the super-remote communication bases.”
Li Yao looked at Long Yangjun, full of expectations. “The Cosmos Rings contain the basic units of the communication bases. But most of the components are broken now. They need to be maintained and reproduced in a large refining workshop.
“After all, we have been fighting together for a long time. Should… anything happen to me, please inform the federation of the news, or maybe you can find Boss Bai and ask Boss Bai to deliver the message back to the federation. You’re definitely okay with that, aren’t you?”
“I’m not!”
Clenching the jade chips and the Cosmos Rings, Long Yangjun gnashed her teeth and snapped, “Why would I help you and go insane with you? I’ve told you that I am an absolutely neutral observer. The federation, the Imperium, the Covenant Alliance, and even the extraterrestrial devils have nothing to do with me at all. I will help none of you, and I only care about myself. Everything I do, I do for my own purpose. Your life and death do not concern me at all!”
“If that is the case, why did you arrange for a little girl who was least pious toward Nepenthe to bring food for me in the 10,084th district? Didn’t you want her to ignite the fire in my heart as well as that in yours?”
Li Yao argued without giving in, “Furthermore, why did you go through all the trouble and set up a Nepenthe deep below the ground? Was it really meant to build a new hideout for yourself, to complement your own techniques, or to run a ‘social experiment’?
“Was it really a coincidence that you brought me to this place at the most critical moment?
“Or maybe, is it because deep down in your heart, you believe that the world before your eyes is wrong, and you vaguely expected that my arrival would change everything and achieve what a smart guy like you cannot through the most childish, idiotic, and clumsy approaches?
“Although you don’t want to admit it, the choice I’m making right now is what you have been looking forward to in your heart, isn’t it? If I really flee with you, you will be very disappointed, and your confidence will be completely swallowed by darkness, won’t it?”
“You…”
Long Yangjun was rendered speechless. Somewhat too nervous to make contact with Li Yao’s aggressive eyes, she simply mumbled, “It’s impossible. You can’t change the world. It’s hopeless. The Pangu civilization, the Nuwa civilization, and the infinite primordial civilizations earlier before them have all been devoured by the dark universe. This is perhaps the destiny of all civilizations. How can mankind survive it?”
“Yes. Compared to the boundless universe, human beings are simply too insignificant.”
Li Yao put on the first crystal suit and retreated the other two crystal suits into the handiest Cosmos Ring. He then carried nine sabers on his back in the shape of a sector, which cast him into the halo of gold and silver brilliance.
Li Yao smiled at Long Yangjun and said, “However, no matter how insignificant we are, I will fight this world to the end, and I will never be changed by it!”
Long Yangjun’s breath came to a brief halt. In her trance, she had the feeling that idiocy was contagious.
She could not look at Li Yao in the eyes anymore. So, she turned to the battlefield and changed the topic. “How are you going to fight this battle?”
She immediately regretted it after saying that, because her question on such details implied that she admitted the significance of Li Yao’s battle.
“I don’t know. This battle is truly extremely dangerous. The chance of winning is no more than 1%. I can only hope that the control system of those battle puppets is not hard to compromise.”
Pointing at the firing points and the pivots of defense rune arrays around the Great Iron Plants, Li Yao said, “First of all, I will blow up all the fixed firing points and the pivots of the defense rune arrays, which will greatly reduce the pressure of the Nepenthe believers so that they can keep the battle puppets and the Immortal Cultivators occupied.
“Then, I will go to the control center of the battle puppets. There must be such a thing, right? If I can crack and compromise it, I can hope to control part of the battle puppets and even the whole defense system of the Great Iron Plants.
“Although the odds of success are extremely low and such actions may not be enough to stop Li Minghui’s elite troops, it is the only method available right now.”
The mental devil had swallowed a lot of tenebrum energy and heritages from Extraterrestrial Devil Mo Xuan and Extraterrestrial Devil Lu Qingchen, allowing it to learn many ways to hack and control the Spiritual Nexus from the predecessors.
Right now, most of the forces that were taming the riot were battle puppets, and the Immortal Cultivators were few. If he could locate the control pivot and hack it with the mental devil, it would be one way to settle the desperate crisis.
As to exactly what he was going to do when Li Minghui’s elite troops were back, or how he was going to deal with Li Linghai and Wuying Qi after they learned the incident later—Li Yao had no time to care about those things right now.
Right then, the earth quaked, causing huge noises, and a super heavy excavator drove out of a forsaken mine not far away from the two of them. The excavator had been modified and was pulling a piece of weird magical equipment that looked both like a silver pan and an iron hat. It was protected by dozens of tough-looking, fully-armed Nepenthe believers.
Li Yao was rather surprised because it looked quite familiar. He asked, “What is this?”