Chapter 2942: You’ve Changed
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
‘The laughter made Li Yao shudder, as if he had returned to the horror that Yan Xibei, Xiao Xuance, Lu Zui, Elder Nether Spring, and Wu Yinggi had brought him.
“No.”
Li Yao mumbled. Although his voice was low, it was extremely firm in Lu Qingchen’s crazy laughter and the chaotic swirl around him. “I can’t do that.”
Lu Qingchen’s laughter came to an abrupt end.
His eyes were wide open. They were half cold and half scorching, as if they were trying to cut open Li Yao’s soul and see through his messy thoughts.
“why?”
Lu Qingchen asked in disbelief, “I don’t blame you for not considering the possibility when your soul was seriously wounded and your computational ability hit rock bottom. But now that I’ve a.n.a.lyzed the whole situation with you, you should know that I’m not lying. There has never been such a moment
when the ultimate victory was so close to the federation. Such a victory was beyond our wildest dreams. Even the most imaginative children of the federation only dared to say that ‘we will dominate the entire sea of stars one day’. But right now, there is no need for ‘one day’. Today is the moment. The
federation will seize the final victory. All you need to do is nod your head and move your fingers!”
“Uh”
Li Yao waved his whip. “Sorry, I don’t have fingers.”
Lu Qingchen took a deep breath. The pity and regret on his face were even more intense. He said gloomily, “You’ve changed, Li Yao. You don’t seem to be a pure patriot and a Cultivator anymore. Why did you turn down my kindness to the motherland and even stop the motherland from destroying its
greatest enemy? Are you full of sympathy for the Immortal Cultivators? Have you developed feelings for your cheap brother? Have you been dwelling in such a life of mediation and failed to free yourself? Do you really consider yourself to be ‘Black Wind King Li Yao’ of the Imperium of True Human
Beings?”
“Ididn’t.”
Li Yao smiled bitterly. “You know that I am definitely not such a person. That’s not what I meant.
“Then what do you mean by being merciful and hesitant at such a critical moment?”
Lu Qingchen roared in fury, “I remember that, more than a hundred years ago, you slayed the Pangu Clan in the Kunlun Mysterious Realm. At that time, I was still a child and could not accept the fact that my grandfather was killed by you. I still hated you for that. But even so, when I learned that you
could even kill a ‘G.o.d’, I was deeply shocked by your strength, determination, and coldness!
“You are a hero who, for the supreme interests of the federation, could even slay G.o.ds and devils mercilessly. Do you know how many children have watched the scene of you slaying the Pangu Clan over and over again in various mediums since childhood, becoming unforgettable memories and treating
you as their greatest idol? Unfortunately, it seems that even the greatest heroes and idols can not withstand the corrosion of time. After a hundred years, you have changed. You have become weak, you have fallen, you have become wretched, you have learned to compromise with your enemy!
“I’s funny. It’s really funny. I considered myself to be an ‘Immortal Cultivator of the Star Glory Federation’ and believed that the Great Dao of Cultivation and the Great Dao of Cultivation could be melded into the ‘Great Dao of True Immortality’. But even so, I never thought of compromising with the Star
Glory Federation. I firmly believed that only after the Star Glory Federation conquered the entire sea of stars could the Great Dao of True Immortality be carried out under the leaders.h.i.+p of the federation. I didn’t expect that it would be you, the self-proclaimed most determined Cultivator, who would
actually shrink back, weaken, and compromise at such a critical moment!
“Ican let go of our personal grudges. I can ignore your wretched body twisting and turning in front of me. But I didn’t expect that on the matter of the rise and fall of the nation, your ‘virtue of ordinary people’ would act up again and turn you into a stupid and kind high school student. I’m so disappointed.
Vulture Li Yao, you’re too disappointing!”
Lu Qingchen roared in fury, venting the emotions that he had been suppressing for years, maybe hundreds of years.
Li Yao was like a dry leaf in a blowing wind, or rather, an earthworm in a swirl that was rolling in the raging tides.
“Calm down, Lu Qingchen. Listen to me. I want to win the war, too, so that the federation will be the dominator of the sea of stars in the blink of an eye, and I will be the greatest hero on the road of the federation’s rise. But things are not as simple as that. Think about it carefully!”
Li Yao waved his whip and struggled hard. He struggled to say, “I agree to cooperate with you, but things cannot go on like this. Countless people will be killed. Let’s think about it. Let’s think about it again!”
“Why do you refuse such a great opportunity?”
Lu Qingchen heard none of it. He was immersed in his own emotions and logic, raising thunder, lightning, and tides. Suddenly, his eyes were fixed on Li Yao. He said, “I see. You don’t believe me.”
“Huh?”
Li Yao was too occupied with Xiao Ming and Wen Wen to understand what Lu Qingchen meant.
“You don’t believe that I am cooperating with you sincerely, and you would rather believe the Immortal Cultivators than me. You must think that I will do whatever I want after I take control of the fleet of the f.u.xi Clan for my own selfish desires and ambitions, don’t you?
Two drops of tears suddenly flowed out of Lu Qingchen’s eyes, which were made of grief, grievance, and loneliness. They were particularly dazzling even in the raging ocean of data. “How could you do that? You can doubt everything about me, but how could you doubt my loyalty to my motherland? ‘For
the supreme interests of the federation, Cultivators are willing to pay any price. Isn’t that what you taught me a hundred years ago?”
“Yes, yes, yes. I never said that I didn’t believe you!”
Li Yao managed a smile. “Nephew Lu, listen to me—”
“shut up!”
Lu Qingchen’s eyes were bloodshot, as if he had gone mad. He bashed his chest hard and said, “You thought that I planned everything carefully and fought valiantly against the ten-thousand-year-old monster named f.u.xi. I even suffered the self-detonation of my soul twice. What was it all for? Was it
just for my own benefits and my own ambitions? No. You were wrong. Very wrong. If the reason that supported me to fight all the way was just for myself, it would have been impossible for me to resist the devouring and erosion of the f.u.xis in the reincarnation cycles. It would have been impossible for
me to crawl out of the abyss of death and become what I am right now!
“I did not do it for myself. I did it for the federation. What I said before my second self-detonation was true and from the bottom of my heart. I did not lie to you. Even when I was drifting in the sea of stars as a remnant soul, I was still pondering the future of the federation. When I was captured by the old
monster, f.u.xi, and discovered the great secret behind the Holy Alliance, I was both surprised and delighted. I was shocked that the federation might not be able to resist such an evil force, and I was delighted that there was a one in a billion chance that the force could be used by me and the federation.
“No matter how much suffering I endure, no matter how many times | suffer in the cycle of reincarnation, I must maintain the last bit of my consciousness. Even if I forget that I am Lu Qingchen, even if I forget everything, I cannot forget the Star Glory Federation. I cannot forget that I am a citizen of the
Federation.
“Imust defeat the f.u.xi and absorb its strength. Then, I will defeat the imperium with my strength and send my motherland to the throne of dominion in the sea of stars. I will burn my life to protect my motherland and become the guardian of the Star Glory Federation and even the civilization of mankind
forever!
“This is my brand-new belief. Without the support of the entire federation in the deepest part of my heart, how could I have woken up from billions of reincamations? How could I have released such tremendous strength and swallowed the entire f.u.xi?
“If you doubt my motives, fine. I’m willing to open the most confidential data of my soul to you so that you can monitor my every move. I’m even willing to share the control of the entire fleet with you so that we can issue commands to attack the fleet together.
“Moreover, if you think that I must be responsible for the losses caused by the Phantom Plan, I’m willing to go to the federal court. After all, looking back now, the plan was indeed a bit rash. There were a lot of unnecessary mistakes, and some of the loyal soldiers of the federation were even killed.
“Lam willing to accept the sanctions of the national law, to defend the seriousness of the law, and to satisfy your excessive sense of justice. Anyway, in my current life form, no matter how harsh the punishment is, I will be able to bear it. I have endured countless reincarnations, so what’s the big deal?
“However, the premise of all this is as I said just now. We must work together to destroy the imperium and destroy the military foundation of the Imperium of True Human Beings. We must make the Star Glory Federation the strongest nation in the sea of stars, or even the only nation, and restore the
glory of the Star Ocean Imperium ten thousand years ago.
“T’ve made my point. Believe me, Vulture Li Yao!”
Lu Qingchen was so earnest that he was almost crying.
Li Yao had never felt so troubled before. Lu Qingchen was apparently a hundred times more difficult to deal with than when he was in the Phantom Plan. Li Yao did not even have the intention to be his enemy.
“Treally do believe you, Lu Qingchen. I know that you are a true patriot, but—but—”
Li Yao struggled to find the right words. “As you said, foolish kindness can lead to miserable endings. Even the most determined patriot can seriously jeopardize the interests of the motherland and even betray the ideology of the motherland! I just feel that there’s something wrong with your mental state
right now. It’s true that you’ve swallowed the f.u.xis, but the enormous database and the thinking logic that the f.u.xis have optimized over hundreds of thousands of years are not something that you can digest in a short time. You seem to have been influenced by it and understand the ‘protect the
motherland and the civilization’ according to its logic. You are in a very dangerous state. The battle between you and the f.u.xis is not over yet. You cannot waste your computational ability recklessly right now. You must stay calm in case it counterattacks. Or rather, put it in a more understandable way..
Don’t you feel that you are very similar to Lu Zui in the ‘patriot incident’ a hundred years ago?”