Chapter 480 Thirty-Nine Light Years
Li Mu was dazed for a moment, but he immediately understood what she meant.
Heavenly Medical Faeries had had some problems with the process of possessing the body. Not only did the process cause the mutation of the body, but it also caused the original owner’s consciousness to have some interaction with hers. That allowed Heavenly Medical Faerie to intercept clips of the memories of the original owner, and so she knew the term “return the jade intact to the State of Zhao”.
“G.o.d of Broadswords Li, thousands of years ago, our Soul Sect suffered a great calamity. Our bodies were destroyed and our spirits were left to slumber under the ground. These people have been possessed by us because they broke into our place of peace. The law of the jungle is an eternal law after all. Today, you wiped us out as revenge, but I don’t hate you. Well, an eye for an eye. This is just how the world works… However, I would like to ask G.o.d of Broadswords Li to do me one favor, considering that we didn’t destroy the souls of the original powers during the possession but left a strand of their souls intact and I’m returning this body I’m occupying of my own accord. All I wish is that you leave my son, Li Xiong, alive. Though his body has been transformed, he never partic.i.p.ated in the activities of the organization. And the blood of the owner of this body is also running in his veins. So, I beg you, please spare him.”
Heavenly Medical Faerie’s face, which was covered with sarcomas, looked rather gruesome.
But when she made that pleading, there was a kind of maternal glory in her eyes, which aroused the sympathy of everyone around her.
Li Mu deliberated for a moment, then nodded his agreement.
He had met Li Xiong and once had a dispute with him. That young master was not a good person, but that was a long time ago. Even though Li Xiong had been physically transformed, he was nothing worth mentioning in front of Li Mu and this was no threat to him.
Keeping Li Xiong alive was Heavenly Medical Faerie’s term to voluntarily return the body.
When Li Gang heard that, he breathed a sigh of relief inwardly.
As long as Heavenly Medical Faerie would die, regardless of the method, he would be able to free himself. When Li Gang thought about how he had faced that ugly face in the past and that nauseating feeling, he felt that the past was a nightmare.
Heavenly Medical Faerie then turned to look at Li Gang again. There was a trace of peculiar tenderness and sweetness in her eyes. She remarked, “Li, my love, do you still remember the first time we met each other at the temple in the mountains during a storm? At that time, you were still a n.o.body…”
“Humph, no need to mention that. I’ve long forgotten it.” Li Gang interrupted her harshly.
Heavenly Medical Faerie smiled and said nonchalantly, “It doesn’t matter if you forget it. It’s good that I remember it. Do you know why you’ve become the top sword master in the capital back then despite your mediocre apt.i.tude? Like I said, I could help you… Back then, you took away the Heavenly Heart Sorcery from me and soared to the sky since then. Do you know that the Heavenly Heart Sorcery has another name called the Lovebirds Sorcery, hehe…?”
Li Gang’s continence altered as he said, “You… b.i.t.c.h, what on earth do you want to say?”
“Lovebirds are born to have the same fate. When the disaster came, they were willing to die together. Haha, they refused to live separately, and soared to the end of the world as pairs.” Heavenly Medical Faerie muttered softly. The skin around her eyes turned slightly red.
Clear drops of tears slipped down her cheeks. As if talking to herself, she said, “I thought you were one of a kind in the secular world, not like those worldly people who judge a book only by the cover. Who knows, after so many years, no matter what I do, I can’t touch your heart. You know nothing about the sacrifice I made for you. Now it seems that you won’t care even if you know it. So, I won’t mention it anymore. However, since you took my Lovebirds Sorcery, you and I have already been a pair of lovebirds that share the same fate. That means when I die, you can’t live, either. Even in the world of the dead… Li, my love, you will also accompany me, and the two of us will never be separated anymore.”
After that, wisps of green mist emitted from her body, as if something was getting out.
The sarcomas on her face dissipated at a speed visible to the naked eye, revealing an unparalleled beautiful face. Her skin became fair and spotless, and she looked full of heroic spirit.
“b.i.t.c.h, you…” Li Gang’s face suddenly paled.
The next moment, a thread of blood in the pupils of the Commander of Border-provinces of the Western Qin Empire started to swirl, and then blood flowed from his eyes in an instant. His vigor of life was rapidly draining, and the True Essence of martial arts in his body was also flowing away quickly like the sand in a filter.
“Li, it’s cold and lonely on the way to the netherworld. But I’ll go with you.”
Heavenly Medical Faerie’s voice sounded from that cloud of green mist in the air as the mist materialized into the image of an ordinary-looking witch of the ancient witch tribe woman. That was her true self.
She took her Primordial Spirit away from the body by herself. After losing the dwelling, the spirit soon dispersed.
“What did you do to me? You… b.i.t.c.h… No.” Li Gang panicked.
Even with the cultivation of the Sage Realm, it was difficult for him to slow down the draining of his vigor of life. In the blink of an eye, he was already breathing his last breath. Two streams of blood trickled down from his eyes and wet his clothes.
He looked up at Li Mu with difficulty and implored, “Mu’er, help… help me!”
Li Mu shook his head and did not intend to make any moves.
He already discovered some of the secrets.
The souls of Heavenly Medical Faerie and Li Gang had long been connected. Like two people on the same boat, they either lived together or died together. That should be the effect of the Lovebirds Sorcery mentioned by Heavenly Medical Faerie. The sorcery made Li Gang’s martial art cultivation progress by leaps and bounds and enabled him to have all those achievements. Yet, once Heavenly Medical Faerie died, Li Gang would die, too.
They were a pair of suicidal lovebirds.
But that was a debt Li Gang owed to Heavenly Medical Faerie. It was time for him to pay it back.
Therefore, Li Mu did not intervene.
In that world, the one in debt must pay it back sooner or later. Deep down, Li Mu sympathized with Heavenly Medical Faerie for what she had been through. When the infatuated woman met a jerk, she was bound to endure huge betrayals, and it was normal for her to seek her revenge. That was also the retributive justice.
At last, Li Gang died in horror and obstinacy, melting into a pool of blood.
He had hoped to kill Heavenly Medical Faerie by Li Mu’s hands, but he never knew that he could end up like that.
After a while, the beautiful, vigorous woman who had her normal appearance back gradually woke up. She slowly opened her eyes and said in mandarin, “Is she… really dead?”
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One day later.
“Is this the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p you drove that day?”
Led by Su Cuo and Song Changlin, Li Mu came to a large underground warehouse and saw a white aircraft more than 30 meters long.
The aircraft was like a large bird, full of the sense of the old times. It was completely white, with NASA’s logo on it. The aircraft was exactly the same as the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p Li Mu had seen on the mural in the bas.e.m.e.nt of Peace County.
“Yes, the eight countries joined hands to conduct a s.p.a.ce exploration activity. We took the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p called ‘Vanguard’ for a long-distance flight. The operation was strictly confidential to the outside world, and only the high-level officials of various countries knew about it…” Song Changlin talked eloquently.
He was indeed a chatterbox. When he started speaking, he would ramble on and on. His eyes were full of wors.h.i.+p and curiosity for Li Mu.
Unlike Song Changlin, that beautiful woman named Su Cuo, also the one that had been possessed by Heavenly Medical Faerie, looked somewhat cold and aloof. She spoke only when Li Mu asked her specifically. Otherwise, she would not say a word.
But it could be seen that it was just her nature, not that she deliberately put on such a poker face.
After a day’s rest and Li Mu’s treatment, the 21 members of the imperial examination team from Earth had nearly all recovered their mobility. It took them some time to adapt to the current situation, as if they had just woken up from a nightmare.
Li Mu didn’t hide his ident.i.ty from them. At first, Su Cuo and Song Changlin didn’t believe in him. But later, when they chatted with Li Mu and heard him talk about a load of details about Earth, they were finally convinced.
However, since the team left Earth in the 80s of the last century, they did not know much about the changes on Earth that occurred later.
Li Mu also had done some “artistic editing” on his ident.i.ty.
Thus, in the eyes of those 21 team members, Li Mu was just like them, who had also accidentally landed on that planet because of the s.p.a.ce-time crack. However, he was luckier than them in that he had been admitted by a sect, met some great masters, and practiced martial arts. By far, he had become an expert in martial arts.
“Can this s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p still fly?” Li Mu inquired.
Song Changlin answered, “Yes, but it’s impossible for us to fly back to Earth. The distance is just too far.”
Li Mu was suddenly alerted. He caught the implication between the lines and said, “Too far? Have you already calculated the distance between this planet and Earth? Have you already had an astronomical position?”
Andrew, the white man with blond hair and golden beard, quickly said in excitement, “Yes, we have. Li, through the research over the past few years, we not only learned the astronomical location of this planet but also located Earth among all the stars and calculated its position. This is a huge discovery…”
The white man, who was the head of the science team, came from America. He was an optimistic and appealing person. When he talked about the discovery, he almost danced with joy.
Su Cuo cut Andrew short and said, “There are 39 light-years to go from here to Earth. Even if we travel at the speed of light, it will take 39 years. As for the speed of the s.p.a.cecraft, it is only the third cosmic speed, which is way below the speed of light. Even if we still have 300 years to live, we will never make it to Earth.”
At her remark, Andrew suddenly became despondent.
“Su is right. If we merely rely on the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p, we can never go back to Earth in this life… I miss my wife and daughter. Before I took this mission, my daughter was only one month old.”
His words immediately aroused the grief of other members.
Although they could see their home planet every time they looked up in the starry sky, they might never be able to return to their home.
The longing for their homeland tormented their hearts and souls all the time.
Moreover, due to being possessed and the powerful experts from the Soul Sect, their corporeal bodies had been well protected, and they appeared not to have aged a bit in the past three decades. After regaining control over their bodies, though their minds had already felt the lapse of 30 years, their bodies were still the same as before.
Even if they went back to Earth, their loved ones would have already aged or even died for years.
Even so, Song Changlin said confidently, “Actually, there is another possibility. If we are lucky enough to find a s.p.a.ce-time crack again, as long as our s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p enters that gap, we may be able to return to Earth in a fraction of a second, just like how we came here.”
That was indeed an idea.
Song Changlin continued with determination and exultation. “I’m still holding on to my opinion. I think that the s.p.a.ce-time crack might have some kind of stability. Its appearance is not accidental. It’s like the fine cracks on the gla.s.s. Although they can’t be seen, they are real and won’t disappear like ripples. It’s just that we haven’t found them yet. Once we discover one, we can completely reverse the process of how we got here and go back to Earth… None of you agreed with me in the past, but now, we know Mr. Li has also come here through a s.p.a.ce-time crack. It proved that my theory is correct.”
Scientists always easily ran an adrenaline high.
Li Mu felt a little embarra.s.sed.
In fact, he had lied to Song Changlin that he had come here through a s.p.a.ce-time crack instead of the old faker’s Transmitting Array. But that led Song Changlin on and made him very excited as he felt he had found the evidence he had been looking for.