Li Yao had the experience of being invaded by the alien force of the Blood Stripe Virus. Or rather, the "alien force" was still lingering inside his body to this day and even melted into a "mental devil" with his negative feelings. Therefore, both he and the mental devil were very sensitive to the alien force. Absolutely no mysterious force could escape their detection.
Even the force from the Supreme Emperor would not be able to escape.
Having failed to figure out anything after a long time, Li Yao could only withdraw the force slowly and let go of Li Jialing. He asked suspiciously, "You swallowed the force stored in the Imperial Fire Pearl so fast. Do you not feel that anything is wrong?"
"Nothing is wrong at all!"
Li Jialing shook his hands and breathed hard. Soon, he was back to normal. He shook his head and said, "I feel very good. Perhaps it's because I've been through too much in Manjusaka and have been used to the injection of all kinds of bizarre forces into my body. Although the force inside the Imperial Fire Pearl is overwhelming, it makes me feel very comfortable and completely different from before.
"In the past, when the forces were injected into my body crazily, I often felt that I could not bear it anymore and that my body might explode at any moment. But after absorbing the force of the Imperial Fire Pearl, I only feel unparalleled confidence, as if … I can swallow all the stars in the universe into my body, and I'm confident that I can completely control them!"
"So weird?"
Li Yao thought quickly and knew that it was probably because of the Supreme Emperor's "mental imprint" that was left inside the Imperial Fire Pearl.
The Supreme Emperor was naturally an unparalleled tough man who could control all the stars in the universe.
Li Yao had vaguely been affected by the dominating aura during his training, too. However, he was an adult who had been through hundreds of battles after all. His worldview was already fixed, and his soul was extremely solid. It was not easy for him to be reshaped.
Li Jialing, on the other hand, had always been an ignorant young man before. It was not strange that he would change slightly after being polished by the Supreme Emperor's energy.
It was a normal influence and could not be compared to the evil methods such as "infection" and "possession".
It was like a young man whose worldview had not been fixed had read a biography of the Supreme Emperor and been deeply awed by the Supreme Emperor's great feats of saving mankind and uniting the universe. He was determined to become a great hero too. As long as he knew what he should do, there was nothing wrong with it.
"Then, did you have any strange dreams? Did you become another person in your dreams?"
Li Yao thought for a moment and asked again, "Or maybe they are in a trance, often hear sneaky voices, have all kinds of vague illusions, and sometimes even lose their memories. They don't know what they have done in the past few minutes or even hours?"
Li Jialing bulged his eyes and shook his head quickly. "No, not at all. I feel better than ever before. Those weird symptoms have never happened before. Besides, aren't you with me every day, Brother Yao? You should've noticed something if anything was wrong with me!"
"That does make sense. It seems that there is nothing wrong with the Imperial Fire Pearl itself."
Li Yao really couldn't figure it out. He waved his hands and said, "Forget it. You can continue your training. Remember that you must familiarize yourself with the 'Thunderous Tornado Saber Art' today and grasp every part of it. It's a killing move that I created myself when I was young. It's very powerful."
"I'm already familiar with it!"
Li Jialing said in excitement, "Also, Brother Yao, I've discovered nineteen flaws in the 'Thunderous Tornado Saber Art', all of which affect strength, speed, and the circulation of spiritual energy. Saber arts shouldn't be performed in such a way at all!
"You must've done it on purpose to test me and see if I could discover those mistakes, didn't you?
"Ha. Not only have I discovered them, but I've also modified and optimized them. The power of the 'Thunderous Tornado Saber Art' has been improved by at least 10%. It should be enough to pass your test, right?"
Li Yao: "… Well, good boy, you're really something. You actually found the flaws that I deliberately hid in my saber technique. Hahahaha, little brother, you're so excellent. Brother Yao is really pleased.
"Alright. You can go train yourself now. I need to talk to General Lei Chenghu!"
"General Lei?"
Li Jialing blinked. "Why are you talking to him? Is there anything you need?"
"We can get in touch with each other even if there's nothing important!"
Scratching his chin, Li Yao mumbled, "I vaguely feel that I should communicate with General Lei Chenghu more and deepen our friendship. Chances are that he can be of great help at a critical moment!"
…
On June 10, the twenty-seventh district below the ground of the capital was the Heavenly Change Operation!
The twenty-seventh district was located deep inside the mountains at the center of the main continent of the capital planet. Three thousand to five thousand meters below the ground, it was a dark and colorful underground city that could never see sunlight.
Iron, rocks, mother lodes, and machines constituted the main body of the city. The furnaces and the power furnaces that never died off were roaring day and night. The colorful minerals deep inside the mines emitted fluorescence that carried weak radiation, enshrouding the city in a mist of light that was almost rotten.
Looking up, it was a canyon that led to the sky. However, because it was too far away from the ground, the top of the canyon was always covered in smoke, blocking the blue sky and the white clouds.
There were also all kinds of interconnected tubes and stairs that pierced through the faults on the two sides of the canyon. After hundreds of years of decay, the joints of the tubes were not very tight. Suspicious liquids were dripping from them like a never-ending drizzle.
It was the home of countless human beings, or rather, the animals that were called "hominoids", for their entire life.
Of the people living in the twenty-seventh district, only a few of them could find a "formal" job in the underground mining bases, the purification factories, or the geothermal energy supply stations. Most of them had to live on the leftovers that were leaked and thrown down from the upper areas.
The leftovers came from the cities of the Immortal Cultivators on the ground at first. After they were enjoyed by the Immortal Cultivators, some of the leftovers were scattered and dropped to the thousand meters below the ground. Then, they were exploited and consumed layer by layer. By the time they leaked to the twenty-seventh district, there was only a tiny bit left.
However, the twenty-seventh district was still not the most miserable place, because in the deepest part of the dark abyss thousands of meters below them, countless hands and mouths were still waiting for the waste and garbage that they threw down.
If it had been in the ancient times when resources were scarce and technology was underdeveloped, most of the people in the underground worlds would've been killed in the cruel famines a long time ago.
The highly-developed food manufacturing technology in modern times had produced a lot of synthetic food that tasted like wax and was difficult to swallow but boasted high calories. The lives of the bottom-level of society were saved, but there was still no place for their desolate souls. As a result, those "hominoids" and "ants" wandered below the ground forever like ghosts.
Whether or not they had a formal job, and whether or not they were male or female, old or young, their destiny was the same. They sold their fleshly bodies in all kinds of ways in exchange for synthetic food, the cheapest entertainment products, and mental anesthetics. In the self-comforting illusions, they allowed their souls to temporarily get rid of the dark reality and soar to the illusionary paradise made of sand to enjoy momentary pleasure.
In the decadence day after day, year after year, their fleshly bodies, their only asset, were being consumed at a very high speed.
All kinds of illusionary pleasures were often combined with physical indulgence, too.
After being injected with all kinds of mental anesthetics, the dozens of naked bodies entangled with each other to enjoy the most primitive pleasures. It was perhaps the happiest moment for the underground hominoids.
The authorities of the Imperium acquiesced to the hominoids' behavior, too.
On one hand, the authorities believed that it was perfectly normal that the lowly human beings such as the "hominoids" could not control their bestial instincts. On the other hand, the hominoids devoted all their attention to sex and did not have the spare time to consider the messy stuff, which was very helpful for maintaining the order and stability of the Imperium.
As a result, all kinds of bizarre diseases that were unheard of in the world of ancient Cultivators naturally became popular in the underground worlds.
In the flesh factories, in order to compete with the spiritual puppets, they had to exploit their own bodies in the most extreme ways, resulting in all kinds of pains due to overwork.
In the underground mines that were filled with radiation, bathing in the seemingly glamorous fluorescence of minerals all day long, their bodies gradually mutated and evolved into all kinds of deformities.
Together with the mutations on the neurological level caused by the cheap entertainment and the mental anesthetics, as well as the large-scale infections caused by sex … All kinds of sufferings haunted all the underground hominoids like ghosts, corrupting their bodies and souls.
At such a moment, a hospital that could at least provide the maximal anesthetics and comfort even if it could not cure the diseases was as good as a paradise of light in the dark underground worlds.
At the center of the twenty-seventh district, there was exactly such an enormous hospital.
The hospital did not have a name, but the ivory brilliance that was emanating all day long seemed to be illuminating the darkness in the bottom of everybody's heart in the twenty-seventh district.
The medical facilities and standards here were naturally vastly different from those in the cities of the Immortal Cultivators on the surface of the planet. Thankfully, the underground hominoids did not have high demands. As long as the painful nerves inside their body could be suppressed, the damaged joints and muscles could be sealed so that they would have the strength to struggle for a living tomorrow, or the deformed parts could be removed for them.
The doctors and nurses in the nameless hospital did all the jobs well.
Therefore, not only the twenty-seventh district, but also the neighboring districts, many people came to visit the hospital. Most of them returned satisfied, full of praise for the doctors in the hospital who "helped the world and helped the people," and were grateful to the doctors.
Few people knew that the nameless hospital was actually a nest of cannibals.
However, the victims were not the hominoids. Most of the hominoids were not qualified to be swallowed by the hospital yet.
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