Forty Millenniums of Cultivation
chapter-600

Hardly had Li Yao finished his speech when hasty footsteps could be heard outside the door. The heavy iron door was pulled open by chains; Wu Mayan and Sha Yulan staggered inside.

When the door was closed, vague yelling and shouting echoed in from the pathway outside.

Wu Mayan was already out of breath from running. He waved his arms as if he were flapping wings, while he shouted, "Father Xiong, not good! According to the Burning Sun Tribe, the expedition team sent by the Burning Sun Tribe, the Feathered Snakes Tribe, and the Giant Axe Tribe found that some Cultivators were attacking the Oasis Tribe when they arrived!

"After they defeated the Cultivators, they interrogated the captives and learned that Cultivators were preparing to ambush the Oasis Tribe and launch a large-scale invasion to Iron Plateau with the Oasis Tribe as their base!

"Also, there is no telling where the story comes from, but word on the street is that—"

The young man caught his breath for a moment and continued speaking, his eyes blinking. "That Father Xiong is an agent that the space residents sent. You were proposing to get in touch with the space residents so that they could know more about us! The space pirates finished their preparations long ago. A few months ago, they made their move in the periphery of the Iron Plateau Space Zone. Now that your identity has been revealed and their plot failed, they are planning to attack by force instead!

"Right now, Furious Bears City is in mayhem. All the tribes are summoning their elite warriors, preparing to go to the Oasis Tribe and check what is going on!"

Li Yao and Xiong Wuji looked at each other. They were not in the least surprised.

Wu Mayan was about to cry. "Father Xiong, you are not an agent, are you? You are definitely not an agent, right?"

Xiong Wuji was silent. With the light from a dim torch nearby, he suddenly noticed that Sha Yulan's right hand was bleeding. He frowned and rose up, trying to hold Sha Yulan's arm, while he asked, "Are you hurt?"

Sha Yulan suddenly jerked back and avoided him. She bit her lips and said, "Xiong Wuji, regardless of whether you are a good man or a bad man, you… have always been using me as your camouflage, haven't you?"

Xiong Wuji was dazed. The flames in his eyes were frozen as if a cold wind had just blown by. He was silent for a long time before he took a long breath and replied, "Of course not!"

His eyes turned deep and dark, as his thoughts went back to long, long ago. He said in a low voice, "Fifteen years ago, my foster father, Xiong Dachuan, told me the secret of my birth before his death and cast me in confusion and misery!

"I'd been listening to the stories of the ancestors of Iron Plateau resisting the apocalypse all my childhood. It would be too much if I said I hated the space rats who fled without fighting, but I did not think highly of them, either.

"As I gradually grew up, I considered the predecessors as my role models and trained myself crazily, hoping to become a real tough man of Iron Plateau!

"Finally, I distinguished myself in my tribe and became one of the top exerts in the younger generation. I was about to embark on the path that the predecessors had walked on!

"Never did I expect that fate would make such a terrible joke. I learned that I was a descendent of the rats in space!

"For two years, I was unable to free myself from the desperation. I lost my way in my training, too, and was almost mentally deranged many times.

"When I was at the lowest point of my life, you brought Xiao Yan to the Furious Bears Tribe.

"Since I already knew that I was the offspring of space residents, I was naturally very curious about my 'compatriots' from space. Therefore, I found you very attractive and wanted to know more about the space residents from you.

"While you stayed here, I heard many stories about the space residents, and I witnessed you treating the patients, who in my eyes were already dead, despite the cold eyes of other people and at the risk of humiliation or even abuse.

"I knew that it was absolutely none of your business, and that if the patients really died later, your outcome would have been more than awful!

"Because of you, I discovered that there was not much difference between the space residents and the Iron Plateau natives. Kindness, tenacity, sincerity… The characters that Iron Plateau natives were proud of could be found in space residents, too!

"When Xiao Yan started training, I saw how he gritted his teeth and endured the pain that many young men of Iron Plateau found unbearable in order to prove the courage of space residents. I was greatly touched by his determination!

"If a space resident could become a qi-trainer and even the best warrior of the six tribes of Iron Plateau, what was the essential disparity between a space resident and an Iron Plateau native?

"It was thanks to lessons I learned from the two of you that I finally realized who I was and what I should do!

"That's why I wanted to reach out to the space residents, eliminate the chasm between the two parties, and reestablish some form of communication!

"I, Xiong Wuji, swear to the ancestors of Iron Plateau and the billions of stars in the space that my purpose is as simple as that. I have never done anything that harms the interest of Iron Plateau!

"Moreover, I have never regarded you as camouflage. I really… am attracted to you. I love you, and I want to marry you and make you my only woman!"

Xiong Wuji's shouting was almost battering the big iron door.

It was the second time that Wu Mayan had heard the proposal. He blushed in embarrassment and hid behind Li Yao.

Sha Yulan finally burst into tears. She murmured, "I… I believe you. I believe in you."

Xiong Wuji was overjoyed. "You do?"

Sha Yulan smiled, tears in her eyes. "Who else can a woman trust if she doesn't trust the one she loves?"

Xiong Wuji laughed out aloud. "Great! Great! As long as the two of you are on my side, what's the big deal if everyone else considers me to be an unforgivable devil?

"A deeply buried plot is behind everything that has happened. The Oasis Tribe should be the center of the plot! Xiao Yan. Guard the door and make sure other people do not come close. There is something I need to discuss with your mom and Sand Scorpion!"

Wu Mayan was much more well-behaved after all the abrupt changes today. He did not ask any questions and nodded before he pushed open the door and walked out.

As the prison to lock the manic warriors, the place was extremely solid with no other exits. There was only one pathway leading to the area, which was heavily guarded by the qi-trainers from the six tribes.

When Li Yao went down here, he had undergone quite a few security checks.

Xiong Wuji closed the door. He suddenly bent and groped for something on the ground. When he reached a certain location in the southwest corner, he bulged his eyes and exerted his strength. After a grunt, he fully released the spiritual gas of the 99th level of the Refinement Stage, which stuck the ground!

As the muscles all over his body protruded out, the 'ground' was lifted upwards inch by inch, which turned out be a cubic giant stone more than one meter in length, width, and height!

The giant stone filled in a hollow on the ground precisely. Now that the stone was removed, the deep and dark hole was exposed to all present.

Xiong Wuji said, "This giant stone was devised by me years ago. Only those above the 96th level of the Refinement Stage can possibly lift it up!

"It seems to be an ordinary stone, but it actually contains special minerals that can block the spiritual gas. Nobody would ever be able to find the secret room below the stone!"

Li Yao remarked, "This prison cell of manic warriors turns out to be Chief Xiong's secret base."

Xiong Wuji smiled. "More than six decades ago, a very strong qi-trainer above the 90th level of the Refinement Stage, who was unfortunately mentally deranged, was locked in this prison cell.

"He was mentally deranged soon after a battle of the apocalypse, but the gap between that and the next battle of apocalypse was longer than usual. Therefore, he was locked in this place for sixteen years.

"Since mentally deranged qi-trainers are all extremely dangerous and as brutal as animals, outsiders generally do not open the cages and check them.

"Therefore, nobody knew that part of his intelligence was kept despite his madness and that he dug a long tunnel with his bare hands through the underground rock stratums. He was even smart enough to cover it up by blocking the entrance of the cave with soil!

"Since this place was deep underground, he shouldn't have been able to run away whichever direction he moved to. But as it happened, there was an underground river nearby. When his endeavor was discovered, the tunnel he created had almost extended into the river!

"After that, people managed to block the tunnel and then abandoned the prison cell. When I became the chief and learned my identity, I set up a secret chamber in case I ever needed it under the pretext of repairing the prison cell.

"Come on!"

Xiong Wuji was the first to jump into the secret chamber, followed by Li Yao and Sha Yulan.

The secret chamber established below the prison of the manic warriors turned out to be a rather spacious arsenal. A lot of holes had been dug in the walls and were filled with various kinds of weapons, including coldly shining sabers and swords, True Qi firearms of unbelievable calibers, and boxes and bundles of Wolf Fangs.

There were several other cases in the corner. Xiong Wuji kicked them open. Inside them were crystals of extremely high purity. They could be used for training or refined into magical equipment. With triggering devices, they could be crafted into crystal bombs, too!

CRACK! CRACK!

Xiong Wuji checked the status of the weapons carefully, and the sounds of magical equipment components colliding were awfully chilling in the darkness.

Li Yao knew that Xiong Wuji would be more or less prepared. However, he did not expect that the man had built such an arsenal underground and hidden so many deadly weapons that were almost enough to equip a special squad!

Li Yao picked up a crystal from the case and examined its purity with his eyes, while he murmured, "Chief Xiong, it seems that Yan Chihuo was right. The preparations in this place befit an ambitious schemer more than a big hero!"

Winning Sha Yulan and her son's trust, Xiong Wuji had completely let go of the unease and depression he had just now. He regained his confidence and said with a sunny smile, "I was never a big hero in the first place. That's a title that other people imposed upon me. I have been an out-and-out schemer the whole time!

"My scheme is to let the Iron Plateau natives and the space residents let go of their biases and fill the five-thousand-year-long chasm so that they can be united again!

"The universe is too large a place with too many unknown species. Some of them, such as the Titan Warriors, have even been trying to possess us as a foreign civilization! We are all human beings. What are our reasons for continuing this internal conflict?

"Unite all human beings to make us the strongest species in the boundless sea of stars, defeat all unknown species, and let our civilization live long and prosper. That's what a real expert human should do!

"In the past, I'd cursed the heavens for my sorry fate, but I figured everything out later.

"As a descendent of the space residents, I have ended up being the best warrior of the six tribes of Iron Plateau. Then, my destiny is so much more than simply resisting the apocalypse!

"Reuniting the Iron Plateau natives and the space residents is my real destiny and the ultimate goal that I will achieve even at the cost of my life. Whoever stands in my way must be ready to taste the wrath of the best warrior on Iron Plateau!"