Looking at the child's haggard and lackluster face, Li Yao's soul was also brimming with sorrowful ripples.
A Boxing Champion continued projecting the third last will. The owner of the last will was a man whose eyes were big but skinny and whose face was brimming with sorrow.
"… Today is March 44, 1855 in the Martial Meritocrats Calendar. This is Shelter No. 668. Yesterday, the last of my companions passed away, and I am the last living person in the shelter.
"The air circulation system has been seriously damaged, and all the food has run out. What little life I have left can only be counted in 'minutes'. In a few 'minutes', this sanctuary will become a silent graveyard. Perhaps nobody will discover it even after a thousand years. I hope so!
"In the past half year, I have organized and stored the journals and last words of everybody in the shelter together with the books, jade chips, and crystal processors that we brought from the ground and kept them in a vacuum state.
"Inside … the past glories and glories of our civilization are recorded, as well as the unpardonable mistakes that the Cultivators who consider themselves guardians of the civilization made behind the glories and glories due to their arrogance.
"I hope that somebody can see everything a thousand years later and see how naïve, blind, hypocritical, and idiotic the Cultivators in the past were, and how fanatical, ignorant, violent, and easily instigated the masses were.
"I hope … I hope that people in the future will not make the same mistake as the Martial Meritocrats civilization, but I hope that you will not walk on the opposite side of us and turn into monsters like the Immortal Cultivators.
"I hope that there are still Cultivators in the world a thousand years later. Cultivators who are smarter, wiser, and more rational than us. Then, they will continue to lead the seemingly fanatical, ignorant, and violent people to solve the problems that we do not have the wisdom and courage to solve. They will struggle on in the dark universe. Go on. Go on.
"However fanatical, ignorant, stupid, selfish, and even evil they are, there is still hope for human beings, right? Right … "
The last Cultivator from a thousand years ago mumbled. His voice grew weaker and weaker, and the picture gradually dimmed. In the end, there was nothing but darkness.
A Boxing Champion opened his fingers. Five crystal wires extended from his palm and inserted into the data transmission hole on Li Yao's back, transmitting the journals and last words of all the Cultivators, believers of Chi You, and ordinary people in the shelter.
Li Yao immediately grasped the feelings of countless people, the struggles of countless souls in darkness and desperation, and their regrets.
Han Te and the Coloured Glaze clenched their fists and unclenched them again and again. In the end, the two of them held their fingers and said solemnly, "Yes. We will not become the Immortal Cultivators in any case. Never!"
Li Yao calmed himself down and pondered for a moment. "So, Wei Longtao should be telling the truth?"
"99.5% is definitely the truth."
A Boxing Champion said, "However, he seems to be too enthusiastic about my iron body right now. He has been asking about the secrets of my narrow escape, including the origins of the body. He does not seem to believe that I can produce such a perfect slaughter machine. Of course, his guess is correct. I can't produce it."
Li Yao was greatly alarmed. "This is a very important mission. Since it involves such a crucial one, he naturally has to figure out every detail. He can't be too careful."
"If he is really careful, he wouldn't have risked saving us at all."
A Boxing Champion analyzed rationally. "Even if he did risk saving us, there was no need for him to bring us to a secret base where dozens of 'earthly dragons' are located. Should the Immortal Cultivators trace the clues back to this place, wouldn't they be fished up once and for all?
"If he asked Zuo Jingyun to crawl her earthly dragons to a forsaken mine thousands of kilometers away and then screened them carefully, even if they were discovered by the Immortal Cultivators, the only thing that would be lost would be Zuo Jingyun's earthly dragons. Don't you think that is the most normal approach for the commander of a secret resistance organization?"
Li Yao's soul rippled. He finally understood why he vaguely felt uneasy since the very beginning.
A Boxing Champion was quite right. Wei Longtao was indeed reckless in doing that.
If the commander of 'Starlight' in the Land of Sins had been a brutal warrior, it would have been impossible for him to persist to this day under the ubiquitous siege of 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky'.
Recklessness on the major issues, prudence on the minor issues, and the timing of his arrival. It was almost a critical moment. What kind of truth was hidden behind all the anomalies?
"Also, he seems to be particularly interested in Han Te and the Coloured Glaze."
A Boxing Champion said casually, "To be more exact, he is particularly interested in you."
"Me?"
Li Yao's soul surged out, and his computational ability soared.
"He mentioned Han Te and the Coloured Glaze by accident and asked if they were my family and if their spiritual puppets and beast puppets, or your clones, were produced by me."
A Boxing Champion said, "Although he pretended to be casual, I still felt that something was not right from the shivering muscles on his face and the constriction of his pupils."
"You didn't tell him my real identity?"
The more Li Yao thought about it, the weirder he felt it was.
"Of course not."
The Fist King said calmly, "After careful analysis for a long time, I feel that my secret has probably been exposed. But I do not want such an advanced spiritual puppet that can automatically learn and upgrade on its own to be discovered by 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky', too. According to my calculation, keeping your secret should be able to increase the odds that I can take down the City in the Sky, which will give me a greater chance to grow stronger!"
Li Yao did not know how he should explain it to A Boxing Champion in order to convince him that he was not his own kind.
Right then, the chains outside echoed again. Zuo Jingyun, the one-armed female warrior, blocked the light at the entrance of the cave.
Li Yao hurried to retract his telepathic thoughts and the brilliance in his crystal eyes, disguising 'Tarantula' and 'Fiend Star' as common spiritual puppets.
A Boxing Champion's crystal eyes flashed. Looking at her, he asked, "Captain Zuo, did Commander Wei send you here?"
Zuo Jingyun was slightly dazed. Holding two fluffy quilts under her cold, metal arms, and some food and simple drugs in her right hand, she nodded and said, "Yes. Commander Wei asked me to see if you needed anything. I thought that the two little fellows might not be able to endure the training in such a dark and damp cave. So, I brought two quilts for you."
"We are not 'little fellows' at all!"
Hiding behind A Boxing Champion, Coloured Glaze grabbed A Boxing Champion's iron fist that was full of bumps and hollows. She craned her head from below A Boxing Champion's arm and summoned her courage to say, "Han Te and I are honorable warriors, too. We are … future heroes and future Cultivators!"
"You want to be Cultivators, too?"
Zuo Jingyun chuckled in amusement. Illuminated by the dim light, the lines of her face were softened. As long as she was not faced with the most ferocious bandits and thugs, she did not seem to be as cold and unapproachable as she was.
She helped the two little fellows make the quilts and opened the food box, revealing the steaming, synthetic food. Naturally, it did not taste as good as the pure natural food that A Boxing Champion treated the two little fellows to the food the night before, but it still smelled delicious enough.
"You're hurt. Come here. Let me clean your wounds for you."
She curled her metal finger at Coloured Glaze and then grabbed Coloured Glaze impatiently. Pressing her on her round, strong legs, she smiled casually. "Do you know what a 'Cultivator' is? Why are you talking nonsense here? I'm rather curious. The two of you are obviously from the Desolate Worlds. How did you get involved with 'A Boxing Champion' Lei Zonglie, the most dreadful bandit in the Land of Sins? Neither Liberty City nor the underground world is a place that little fellows like you should come to. "
"Like I said, we are not 'little fellows'!"
Coloured Glaze struggled hard on Zuo Jingyun's beautiful legs. Blushing, she said, not convinced, "Of course we know what a 'Cultivator' is. My mother was a Cultivator!"
"Oh?"
Zuo Jingyun stopped applying medicine on the girl's pink arm. The frost on her face was completely melted. She said with great interest, "Tell me about it."
Coloured Glaze looked at Han Te. Biting her lips, she told her background as it was. Naturally, she omitted the part about Li Yao and only said that she and Han Te were both very intelligent, talented puppeteers, and that 'Fiend Star' and 'Tarantula' were the best battle puppets in the village.
"My mother entrusted the mission of planting Gold Barley to my father before she passed away. Now, my father has passed it on to me. Look. This is the seed of Gold Barley that I carry with me. One day, I will plant Gold Barley all over the land so that everybody will be full!"
Coloured Glaze held the gold can with both hands proudly and delivered it to the tip of Zuo Jingyun's nose. "Sister Yun, do you think that my parents are qualified to be called 'Cultivators'?"
Zuo Jingyun did not know that the two little fellows had such a background. Staring at the can of Gold Barley seeds in a daze for a long time, she recalled and said, "Yes. According to the people in the organization, a long, long time ago, we did send some warriors to travel in the Land of Sins to spread the ideology of the Cultivators, hoping that flowers of hope would blossom in the most barren desert.
"However, such an approach was too dangerous. Many fellow Cultivators were discovered and captured by 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky'. Even if they were not caught, they were often regarded as idiots and lunatics by the sinners in the Land of Sins. It did not work out very well. Later, such an approach was gradually stopped.
"I did not expect that the seeds we planted would really blossom and bear fruit. The seeds of Gold Barley are truly beautiful."
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
