"Fine. Let's say that he is still a 'patriot'!"
Li Yao made a concession. "But it doesn't mean that he can distill and twist the most beautiful feelings of human beings as evil weapons and create terrible monsters such as' ghouls'. In that regard, he is truly the opposite of the Ultimate Benevolence Masters of the Holy League. Neither of them is a good guy."
"Then, if the Puppet King is really Lu Qingchen, what are you going to do?"
The mental devil asked, "Can we cooperate to some extent on the premise that we love the Federation and human beings are supreme?"
Li Yao thought for a long time.
"I think it will be very difficult."
He rejected the idea of cooperating with Lu Qingchen, which seemed to be a good idea.
Although their ideologies overlapped to some extent, their approaches and the boundaries that they could cross unscrupulously were too different.
For Lu Qingchen, his idea was to virtualize all human beings so that everybody could get rid of the shackles of their bodies and live on the Spiritual Nexus and the crystal processors.
In the cyber world, as long as the tiniest bit of energy was consumed, everybody would have the most glamorous life and trigger infinite feelings and desires, which were exactly the source of the extraterrestrial devils' power.
Li Yao could not say that Lu Qingchen's idea was necessarily wrong. Li Yao, for example, had gotten rid of the shackles of his physical body and assumed the form of a certain … information life. He had indeed received entirely different interests and unprecedented insights.
But it was still the same. Evolution was not something that could be accomplished overnight. Such an enormous project as the Spiritual Nexus of all mankind would take at least ten thousand years of experiments, repetitive arguments, and careful modifications before it was finally achieved naturally.
If he wanted to accomplish the task in one fell swoop and complete the ten thousand years of evolution in just a hundred years, he would only be rushing to his death.
More haste, less speed. Lu Qingchen was certainly aware of that. However, his soul had been completely hijacked by the extraterrestrial devils, and he had fallen to the uncontrollable dark side. As a result, he had abandoned the boundaries of a Cultivator and created the Disillusionment Virus, the Glory Virus, the Taotie Virus, and the Love Virus without any mental burden. To achieve his purpose, he would resort to any means. The feelings of human beings could be manipulated blatantly. The sacrifices of thousands of people were the stepping stones on his path to a 'glorious future'.
It was impossible for Li Yao to cooperate with Lu Qingchen.
Li Yao still hadn't forgotten how treacherous and terrifying Lu Qingchen had been in the battle when the Black Wind Fleet attacked the Xing Yao Federation. How many people had been directly or indirectly killed by him?
"I won't forgive him!"
Li Yao pondered for a moment and said, "However, we can't just watch him fall into the hands of the Ultimate Benevolence Masters. He knows too many secrets about the Federation and us. If the Ultimate Benevolence Masters absorb all the secrets, the five pretentious guys will be even more difficult to deal with!"
"Then we'll act according to the circumstances. At the very least, we have to capture him first."
The mental devil said, "Don't be careless and be careful. Although Lu Qingchen is one generation younger than you, the guy is not simple at all. He has absorbed strength from the star child, Su Changfa, Professor Mo Xuan, the extraterrestrial devils, and you. Right now, his expertise in the Spiritual Nexus and the human brain may be even more impressive than ours combined!"
"Speaking of which, the whole thing is rather odd too."
Li Yao thought for a moment and said, "Lu Qingchen hasn't been in the Holy League for much longer than we have been in the Imperium. But I feel that his capability has soared again. At that time, he could only control the Black Wind Fleet and was no match for us when we were in the 'Ultimate Yuanying'. But right now, his strength is enough to corrupt the entire Holy League. Even the experts in the Divinity Transformation Stage are toyed with by him. Even the immeasurably strong Ultimate Benevolence Masters cannot catch his tail.
"Isn't his advancement speed too fast?"
"What's so strange about that?"
The mental devil said, "Didn't you jump from the Divinity Transformation Stage to the Divinity Branching Stage from the Yuanying Stage only a few years after you jumped to the center of the cosmos?"
"That's different."
Li Yao coughed and said, "Fine, I admit that my rapid advancement was partly due to luck. At first, I broke into the Divinity Transformation Stage under the blast of intense radiation in the Devilish Scorpion Nebula. Then, Li Linghai, queen of the Imperium, provided me with the precious resources from the Supreme Emperor's mausoleum, including the ultimate treasures such as the 'Imperial Fire Pearl', for my training. In the end, part of the soul of Blackstar the Great was given to me as a gift. He even gave me a unique training room in the Gold Crystal Pyramid.
"With the enhancement of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures and natural paradises, half of the Imperium is helping my training. That's why my advancement speed is so fast.
"Also, leveling up so quickly isn't without side effects. Look, my usual words and actions are becoming more and more naive, returning to the basics. I don't want to do that either!
"Lu Qingchen, on the other hand, fled to the Holy League in a hurry with a few remaining souls after he was almost beaten to death by us. It was impossible for him to get any help.
"But while he was dealing with the entire Holy League with the Divine Heart Society, he was also training crazily and growing faster than us? Do you not think that it's too unbelievable? "
"You just can't stand the fact that he's doing well."
The mental devil said, "Can't he be a gifted, smart, and unparalleled training genius who has the luck of the entire Pangu universe? It's perfectly normal that his training speed is slightly faster than that of a universal virus like you!"
"… No, how can there be a monster whose training speed is faster than mine in the Pangu universe? Li Jialing first, Lu Qingchen now. How can the juniors nowadays be so lawless? "
Li Yao said, "If Lu Qingchen was really so tough, he wouldn't have been annihilated by us in the Federation years ago! Compared to the 'rarely-seen training genius' that you just described, I'd rather believe that his remaining soul had another fortuitous encounter and the help of a certain force when he was wandering in the sea of stars. Perhaps, it was the heritage of a certain great expert. "
"That's a problem," the mental devil said.
"Think about it. The most powerful forces at the center of the cosmos right now are none other than the Holy League and the Imperium. You know the situation of the Imperium very well. Also, Lu Qingchen has made it clear that he is going to destroy the Holy League. How can a third force emerge to help Lu Qingchen? Could it be that this so-called 'almighty senior' fell from the heavens? "
Li Yao found it hard to figure out the answer for the time being.
However, while the mental devil was mocking him, it had to admit that Lu Qingchen's advancement was indeed very suspicious. Li Yao and the mental devil were both very clear about his capabilities in the past. It was impossible for him to be so much stronger after only a couple of years!
Therefore, there should be something hidden behind Lu Qingchen.
Perhaps, after figuring out the reason for Lu Qingchen's sudden strength, all the riddles would be resolved.
"Let's turn our attention back to the guy who was talking to Gao Huan," the mental devil said.
"It's very clear now that the guy can't be Lu Qingchen, but he is at least a puppet or accomplice that Lu Qingchen remotely controls."
"Exactly."
Li Yao agreed. "Is there any way to see his face clearly or analyze his voice?"
"It's very difficult," the mental devil said.
"Lu Qingchen has erased most of the traces that he left on the Spiritual Nexus. It is already our best that we can recover the broken data. It is impossible for us to see the guy's face clearly.
"As for his voice, I believe that his voice must've been altered and disguised. It is even possible that he intentionally imitates other people's speech to mislead the investigation. Therefore, there is no need to waste too much computational ability on that."
"That does make sense."
Li Yao said, "Is there no way to determine the guy's identity?"
"Not necessarily," the mental devil said.
"Let's think about it from another perspective. Gao Huan, who failed to completely erase his memories and self after three brainwashing sessions, must be very rare. A lot of data must've been left in the system and attracted the attention of the staff and the senior priests, right?"
"Yes," Li Yao said.
"Then, a staff member or a senior priest will check on him and 'purge' him in person," the mental devil said.
The mental devil said, "Other people shouldn't have a chance to approach him, right?"
Li Yao's eyes suddenly shone. "Are you suggesting that the guy who talked to Gao Huan was a certain staff member or a senior priest?"
"Of course. Another piece of evidence is that we did not find any information about 'Gao Huan' in the system. It must be noted that he did not succumb after three brainwashing sessions. How could there be no record?"
The mental devil said. "Gao Huan's record must've been erased, and there can't be too many people who are authorized to erase the record."
"In such a case, the range of our investigation has been greatly reduced."
Li Yao said, "But there seem to be as many as seven senior priests. Counting other staff members, there must be twenty to thirty of them. How are we going to confirm one of them?"
"Here is the approximate time when the guy communicated with Gao Huan," the mental devil said.
"Although we cannot directly learn his identity, we can determine the name list of all the senior priests and staff members who were on duty at the same time. Then, we can search the surveillance videos and see what those people were doing exactly. If they were not Lu Qingchen's puppets, they must've been doing other work at this moment, which would've been captured by the crystal cameras.
"If somebody was supposed to be on duty, but he is nowhere to be found in all the surveillance videos, what does it mean?"
"It means that all the videos about him have been deleted and shattered!"
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