Li Yao immediately understood Lu Qingchen's determination to face death unflinchingly. The determination was like a furiously burning fire that made his soul boil, too. He tried to grab Lu Qingchen with all the power of his soul, but he could only watch Lu Qingchen's threads of light slipping away from his' thoughts'.
"Don't do that. Let's think of another solution together!"
Li Yao shouted from the bottom of his heart. "There must be a way, Lu Qingchen. Don't give up. I swear that I will bring you back to the Federation. We will keep our souls intact and return to the hometown that you miss day and night!"
"Hehe. Forget it. Don't say such cheesy things as if we are very familiar with each other."
Lu Qingchen smiled bitterly. "There's no other way. I've considered all the plans and possibilities. As long as there is a slim chance of survival, I will try it without any hesitation if I can set you up in exchange for my own survival.
"However, there's really no other way.
"A few days ago, on the 'Eternal Brilliance', I spent a lot of my soul and created the illusion that my soul was about to explode. Together with the imprisonment and torture in the past few days, I'm really … out of gas.
"The power of Fuxi has invaded my soul deeply, too. It has hooked my internal organs and every vein like sharp hooks.
"There's no escape. Even if you can escape, there's no way that I can.
"Therefore, stop pretending to be a softhearted person, which makes me sick of you. Summon the courage and dominance that you had when you dealt with me that day and smash the abnormal freak who calls himself 'Fuxi' into smithereens!
"Although — although I hate to say it, but — but … the Federation is counting on you now, Li Yao!"
Lu Qingchen retreated his threads of light. The light spot made of his soul was even more squeezed by the power of Fuxi. It was truly like an insignificant speck of dust that was struggling to release the most dazzling brilliance in a tornado.
"Lu Qingchen …"
Li Yao had complicated feelings. His soul was so shocked that he did not know what to say.
"Haha, hahahaha!"
From the glittering dust burst out laughter that was even more intense than the tornadoes and the surging tides. "Fuxi, didn't you try everything you could to swallow me? Let's see if you have such a good appetite! These are all the memories, emotions, and will of me, Lu Qingchen of the Xing Yao Federation. If you want them so much, come and take them. Hahahaha! "
In Lu Qingchen's wild laughter, the dust became more and more dazzling. Even Fuxi's light cluster lost its color, as if it had been greatly shocked.
Fuxi's light cluster shrank rapidly, as if it had sensed Lu Qingchen's determination to die together with him. It quickly constructed a defensive line.
However, it was too late.
In the blink of an eye, it was compressed to the limit. It was like a tiny speck of light being blown apart by a speck of dust.
Boom! Crack!
All the data of Lu Qingchen's life in the short hundred years were congregated into surging torrents that swept across the mainframe crystal processor of Ultimate Salvation in the fiercest, most violent, most passionate, and most splendid manner. The storm that swept across everything and the tide that shattered the stars swept across the mainframe crystal processor of Ultimate Salvation.
Data. Tremendous data. The craziest data constituted a swirl that splashed out billions of memory pieces, allowing Li Yao to 'see' Lu Qingchen's life in person for only a brief moment.
First of all, it was his childhood.
In a trance, Li Yao saw that the little Lu Qingchen, who was as smart as a tiger, was sitting in a yard obediently with a lot of other kids of his age, listening to their grandpa Lu Zui and the tough generals in the army telling them all kinds of thrilling and blood-boiling battle stories. Their initial love for the Federation was shaped without them knowing it.
Lu Zui, the director of the Secret Sword Bureau of the Federation and the leader of the Patriots Partnership, had adopted almost a hundred foster children. Those foster children were all the descendants of war orphans and martyrs, including Lu Qingchen's father.
Different from the common families that were connected by blood, their special big family was closely connected by the 'love for their motherland' in the first place. The Federation was their home, their real home.
Therefore, in his childhood, Lu Qingchen had natural trust and admiration for the heroes such as Lu Zui and Zhou Hengdao who fought on various battlefields. He had no doubt that his grandfather and Zhou Hengdao were the embodiments of justice and the first and last defense line of the Federation.
If necessary, Lu Qingchen would die for the Federation without any hesitation. All his brothers, sisters, and friends, and more than a hundred uncles thought the same.
It was not hard to imagine how much blow Lu Qingchen, who thought that he was absolutely righteous, suffered after Lu Zui's scheme was exposed and he was killed. He was on the verge of collapse.
The whole world was twisted and divided in front of his black, glittering eyes until he saw a letter that Lu Zui left for him.
He was the smartest and the most sensitive of the hundreds of children. He was also the one that Lu Zui liked and worried about the most.
"Little Chen, if you can read this letter, it means that your grandfather is already dead, and he died in a very … dishonorable way.
"You are haunted by suspicion, hatred, fury, and confusion, too. You don't know what is going on at all.
"Hehe. There is no need to doubt what your grandfather once said, and there is no need to resent those who stopped your grandfather. Maybe we are all patriots, but … but …
"It doesn't matter that you don't understand it now. You will understand it when you grow up. The world of adults is very complicated in the first place. There is no space that is only black and white. Everything is gray.
"Grandpa … Grandpa doesn't know how to persuade you right now. I only hope that you can read more, read more, and think more. No matter what, life has to go on, and the Federation still exists. As long as the Federation exists, we will fight for it. No matter who we are, what we have become, or how the outside world misinterprets us, it will not affect our love for the Federation and the responsibility on our shoulders, right?
"Maybe, maybe in the next few years, your life will be very difficult because you are 'Lu Zui's descendant', but isn't it also a test? Grandpa will watch you from the dark. I will watch you pass the test and become a real patriot. Grandpa believes that you will save the Federation no matter what kind of adversity you are in. You will help me … atone for my sins. "
That was the end of Lu Zui's letter.
Then, it was the memories of Lu Qingchen's childhood.
Out of Li Yao's expectation, the person who left the deepest impression on the young Lu Qingchen turned out to be Vulture Li Yao!
Also, Li Yao sensed a few very special ripples from Lu Qingchen's memory pieces and emotional waves. They were … they were mixed feelings of hatred and admiration.
"What's going on? So, Lu Qingchen really admired me when he was young!"
Li Yao mumbled.
Yes. As the 'culprit' of Lu Zui's demise, Li Yao was naturally hated by the young Lu Qingchen.
However, after years of consideration, especially after the Tian Yuan Realm and the Blood Demon Sector were truly integrated and peace and development were welcomed, the young Lu Qingchen had to admit that Li Yao's approach was not wrong. It was indeed his grandfather, Lu Zui, who was wrong.
Besides, of all the 'adults', Li Yao was the one who had the best attitude and least grudge toward him.
As the grandson of the 'supervillain' Lu Zui, countless uncles and brothers had been imprisoned because of the 'Patriots Incident'. Naturally, other people were prejudiced against Lu Qingchen. Even if they did not say anything on the surface, it was not hard to imagine their attitude in secret.
Lu Qingchen, who was born sensitive, had been living in vague discrimination and wariness almost every day.
Also, because of his ugly appearance and his unsociable personality, he had been ostracized by other people intentionally or unintentionally.
Until he met Li Yao.
Li Yao did not care about his identity at all and simply regarded him as a regular young man of the Federation. Li Yao could even tolerate Jin Tuyi, the commander-in-chief of the Blood Demon Sector, much less an insignificant Lu Qingchen.
Such an equal and easy-going attitude, and Li Yao's halo as the 'dominator of three Sectors and the hero of the Federation', made it no wonder that Lu Qingchen regarded Li Yao as the greatest — well, second greatest — hero in his heart and, unwillingly, filled the void in his heart after Lu Zui's collapse with Li Yao's image.
"Aya!"
Li Yao had mixed feelings and almost slapped his thigh hard.
Lu Qingchen's life had a very good beginning. If Li Yao had not participated in the operation to explore the Ancient Sages Sector a hundred years ago and had stayed in the Federation to give Lu Qingchen some enlightenment now and then, perhaps the young man's future would've been completely different.
It was a pity that Li Yao had been away from the federation for a hundred years. During the hundred years, it was Su Changfa, an Immortal Cultivator, and Professor Mo Xuan, who had deviated from the path of evil, who had enlightened Lu Qingchen first.
Then, Li Yao saw the memory pieces of the young Lu Qingchen receiving the enlightenment of Su Changfa and Professor Mo Xuan.
"On many occasions, righteousness and evil are just the definitions imagined by human beings. The Cultivators and the Immortal Cultivators are not antagonistic but dependent on each other, supporting each other, transforming, and integrating."
The Immortal Cultivator Su Changfa said to the young Lu Qingchen, "The Cultivators and the Immortal Cultivators both have to fulfill their responsibilities. They are like the different pieces of a puzzle that are closely pieced together to constitute the splendid picture of the civilization of mankind.
"There are always sacrifices in evolution. The blood of the pioneers is always needed."
Extraterrestrial Devil Mo Xuan said to the young Lu Qingchen, "Perhaps, the first fish that jumps to the shore will die of thirst and exposure, and the same goes for the millionth fish. It is not until the millionth fish is born that they acquire the abilities to survive on the land and see the direction of their evolution clearly.
"But it does not mean that the mistakes and sacrifices of all the fish in the beginning were meaningless. Without the death of the first fish, how could the 100,000th fish have been born, and how could the billions of creatures have evolved like a big bang?
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