Li Yao is the protagonist of the novel Forty Millenniums of Cultivation. In the MangaToon translation of the Manhua, he is instead called Joe Li.
Personality[]
Li Yao cares a lot about ordinary people and humanity as a whole and is very nationalistic towards the Star Glory Federation which believes ordinary people are the foundation of the federation and sees to it that cultivators have to live and die to protect ordinary people. Li Yao shows a strong distaste for the ideology of the Immortal Cultivators who views ordinary people indifferently and sees strength as the foundation of respect. Li Yao also dislikes the ‘Dark Forest Theory' which thinks that the discovery of another civilization will mean war on both sides. Li Yao believes that everyone can get along peacefully. He is also scheming and ruthless to his enemies and kind to his family and friends.
History[]
Li Yao was born and lived in Special Waste Treatment Plant No. 23 throughout his childhood. At some point during his early age, he found and saved an old man who in turn taught him how to refine artifacts and cemented his dream to become a Master Refiner. Upon the old man's death, he was given Black Wing. Later on, he enrolled and became a student at Crimson Nimbus Second and became friends with Meng Jiang.
Volume 1 Heaven Origin (Chapters 1-438)[]
Through his reputation as someone who can repair Artifacts, Si Jiaxue paid him to repair a Crystal Processor that once belonged to a close relative of hers. Li Yao's interaction with her enraged Helian Lie who threatened him and called him trash. After this incident, Li Yao saw a strange old man get hit by a Crystal Train. Dying, the old man tried to possess him but failed. As a result, Li Yao gained some of the memories of Ou Yeming who was an Ancient Cultivator from 40 thousands years ago.
With these memories, Li Yao started to rapidly improve by utilizing the techniques that came from Ou Yeming's memories and later caught the eye of Sun Biao who previously trained Fiend Blade Peng Hai who by consequence is the hidden sparring partner at a cultivation gym he goes to. With hellish training from both sides, he was able to obtain a ticket to Devil Dragon Island to compete in the Limit Challenge Competition.
It was before the competition, Li Yao first met Ding Lingdang who offered to recruit him to the Grand Desolate War Institution due to his physique. During the competition, Li Yao performed exceptionally using his skills as a refiner to craft Artifacts to sell to other competitors and later his experience to eliminate a large number of them via sabotage which included Gao Ye, an enemy commander.
The climax of the competition however was when a violent storm passed over Devil Dragon Island. A competitor used this opportunity to attempt to consume an illegal doping drug only to be slain by a Demon Beast which in turn consumed it. It's performance heightened to the point it slain 7 competitors before chasing Zheng Dongming who stumbled onto Li Yao.
Li Yao and Zheng Dongming are forced to team up to deal with the Demon Beast, with the latter revealing to Li Yao that he was a Demonic Cultivator. After begging for his life, Li Yao decided to spare his life, only to be attacked by the mental attack from the Demon Beast who was still alive. The mental attack fortunately hit Ou Yeming who was hiding inside of his mind all this time.
However, the attack still caused Li Yao to fall into a coma before he was saved. Inside his mind, Li Yao discovered how Ou Yeming was waiting to take over his body after his first failure. The mental attack had destroyed his soul and left a tree of memories which Li Yao exploited to learn the Ancient Cultivator's techniques. Doing so consumed most his Actualization Quotient thanks to his soul weakening which caused others to think he was crippled by the events.
Waking up, Li Yao found himself to be abandoned by most of those who previously promised to support him before the Limit Challenge Competition and was even driven to leave Crimson Nimbus Second through the schemes of Helian Lie. But Li Yao didn't give up, knowing that his condition was only temporary and enrolled in Mining Clan High School which was the worst high school in Floating Spear City.
In order to incentivize Li Yao to join the Grand Desolate War Institution, Ding Lingdang gave him an extreme amount of preferential treatment which included personally training him to recover back to his peak state. Their efforts proved worthwhile as Li Yao scored first place on the Collage Entrance Exam and used that opportunity to reveal the schemes of the father and son pair, Helian Ba and Helian Lie. As a result of Ding Lingdang's aid and the two-face attitude of the other Universities, Li Yao joined the Grand Desolate War Institution Refinement Department to everyone's shock.
During the journey there, the Crystal Train was attacked by a beast tide outbreak via wormhole of Ghost Jellyfish and later Ghost Face Silver Mosquito. It was only through the sacrifices of seven cultivators including Ding Yin and Wei Qingqing that they survived long enough for reinforcement to come. Due to their bravery in the face of death and Jiang Tao insulting their sacrifice, Li Yao awakened his spirit root and become a cultivator before going into a rage and beating him to a pulp.
His start at the Grand Desolate War Institution did not go well as the Refining Department blew up into pieces, killing everyone there during the final stages of developing the Mystic Skeleton Crystal Suit. As a result, only Li Yao and his teacher Yuan Manqiu remained of the entire department. The pair worked tirelessly to realize the dream of a mass-producible Crystal Suit.
During this journey towards the Refiner's Registration Examination, Li Yao participated in the battle to protect Verdant Tarn City from Demon invaders, invented the Demon Beast Detector, faced against 2000 of his fellow students to obtain the credits needed to be tested to be officially registered as a Refiner. During the exam, he met Jiang Shaoyang who was a refiner that rivaled him in skill.
After this, he joins the Death Training Camp in order to learn the skills needed to pilot a Crystal Suit. And during the final stretches of training in the Dark Desolate Domain, he encounters Wang Ji who he recognized as the demon he once ambushed at Verdant Tarn City. Li Yao manages to survive this second encounter which resulted in all of Wang Ji's subordinates dying.
Returning from the Dark Desolate Domain several days late, Li Yao gained some fame from the act. He later finds the Neltharion from the Cosmos Ring he looted from the Demons after spending time hiring a hacker to crack the protection on the ring. In addition to this, Li Yao join hands with Peng Hai to sell his Demon Beast Detector tool along with the Mountain Sea Sect and Moon Splitting Sword Guild.
As the Magical Equipment Exposition comes closer, Li Yao discovers that the souls of those who perished during the explosion of the Refining Department survived as Phantom Entities and used their strength to provide Li Yao a way to fix the major flaw of the Mystic Skeleton Crystal Suit's crystal reactor that originally caused the explosion. During the exposition, Li Yao's performance showcased the usability of the Crystal Suit despite not requiring Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures to make them which resulted in it being the preferred Crystal Suit for the Star Glory Federation.
When Li Yao reached the Building Foundation Stage, he joined the Occult Orbs Fellowship which is an organization centered around discovering and exploring World Fragments to bring back treasures and knowledge from the Star Ocean Imperium to strengthen the Star Glory Federation. He joined Team Blue Bronze due to Ding Lingdang being a part of it and rapidly rose through the ranks until they were qualified to participate in a mission to Ultimacy.
During that fateful mission, Li Yao once again encountered Wang Ji who was a part of force sent by the Blood Demon Sector with the same mission to obtain a means to win the war. Team Blue Bronze is driven to desperation before finding a Crystal Battleship which revealed the schemes of the demon Skeleton Dragon who wished to be revived. Wang Ji gets consumed by Skeleton Dragon who is revived by the actions of the Demons.
The efforts of the cultivators end up not doing much to the revived Demon who was rapidly regaining its strength, In order to prevent the Skeleton Dragon from coming to the Star Glory Federation to feed on its citizens, Li Yao desperately drives the Crystal Battleship Sparkle into it and ends up star jumping without a destination to kill it once and for all.
Volume 2 Flying Star Sector (Chapters 489-830)[]
Li Yao awakes to find out that the trip had solidified the existence of Mo Xuan and four seniors that perished from Phantom Entities to Spectral Cultivators. They end up discovering that they ended up in the Flying Star Sector. Li Yao ends up landing in Black Iron Town to scout out information about the sector and ends up interfering with a space battle against pirates by killing Fengyu Ming.
After this, he joins the Great Horn Exo Society led by Lei Dalu and assimilated much of their technical knowledge on Crystal Battleship maintenance and also new knowledge on Crystal Suits themselves. He earns their complete trust after he performed exceptionally well in keeping the ship's barrier intact when escaping from a Space Swirl. Due to this, he is given a Crystal Suit as a gift when he leaves them when they reached the Thousands Sails Space Zone at the central part of the Flying Star Sector.
Taking part in the Skyhill Swird Seminar, he is registered by Xie Anan who starts to admire him for his skills before the competition. Li Yao demonstrates his skills in refining during the preliminaries and reaches the top 32 where he faced Mo Tianshui in a match where they refined artifacts to compete against each other. After winning the match, he is kidnapped by Huangpu Shiyi along with Huangpu Xiaoya. Here, Li Yao is introduced to the concept of Immortal Cultivators who considered non-cultivators as ants.
In order to escape, Li Yao pretends to be persuaded into joining the Temple of Immortals and tricks Huangpu Shiyi into becoming his Master to assimilate his knowledge on Crystal Bombs before killing him and Hu Guohao, the latter of which puts a death curse on him. Doing so allowed him to take over the ship and discover that Fengyu Zhong is hunting down the Great Horn Exo Society due to their part in his son's death. He sends Huangpu Xiaoya away on an escape pod to reveal the existence of Immortal Cultivators to the rest of the Flying Star Sector before attempting to kill Fengyu Zhong but fails.
He ends up being forced to land on the Iron Plateau where he discovers the people there are Qi-Trainers rather than cultivators who are all in the Refinement Stage but able to surpass what is supposed to be the peak of that Stage. He disguises himself to learn of their methods due to being stuck in the Refinement Stage due to the Black Spider Death Curse and ends up saving Wu Mayan who takes him back to Furious Bear Tribe. Xiong Wuji and Sha Yulan, the adoptive father and biological mother of Wu Mayan decides to aid Li Yao due to saving their son and takes on the identity of Sand Scorpion
Li Yao ends up learning the methods of Qi-Trainers which is to expand the veins which qi runs inside their body and rapidly becomes one of the top experts of the Furious Bear Tribe thanks to his pain tolerance towards the training. He later joins the battle against the Apocalypse Beasts along with Six Tribes of the Iron Plateau where he is only surpassed by Xiang Wuji who killed a Calamity Level Apocalypse Beast on his own by sacrificing an arm.
Xiang Wuji during the meeting with the Six Tribes proposed to have diplomatic relations with the rest of the Flying Star Sector which Li Yao agrees with. However, the chief of the Burning Sun Tribe Yan Zhengdong refused this plan and was later found assassinated. Both men agreed in a private meeting that this situation was a set up and it is later revealed that Xiang Wuji was born as a space resident. Li Yao later traveled to the supposedly new Oasis Tribe to find out the truth only to find out that they are a part of the Temple of Immortals.
Worse, Li Yao discovers that 20 hostage that come from prominent families in the Flying Star Sector are trapped in the temple and the Great Horn Exo Society had landed on the planet to save them. Feeling a scheme to have the two sides fight each other to benefit the Immortal Cultivators, Li Yao ends up saving the 20 hostages which includes Xie Anan and quickly ropes Lei Dalu and the rest of the Great Horn Exo Society into his plans. He is later found by the Burning Sun Tribe and Yan Chifeng where Li Yao tricks them and the rest of the Six Tribes into revealing the masterminds of the whole situation.
It is revealed that Yan Xibei who was once the Best Warrior of the Iron Plateau is this person and the Mountain King of the Temple of Immortals. Yan Xibei reveals that he had been infected by the Blood Stripe Virus which is the source of the Eggs of Apocalypse which plagues the Iron Plateau since 5000 years ago. Li Yao is among the first to decry Yan Xibei's actions to infect everyone in the Flying Star Sector with the Blood Stripe Virus to survive other apocalypses that may come in the future and manages to break into the Superlative Stage of Building Formation Stage during this battle and later takes on Wu Mayan as his first disciple.
Li Yao later returns back to the Flying Star Sector as Sand Scorpion as the representative of the Iron Plateau, having gained the title of Best Warrior thanks to his actions. Due to his position and combat prowess that rivaled Core Formation cultivators, he is invited to join 'Operation Mist Clearing' by Xiao Xuance which targets the Immortal Cultivators trying to spread a deadly poison in Heavenly Saints City. However, Li Yao suspects Xiao Xuance due to previous suggestion of the Grand Illusionary Legion to counter the threat of both Immortal Cultivators and Space Pirates.
During the operation, things goes awry as 'Hellsword' Zhuang Ziyou went out of his way to personally send an attack at Li Yao while escaping when he didn't need to. It gets worse as it is revealed that the whole situation was orchestrated as a distraction for the Immortal Cultivators to summon Extraterrestrial Devils in the outer edges of the city. Li Yao uses the chaos of the situation to assassinate Zhuang Ziyou and fake his death in order to infiltrate Spider Den to determine their relations to the Temple of Immortals.
Disguised as a space pirate, he joins Fengyu Zhong side in the raid to kill Bai Xinghe. Li Yao uses the threat of mutual deterrent to cooperate with Bai Xinghe as they travel to his underground safe house which is also the Observatory of Lu Thi Pier which is revealed to be used to track Apocalypses which are in the billions. Bai Xinghe explains the theory of The Dark Forest to Li Yao before betraying him. But he stop when he discovers that his son, Bai Kaixin and member of the Great Horn Exo Society is going to die due to the traps Yan Xinjian set up 500 years ago.
Li Yao ends up escaping into the Secret Training Room of Yan Xinjian who was attempting to reach the Divine Transformation stage but ended up failing. He trains in the training room built by a Nascent Soul cultivator for 5 years and only managed to escape due to reaching the Superlative Stage of Core Formation which increased his strength to be able to match Nascent Soul cultivators. He uses this fact to disguise himself as Bai Xinghe to go against Xiao Xuance and ends up exposing him and the Imperium of True Human Beings.
The Star Brain is revealed to be Xiao Tianbao who was sent by the Imperium of True Human Beings to infiltrate and take over the Flying Star Sector. Li Yao along with other Nascent Soul cultivators and Mo Xuan managed to kill Xiao Tianbao with their combine efforts. After this, Li Yao reveals that he came from the Heaven Origin Sector and seek an alliance with the Flying Star Sector to deal with the Blood Demon Sector. He also takes on Xun Anan as his second disciple at this point.
But on the way back home, he was attacked by Blood stripe Virus which was hidden inside his brain after the battle in Iron Plateau. He had suspected he was infected before then thanks to his sudden change in personality and missing his memories when it took over. So he set up a trap hoping to eradicate the Blood Stripe Virus while also keeping it away from the Heaven’s Origin sector. Instead, he crash landed in the Blood Demon Sector.
Volume 3 Blood Demon (Chapters 831-1130[1])[]
The Blood Stripe Virus was weakened not destroyed with the effects only having taken over his left eye and arm and forming a Mental Demon. He is found by Demons and taken into Dry Leaf Village where a family attempted to trick him into being Lei Qi who had escaped to join the Blade of Chaos. The village is visited by Jin Xinyue who is perusing the members of the Blade of Chaos. Lei Qi later returns to the village in an attempt to gain supplies but fails. However he reveals that the Blade of Chaos had stolen a valuable package from Nether Springs.
Li Yao watches as the Jin Xinyue's forces attack the Blade of Chaos forces but are ambushed in turn by the forces of Nether Springs. The package gets broken and is absorbed by Jin Xinyue which caused her to humanized after Li Yao decides to save her. Li Yao takes on the identity of an Ancient Demon to trick her into revealing information to him and makes her his third disciple. From the information he gained from her, Li Yao taps into the Primeval Force which is what Demons cultivates in.
The pair later disguise themselves as captured slaves to infiltrate the Void Turmoil City and Skeleton Island which is said to be the base of the Blades of Chaos. Li Yao manipulate events to become a gladiator and uses the opportunity to train in the methods of Demons to further strengthen himself and better his disguise as a demon. He eventually gets recruited into the Blade of Chaos by Yuchi Ba. Li Yao and the other gladiators are given further training to aid Fire Ant King exploring the Mausoleum of Chaos.
During the exploration, it is revealed that Nether Spring had long since knew of Fire Ant King's actions and manipulated events to have Fire Ant King lead Nether Spring to the Mausoleum of Chaos. However, Li Yao escapes and finds out the origins of Demons. He later joins forces with Fire Ant King in the Nether World to stop Nether Spring after discovering his intentions on enslaving both the Blood Demon Sector and Heaven Origin Sector using an improved version of the Demon God Virus. They break out the prisoners which include Han Tuhu and Suo Chaolong who were captured and experimented on.
Together along with the remnants of the Blade of Chaos, a new organization called Skyfire was created to stop Nether Spring and his plans on infecting both Sects with his virus to enslave them all. In order to do this, they have to stop the Red Tide Plan which is led by Jin Tuyi. After negotiation with the man fails, Li Yao is forced to infiltrate the Eye of Blood Demon to sabotage the attempt to teleport the forces of demons directly into the captial of the Star Glory Federation. Only the first wave of forces are teleported into the Star Glory Federation before Li Yao was able to successfully sabotage the facility.
Seeing his plan ultimately fail in the last moment, Nether Spring starts spreading the Demon God Virus to inflect those in the Nether Spring Kingdom before escaping to the Heaven Origin Sector. Li Yao and the rest of the Blood Demon Sector is forced to contain the spread of the virus. As a result of the accumulation of events, Jin Tuyi agrees to the conditional surrender of the Blood Demon Sector to the Heaven Origin Sector. But not before revealing to Li Yao and Jin Xinyue that such a thing was part of his Red Tide Plan to integrate demons into the Star Glory Federation and rise together with humanity.
With the situation settled in the Blood Demon Sector, Li Yao goes back to the Heaven Origin Sector in order to reveal the conditional surrender of the demons and also to expose the Children of the Nether World. But upon reaching the sector, he is ambushed by Duanmu Ming while finding out that his death was fabricated to where he was consumed by the Blood Stripe Virus and became a Blood Devil like Yan Xibei. Seeing his situation is perlious, Li Yao is forced to infiltrate the Star Glory Federation to reveal the truth but is being tracked by the Secret Sword Bureau by Guo Chunfeng.
Upon reaching the Federal Square where Li Yao intends to reveal he is alive to the public, the speaker Jiang Hailiu is caught up in an explosion that comatose him. At the same time, a Nascent Soul sniper attempts to assassinate Li Yao at that same moment by using the crowd around him as a hostage. Li Yao is driven to a corner with the Mental Demon almost taking him over before hearing how Ding Lingdang will trust him no matter what. He manages to escape and later decretly cooperates with Ding Lingdang to reveal the mastermind behind the explosion at the capital.
Li Yao finds out the ones responsible are the Patriots Partnership led by Lu Zui and works to undermine them. He fakes his death in the captivity of Guo Chunfeng to stall for time to reach the parliment to expose the truth. Guo Chunfeng manages to stall for over half an hour which allowed Li Yao to almost reach his destination. However, Lu Zui fired on the crowd he was hidden in, forcing him to use his full strength to protect everyone around him.
Despite having unleased the aura of a demon, the ordinary people that were protected by Li Yao come up to protect him from the Secret Sword Agents coming to arrest him as a spy for the demon race. As a result, Lu Zui is exposed and defeated with Li Yao on the verge of advancing to the Nascent Soul Stage. Li Yao then presented the truth of the demon's surrender in front of the parliment and 'exterminates' the Blood Devil within him through clever acting while using the excuse that any of them could've been inflected by the Blood Stripe Virus at that moment and it was impossible to determine if they were Blood Devils or not.
However, he finds out that Patriots Partnership has one last card to play as Iron Commander Zhou Hengdao intend to invade the Blood Demon Sector to force the war to continue no matter what. Li Yao rapidly rushed to the Dark Desolate Domain where Zhou Hengdao intend to use a legion being trapped in the Blood Demon Sector as an excuse to invade using the Burning Prairie Battleship from the Flying Star Sector. However through sabotage of the Battleship from Mouse Bai, Li Yao manages to catch them in time to challenge Zhou Hengdao in a duel before killing him while advancing to the Nascent Soul stage during the battle.
Following this event, the Heaven Origin, Blood Demon and Flying Star Sectors started to rapidly integrate their technology and knowledge together to face the apocalypse from the Imperium of True Human Beings. During this time of peace, Li Yao and Ding Lingding got married and he discovered a hidden message from his foster father located in Black Wing which revealed he originally escaped from the Pangu's Covenant and that it was a thosand times worse than the Imperium of True Human Beings.
Volume 4 Ancient Sages Sector (Chapters 1186-1548)[]
With the revelations of the Pangu's Covenant and the threat of the Imperium of True Human Beings, the three Sectors pool their knowledge in determining how to proceed in the future. Li Yao himself proposed the Black Hole Plan which used his knowledge of his past life on how to wage a war without spiritual energy. With his plan, ordinary people will be armed with weapons that can kill cultivators.
However, plans changed as the apocalypse that came from the Imperium of True Human Beings suddenly changed direction which allowed the alliance to determine the location of Kunlun which held relics from the Pangu Civilisation. To oppose the force from the Imperium of True Human Beings gaining those relics and becoming even stronger before they invade the Sectors, Li Yao, Mo Xuan and Fire Ant King travelled to Kunlun before their foes.
On Kunlun, they discovered traces of a conflict between the Pangu and Nuwu Clans along with humans fighting on both sides along with . But before they got to explore more, Kou Ruhuo, Tang Qianhe and Su Changfa from the Imperium of True Human Beings arrived. Li Yao disguised himself as a lost cultivator from the Flying Star Sector and got their cooperation as they explored Kunlun which allowed them to discover super sized Crystal Suit known as Colossus and even a living survivor of the Pangu Clan in hybernation.
Unfortunately, the arrival of the Immortal Cultivators was a trap set by the Pangu Clan member as Tang Qianhe is revealed to have betrayed the Imperium of True Human Beings and joined the Pangu's Covenant. Tang Qianhe killed Su Changfa before reviving the living Pangu, even letting it absorb her as nutrients. Kou Ruhuo burns his soul only to leave a trace of damage on the Pangu Clan member. Enraged, the Pangu Clan member grabs Kou Ruhuo and killed gim. Su Changfa who is actually still alive and Li Yao are forced to cooperate to slay the Pangu member with the former being captured by Mo Xuan and Fire Ant King ambushing him after the battle. With Kou Ruhuo captured, the alliance of three Sectors obtained a large amount of information on both the Imperium of True Human Beings and the Pangu's Covenant. The three Sectors enter a period of rapid development for years including Three-Five Plan, Super Warriors Plan, Development of Colossus,etc.
Yet things go awry as mysterious signals from an unknown part of space which the Star Ocean Imperium never discovered suddenly communicated with the alliance. Li Yao ends up volunteering to spend a hundred years travelling in hibernation to the Dark Nebula only to find that civilization hadn't advanced from ancient times in the Sector.
After arriving he soon found a small skirmish between a barbarian trive led by a core formation cultivator and the "Appeasing Ambassador" of the Southland of Sorcerers. After the battle was over, Li Yao noticed a mosquito being used as a scout, and after following it, he discovered the cave of Master Spiritual Vulture, a Nascent Soul evil cultivator, who after discovering Li Yao, was slayed by the latter due to his evil practices (torturing the soul of children). His cave was a small ancient relic of the Pangu Clan.
Li Yao infiltrated the Appeasing Ambassador's army, led by Ling Shouying and his daughter Ling Lanyin, who was a member of the Purple Pole Swords Sect. He found out about the ruling party of the so-called Ancient Sages Sector, the Great Qian Dinasty, and the troubles that it was facing in its decline with several peasant revolts and other sects and army uprisings. The greatest troubles to the Dinasty were brought by several mighty cultivators, among them: Ghost King' Han Baling, Mother White Lotus' Wan Mingzhu, Heaven Battering King' Qi Changsheng, and The Lead Eunuch' Wang Xi, all of them collectively known as the Four Rapscallions.
Currently, The Great Qian Dinasty was facing trouble due to the army of Ghost Qin, which wanted to recruit the barbarian tribes in the Southland of Sorcerers, the poorest territory in the Dinasty.
The group arrived at the Fire Rude Tribe, in order to help Huo Wuji become the Chieftain of the South Land, with the alleged support of Master Black Moon, Master Spiritual Vulture's senior brother and the recognized leader of the Southland of Sorcerers. Ling Shouying planned to murder Huo Wujiu, Huo Wuji's brother, who supported the Ghost Qin. However, it was a trap made by Master Black Moon and Huo Yuantao, the leader of one of the 8 units of Ghost Qin - the Behemothic Eagle Unit - who wanted to frame them and kill them, gaining the full support of the cultivators from the Southland of Sorcerers. When everything seemed lost, Li yao killed Master Black Moon in an ambush, and trapped Huo Yuantao while assuming the fake identity of Master Spiritual Vulture.
After letting Huo Yuantao go, Li Yao decides to accompany Ling Lanyin back to the Purple Pole Sword Sect, which is currently under siege from several hundred sects, including the six greatest sects in the Ancient Sages Sector. The Purple Pole Sword Sect decided to celebrate a Dragon Spring Meeting, where they would try to negotiate peace with the rest of the sects and Sword Saint' Yan Liren, the greatest swordsman in the world, and one of the three saints would fight Iron Saint' Qi Zhongdao from the Grand Mistery Sect, the recognized number one cultivator in the Sector. Li Yao is witness to the bout and, afterwards, he shows his prowess and decides to become a Visiting Elder of the Purple Pole Sword Sect, becoming the allegedly number one refiner in the land.
Months later, Li Yao travels southeast alongside Yan Liren and several members of the Purple Pole Sword Sect to help with a super natural disaster - a Febrile Typhoon - that’s menacing to destroy several counties. They meet Master Bitter Cicada and Beggar' Ba Xiaoyu, on the way, who are top 10 cultivators in the Ancient Sages Sector, and together they destroy the Roaring Tiger Hall, one of the most powerful sects in the southeast and use their assets to feed the commoners suffering from the Febrile Typhoon. They do so in order to impede that the commoners become ferocious ghouls that make Wan Minghzu's army stronger. However things don't go as expected since the greedyness from the central plateau cultivators slow their endeavour to properly aid the southeastern land. In the meantime, Li Yao becomes good friends with Ba Xiaoyu, Master Bitter Cicada, Qi Zhongdao and Yan Liren.
Due to their tardiness the group of cultivators arrive late at East Peace County, which is already being assaulted by the Ghost Army of Mother White Lotus. With the help of the Central Plateau cultivators, the Ghost Army and Mother White Lotus are vanquished, however, it was all a ruse so the special forces of the Heaven Battering Army, the Ghost Qin Army, and the Ghost Character Army could infiltrate the East Peace County and recover some artifacts. Li Yao discovered the ruse and managed to follow the special forces all the way to the underwater Ghost City. In Ghost City, Li Yao overhears Mother White Lotus, Huo Yuantiao and an agent of Qi Changsheng talking to Long Yangjun, who shows them a map to the Divine Palace, an ancient relic of the Nuwa Clan.
Li Yao manages to kidnap Long Yangjun, however, the latter actually happens to be Wang Xi, and battles Li Yao to a stalemate, before running away. Li Yao tells what happened to Ba Xiaoyu, Master Bitter Cicada, Qi Zhongdao and Yan Liren, and together they decide to get the Emperor Phoenix' Zhu Zongyou's help to go on an expedition to the Land of Eternal Night, where the Divine Palace is located.
After traveling north with the aid of Emperor Phoenix and the Six Sects’ forces, they eventually find the Divine Palace, which turns out to be a Nuwa Spaceship. Li Yao infiltrates the spaceship and manages to arrive at the bridge where he is soon followed by Wang Xi, who manages to enter the bridge with full permission from the spaceship mainframe. Wang Xi and Li Yao have a brief skirmish before they enter a temporary truce, with both of them sharing some of their secrets. Wang Xi, aka Long Yangjun, reactivates the surveillance of the starship and they quickly notice that the rest of the sects are already fighting and killing each other, and most of the super nascent soul cultivator are already fighting in the Colossi warehouse were several Colossi are being repaired.
The fight is stopped temporarily, when they discover Emperor Phoenix trying to get access to a fully restored colossus. They try to stop Emperor Phoenix, but him along with his personal guard are wearing the Crystal Suits from the Imperium of True Human Beings, and stall the cultivators until "Deity Raincloud", a person who claims to be the Great Qian Dinasty's ancestor manages to gain control of the Colossus.
Deity Raincloud, an agent of the Imperium tries to coerce the cultivators present into surrendering, however, the super nascent soul cultivators resist her. Eventually a conundrum is reached when several of their companions defect to Deity Raincloud's camp. Li Yao and Long Yangjun manage to teleport near the battlefield, where soon chaos ensues as they eventually manage to defeat Deity Raincloud due to a malfunction in the Colossus.
The malfunction was caused by Wu Suiyun and Meng Chixin, two Divinity Transformation cultivators that had been lost for a hundred years and now transformed into spectral cultivators. After killing the traitors, they led the ten super Nascent Soul cultivators (Li Yao, the Three Saints, the Four Raspcallions, the Monk and the Emperor) to the end of the Nuwa Starship, disclosing that there was another facility right below the Warship, which happened to be a Pangu Clan Secret Base of operations. In that secret base, lurked many strange crab-spider like monsters that were able to awaken the "junk genes" in a human being and make them transform into members of the Pangu Clan. These creatures caused the destruction of Wu Suiyun and Meng Chixin bodies.
The twelve experts decide to save the Ancient Sages Sector at whatever cost, so they awaken Deity Raincloud to get intel from her about the current state of the universe. Deity Raincloud was actually a female named Heiye Lan, the daughter of the leader of the Black Wind Fleet. She revealed that she and her small fleet of scouts had found Firefly, the remnant of the former Star Ocean Republic. However while trying to occupy Firefly and capture their remnant members, they were suddenly ambushed by a fleet from the Star Glory Federation led by Ding Lingdang, who quickly defeat them and rescue Firefly, forcing Heiye Lan to escape towards the Dark Nebula, and arriving ten years prior to the current events at the Ancient Sages Sector.
Heiye Lan tries to convince them to surrender to the Imperium and aid them in conquering the Star Glory Federation. After some discussion, the eleven experts from the Ancient Sages Sector originally agree to surrender to the Imperium, however, Li Yao manages to convince them to delay the decision. With the help of Long Langjun they craft the "Star Picking Plan", where they decide to infiltrate the Federation first and get more intel before truly taking a decision, with the aid of twelve Colossi tailored for each of the experts by Li Yao. After repairing Weary Tooth, the starhip used by Heiye Lan, with parts of the Nuwa Warship the twelve experts and Heiye Lan manage to travel outside the Dark Nebula to the edge of the Federation, at the Shimering Lights Space Zone.
Volume 5 Rise (Chapters 1549-1850)[]
After arriving at the Shimering Lights Space Zone, they are immediately attacked by a small fleet of starships led by Fei Qi, a so-called local Immortal Cultivator, who is a member of CFIA (Commitee for the Imperium's Arrival). After subduing him with the help of the Colossi they quickly get some intel of the nearby Star Glory Federation.
The current Star Glory Federation is known as the New Federation after the integration of the Flying Star Sector, the Heaven Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector. In the past hundred years they had managed to annex four more Sectors: The Forest Ocean Sector, the Water Crystal Sector, the Nether World Sector, and the Uranian Ring Sector. Li Yao and company were currently in the Dragon Snake Space Zone, which was filled with the exiled parties of the four "conquered" Sectors, people discontent with the Federation, as well as Firefly and the remnant members of the Star Ocean Republic.
The party soon arrives at Fish Dragon City, where the Ancient Cultivators are mesmerized by modern technology. Soon, they find out that Ding Lingdang and Jin Xinyue are both competing for the post of Supreme Speaker of the New Federation, the latter being supported by three core sectors and the former by the four new sectors. After acquiring information about the Federation, the party splits with eleven of them going to get money, while Li Yao goes to acquire new Crystal Armors for their use before infiltrating the Federation.
Li Yao arrives at the Four Sectors Chamber of Commerce Magical Equipment Center, and gets acquainted with Tang Xiaoxing, a Master Refiner from Firefly, and the daughter of the current captain of Firefly Tang Dingyuan. Soon, Li Yao finds himself in the middle of an infight situation between the Technical personnel and the Parliament Members aboard Firefly, the former in favor of joining the Star Glory Federation, and the latter wanting to make the Star Glory Federation submit to them and let them be the leaders. Tang Xiaoxing is attacked and nearly captured by the Secret Police of Firefly, when she is latter rescued by the Dim Moon Squad, secret agents who are loyal to Jin Xinyue, however, Li Yao manages to take Tang Xiaoxing from under everyone's noses.
In order to help the Federation, Li Yao decides to aid Tang Xiaoxing and rescue Tang Dingyuan. He infiltrates Firefly and assumes the identity of Luo De, a Master Refiner of super-minute carving technology, while the rest of the Ancient Cultivators wait for the perfect opportunity to rescue Tang Dingyan. Li Yao is taken to Speaker Cui Lingfeng, who asks him to test and manage a "polygraph" to interrogate Captain Tang for his alleged defection. After the interrogation, riots start happening all over Firefly. Speaker Cui and Li Yao are then taken by Cheng Xuansu to a secure bunker. However, Cheng Xuansu ambushes them and claims to have become an immortal cultivator.
Li Yao saves Speaker Cui and tells him that he and the Ancient Cultivators come from the Red Lotus Sector, as part of his disguise. Gaining the Speaker's trust, they become Team Red Lotus, a secret force under the personal command of the Speaker, and are granted special permission by him to quell the rebellion. After being given clearance, the Ancient quickly supress the riots, rescue the prisoners, and capture Ding Zhengyang, the head of the Immortal Cultivators rebellion inside Firefly.
Li Yao and the Ancient Cultivators then join the Firefly Delegation for the Star Glory Federation, to better understand the New Federation. Li Yao is named the special representative for Speaker Cui, and alongside Heiye Lan, both are led by a half-demon guide named Ling Xiaole from the Secret Swords Bureau. They go to the Citizen Center, where they are allowed to witness the advances of "Civilization", the full interactive game developed by Li Yao and Su Changfa a hundred years prior. Li Yao even meets the first children of the virtual "child civilization" of mankind, Xiao Ming and Wen Wen.
After some days a scandal blows up, that links Jin Xinyue to the CFIA and Lu Qingchen - A Federation's Immortal Cultivator, and the last disciple of Su Changfa -, which undermines her run for the Federation's Speaker position. The scandal seems to be of great benefit to the so-called "Li Yao's group", made by all the sects and groups that are directly influenced by Li Yao. Meanwhile, Jin Xinyue who is in the center of the scandal threatens to defect to the Imperium alongside three of the most powerful Sects from the Federation. However, this is actually a ruse so she can fish up all the unstable factors before the war as well as get revenge for the dead Demons that were mistreated by the major Sects and Minery Conglomerates. Jin Xinyue contacts Heiye Ming, the leader of the Black Wind Fleet and tries to convince him to attack the heart of the Federation, the Heaven's Origin Planet. Nevertheless, Heiye Ming is aware of Jin Xinyue's fake surrender due to Lu Qingchen's betrayal and is prepared to plow through the trap and win the battle in a fell swoop.
Meanwhile, Li Yao and the Ancient Cultivators are in the Hundred Flowers City, located in the Hundred Flowers Space Zone, which is the center of the seven Sectors, as well as the place where the Grand Unified Spiritual Nexus core for the entire Federation is located under the supervision of professor Mo Xuan. Li Yao has managed to deduct Jin Xinyue's trap, however, he's also seen its loopholes and is suspicious of both Lu Qingchen and professor Mo Xuan, who were involved in a mysterious accident that destroyed the Virtual Spirits Sector and caused the death of Su Changfa.
After meeting Wei Qingqing and professor Mo Xuan, Li Yao is more certain of his suspicions towards the latter, due to his change in behaviour. Hundred Flowers City is about to launch the first probe for the Tinder Plan, the succesor of Gui Suishou's Monument Plan, with Wei Qingqing as its first envoy. Mo Xuan is also lobbying to change the term of "Ghosts" and "Virtual Space" for the new term "Spiriters" and "Spiriters' Realm" respectively, a sort of third and new evolution for Mankind alongside the regular Human Beings and Demons.
Li Yao enters the Spiriters' Realm accompanied by Ling Xiaole and Professor Mo Xuan and hears the latter's theories about the future evolution of Mankind. Li Yao is almost certain that there is nothing wrong with Mo Xuan, however, when he tries to leave the Spiriter's Realm, he finds himself trapped in the Virtual World. After the test Li Yao doubles on his suspicion for Mo Xuan's behaviour and with Long Langjun help manage to take a glimpse at his scheme right before they leave Hundred Flowers City. The two of them manage to escape the carrier that was supposed to take them to the Heaven's Origin Sector, however the other ten Ancient Cultivators are trapped in the Fourth Dimensional World and are carried away.
Both Li Yao and Long Yangjun manage to infiltrate Hundred Flowers City and locate Professor Mo Xuan's lair. They deduce that the Professor's likely accomplice is Lei Yuqin, his former "mistress". Li Yao and Long Yangjun manage to infiltrate the Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital, Lei Yuqin's private establishment and find evidence that Extraterrestrial Devils have infiltrated the Federation with Mo Xuan's help.
Convincing the regular soldiers in Hundred Flowers City, Li Yao and Long Yangjun, after a fierce struggle, manage to enter District 01, where the central government of the city and the Control Center of the Grand-Unified Spiritual Nexus is located by using their Colossi. When they arrived, they found out that Professor Mo Xuan had covered the entired District 01 in Liquid Metal and has already hacked into the Super Crystal Processor, and is confirmed to have been corrupted by an Extraterrestrial Devil. After a futile struggle all of the soldiers, as well as Li Yao and Long Yangjun have been dragged into the Spiriters' Realm.
Right when Li Yao was caught by Professor Mo Xuan, the final part of the Dim Moon Plan is brought forward and the vanguard of the Black Wind Fleet makes a succesful Space Jump to Heaven's Origin Sector. The only Fleet in the capital of the Federation is the Heaven's Origin Fleet, which is much weaker than the vanguard of the Black Wind Fleet, and they desperately try to slow the Immortal Cultivators from gaining command of the Space Gates and await the arrival of the Big Bai Fleet which is stationed nearby.
Both fleets begin a cruel space battle, with a clear advantage from the Imperium' Soldiers. In the meantime, the Big Bai Fleet, led by Bai Xingjian are ordered to go defend Space Gates Nº2 and 3 and wait for the Burning Prairie Fleet to make a joint attack against the Black Wind Fleet. However Bai Xingjian disobeys command and goes directly towards the rear of the Black Wind Fleet due to some secret info he's gotten from a mysterious informant, while entering radio silence and blocking the Spiritual Nexus. As the Dim Moon Plan starts to unfold, many of the Imperium's Spies as well as the traitors in the Federation are fished by Guo Chunfeng and Jin Xingyue in the middle of the chaotic space battle. At the same time, Heiye Ming believes that everything is under control due to Lu Qingchen and Su Changfa's plan, however the Big Bai Fleet appear at their rear and start attacking them.
Meanwhile, in the Spiriters' Realm, Professor Mo Xuan discovers Li Yao's identity and reveals himself to be Mo Xuan 2.0, an amalgamation of Mo Xuan, Su Changfa, the Star Child and the Extraterrestrial Devil, which is a kind of Ancient Crystal Processor Virus developed towards the end of the Star Oceam Imperium. He tries to convince the Blood Stripes Virus to help him, however, the Mental Devil is actually on Li Yao's side and together they manage to weaken him enough so Long Yangjun and the rest of the Ancient Cultivators are set free. Then, as the battle continues, Devil Mo Xuan's grasp of the Spiriters' Realm lessens gradually and more and more people are set free. Together, they awaken Mo Xuan's lingering spirit, and finally manage to destroy the Extrarrestrial Devil. Professor Mo Xuan dies while protecting a third of the Crystal Processors and Computational power of Hundred Flowers City so the latter can keep fighting the war, leaves Li Yao his experience and theories on becoming a Divinity Transformation Stage Expert, and protects the rest of the Spiriters from dying in the collapse of the Virtual Realm. He also warns Li Yao of the existence of another Extraterrestrial Devil that has corrupted Lu Qingchen.
While all of this happened, the Dim Moon Plan failed right after the vanguard of the Burning Prairie Fleet with Bai Kaixin in command appeared in the Heaven's Origin Sector. The Space Gates and the Star Beacons all malfunctioned at the same time and two third of Bai Kaixin's fleet was trapped far away. The Federal Network and communication bases also malfunctioned at the same time. The armies of both the Federation and the Black Wind Fleet started battling each other like caged beasts, with the Space Gates under the control of the Extraterrestrial Devils and with no way to obtain support from the rear of either armies.
The Heaven's Origin Fleet was almost scrapped under the attack of the Imperium soldiers. Among them, Rabid Dog, a Core Formation Cultivator and a Major of the Federation, was actually Helian Lie, Li Yao's former high school rival and as he was about to die, he managed to survive thanks to the arrival of the Big Bai Fleet. Bai Xingjian attacked the second wave of reinforcements from the Black Wind Fleet and harassed the latter, proving his capability as a Dinivity Transformation Stage Cultivator. Due to Bai Xingjian's prowess, Heiye Ming was forced to let their Colossi out to pester the Big Bai Fleet. The Federation answered by releasing their own Colossi, led by Ding Lingdang.
Things seem to be taken a turn for the best when the Burning Prairie Fleet joins the rest of the Federation soldiers and start attacking the Black Wind Fleet. However, Lu Qingchen takes advantage of the battle and corrupts Heiye Ming and infects him with an Extraterrestrial Devil. Afterwards there is an outbreak of Extraterrestrial Devils that invade all of the Immortal Cultivators and start makin interference with the Federation soldiers which caused a reversal in the battlefield. Jin Xinyue's final plan was to use a wormhole bomb. Due to a succesful feint brought by the sacrifice of Helian Lie, the bomb managed to cause a grand amount of damage to the Black Wind Fleet.
With the time earned, Li Yao and the Ancient Cultivators arrived on time with their Colossi, and Li Yao, Long Yangjun and Yan Liren infiltrated Black Swirl, the main starhip of the Black Wind Fleet and managed to defeat the already corrupted Helian Ming and Lu Qingchen, as well as the Extraterrestrial Devil. Taking advantage of the end of the fight, Bai Xingjian left the Heaven's Origin Sector with the remnants of the Space Pirates and went towards the Imperium. However, he first said good bye to Jin Tuyi who was his secret adviser as well as Bai Kaixin.
Some time later, Ding Lingdang is elected as the Supreme Speaker of the Federation. With the victory over the Expedition Fleet, the Star Glory Federation has truly risen.
Volume 6 Imperium (Chapters 1851-2690)[]
Months later, Li Yao visit the collapsed Virtual Spirits Sector and discovers that two advanced Hyper-Spirits developed by Devil Mo Xuan have gone missing, as well as a lot of information related to him. At the same time, Xiao Ming and Wen Wen, having stolen the seeds of Li Yao and Ding Lingdang have created two embryos which served as hosts for their Virtual Souls.
Some time later, the Federation is in negotiation with the remaining troops of the Black Wind Fleet, led by Di Feiwen, the Vice Commander of the Expedition. The latter seems to want to surrender to the Federation, with the condition that he will only surrender to Li Yao. After a brief battle against three experts from the Fleet remnant, Di Feiwen agrees to surrender, with the only condition that Li Yao becomes the "Black Wind King", the leader of the remaining Immortal Cultivator from the five worlds, and leads them to conquer the Center of the Universe and get their home back. After news that the Imperium is currently gaining momentum and recovering territory from the hands of the Pangu Covenant, Li Yao and the Federation decide to agree to such request. The remnant of the fleet are then led to Boneyard (now renamed Ultimacy), the primeval forest in the Forest Ocean Sector, as well as the desert in the Water Crystal Sector, where they are being reeducated and their technology in colonization has been added to the Federation.
After the war was concluded, the first expedition of the Tinder Plan was launched, led by Wei Qingqing. A year and a half later, Li Yao led several of the Ancient Cultivators, as well as a powerful Fleet of the Federation back to the Ancient Sages Sector.
At the Ancient Sages Sector, three years have passed since Li Yao and company left the planet. A Super Nascent Soul Cultivator named Elder Scorching Sun came out of a hundred years reclusion with a half-broken Colossus in hand, and threatened to conquer the world despite the warning that the Ancient Cultivators had left behind. Li Yao arrived with the full might of the Star Glory Federation Fleet and rapidly took care of Elder Scorching Sun and his sect. Afterwards in a short amount of time, the integration between the Federation and the Ancient Sages Sector started.
Some time later, the exploration of the Nuwa Airship and the Pangu Laboratory started. Long Yangjun was quickly incapacitated and sent back to the Nuwa Starship. Meanwhile the rest of the troop went lower and lower until they found the corpses of the two commanders in a sealed room which quickly dissappear after being exposed to the outside air. After decoding the last will of both commanders, it seems that the Pangu Clan worships Absolute Order and the Nuwa Clan goes for Absolute Freedom. It seems that the Nuwa Clan was the younger member of the Pangu Clan that was infected by "Chaos" and Extraterrestrial Devils. With this knowledge, Li Yao notices that a primeval Extraterrestrial Devil is inside the remains of the Nuwa Clan member and has a quick yet fierce fight in his soul against it and eventually defeats him. However, at that point, he then remembers that Long Yangjun is also a member of the Nuwa Clan, and is also infected by an Extraterrestrial Devil.
Long Yangjun seems to be a member of the Nuwa Clan that has been corrupted by the Pangu Clan. She quickly escapes from the Ancient Sages Sector taking advantage of Li Yao and the rest of the members' temporary weakness. She speaks to Li Yao before leaving, and talks about the origin of Mankind and their relationship to Chaos. She also tells him that she will go to the Imperium, and that they will meet again there. Some time later Li Yao has an unsuccesful attempt to become a Divinity Transformation Stage expert. However, he discovers that his so-called destiny and the goal of the "Vulture Plan" is to destroy Earth.
After returning to the Star Glory Federation, Jin Xinyue and Di Feiwen propose the Heavenly Eye and Heavenly Slayer Plans, to send powerful experts to the core of the Imperium and achieve mutual deterrence with them so the Federation has time to become stronger. Li Yao volunteers as part of the first group of experts to travel to the Imperium. The point of infiltration is determined to be the Devilish Scorpion Galaxy, the home of the Martial Meritocrats Sector, and the place that gave birth to Starblack the Great - Wuying Qi. As Li Yao takes off, the child-looking Li Xiaomeng and Li Wenwen manage to take over a dock in the Dragon Snake Space Zone and go after Li Yao.
Li Yao arrives at the periphery of the Devilish Scorpion Galaxy and soon finds himself in the middle of a space storm, as well as the attack by an alien species. Taking advantage of the circumstances, Li Yao manages to finally enter the Divinity Transformation Stage, however, his body and equipment have been wrecked by the cosmic radiation, which forces him to put his body in hibernation and hide his starship, "Jingle Bell", in outer space, and to infiltrate the Martial Meritocrats Planet with only his soul attached to Neltarion. Soon, he takes over a small wasted robot, a Universal Janitor, and finds himself in the company of Han Te and Liu Li, two teenage locals in the Sector. Li Yao pretends to be "Grandpa Yao", an ancient expert whose remnant soul was trapped in the Universal Janitor. He saves them from some dangerous beasts and goes home with them to the Village of Peace.
In the Village of Peace they meet Gu Zengyang, Liu Li's father and Han Te's master. Li Yao quickly notices that the so-called Land of Sinners is filled to the brim with powerful arts, techniques and military equipment, however, all of them are flawed and puts everyone in the Land in constant peril. The Land of Sinners is a laboratory for the Immortal Cultivators. Li Yao helps Han Te and Liu Li with the hidden issues in their bodies and techniques and upgrades the old body of the Universal Janitor with the weapons from the Immortal Cultivators to help the Village of Peace in the coming battle of Bliss, where new products will be sent from Manjusaka, the City in the Sky.
The battle allows the Village of Peace to collect a lot of new assets, which causes conflicts with the "sinners" from the neighbouring towns. After winning the battle they have many wounded, and a fight is caused between Gu Zengyang and Zhao Lie, the second in command. Gu Zengyang wins, however it's made clear that several gangs from the nearby Double Dragon City want to conquer the Village of Peace. With the help of Li Yao, they manage to fend off the gangsters and thieves. Li Yao then decides to infiltrate the Double Dragon City to deal with the gangs that are threatening the Village and understand the reason for their unnatural behaviour.
In Double Dragon City, Li Yao learns that Fist King' Lei Zonglie, one of the most powerful bandits among the Bloody Worlds in the Land of Sin, is recruiting several gangs in order to fight Liberty City, one of the Elysian Worlds that are directly connected to Manjusaka. After getting some info, Li Yao manages to cause the self-destruction of the gangs in Double Dragon City and allow Gu Zengyang and the Village of Peace to occupy the city. Afterwards he takes Han Te and Liu Li, and go towards the Bloody Plateau to take part in the fight between the Fist King's forces and Liberty City.
During the trip, Li Yao and company encounter Xin Xiaoqi, a local sinner who deals with intelligence, that has been assigned to work under three Immortal Cultivators. It seems that the Land of Sin is used by the Imperium as a sort of war game to sort out the talent and the younglings of the Noble Families in the Imperium. Han Te and Liu Li start behaving as laborers for the Immortal Cultivators, and Li Yao is used as their mainteinance robot. The Immortal Cultivators led by a female named Red Viper do several quests in order to gain the Fist King's trust and eventually meet him. The latter makes some promises to them, and manage to notice the strangeness of Li Yao.
After the battle starts Li Yao catches one of the Immortal Cultivators and gets some information on their presence in the Land of Sin. After the Fist King notices Li Yao's performance, he seems to become fond of the latter, and asks Li Yao, Han Te and Liu Li to stay behind. In the battle the Fist King quickly defeats the mayor of Liberty City, however he is soon under siege by the many Immortal Cultivators on the other side. However, his prowess proves too much for them and manages to escape. Meanwhile, in Manjusaka, there is a gathering of many nobles from the Imperium, including some members of the Li Family, one of the Kürfursten, the four most important families in the Imperium. Among them there is one Li Jialing, who although acts like a coward most of the time, is actually the "hope" of Li Lingfeng, one of the most powerful experts in the Family and the brother of Li Linghai the current Queen of the Empire.
The Fist King unleashes its ultimate body, which turns out to be the full Iron Fortress and kills many Immortal Cultivators. Manjusaka, under the lead of Wuying Lan, sends a lot of equipment for the Immortal Cultivators in the Land of Sin and ultimately destroy the "ultimate" body of the Fist King. Li Yao rescues him and finds out that he is actually a Hyper Spirit, a powerful AI which has prerogative to become the strongest. After recovering for a bit, they follow Xin Xiaoqi and Xiahou Wuxin - the mayor of Liberty City -, who are eventually intercepted by a team of Immortal Cultivators. Li Yao and company rescue them and go to a secret warehouse where Li Yao performs a complete overhaul of their equipment and finds some equipment that will allow his body to recover. The party decide to destroy Manjusaka and its leaders.
But first, they must escape Liberty City. During their escape they are eventually rescued by Zuo Jingyun, a Cultivator from Starlight, the last remaining warriors from the Martial Meritocrats Sector. She leads the group to an underground base, which is led by Commander Wei Longtao. They have a plan to uncover a so-called Temple of Cultivators, where a planetary level defense mechanism is located that will allow them to attack Manjusaka. At the same time, Cultivators from outer space will also attack from the exterior. Li Yao becomes suspicious of Wei Longtao, and after asking the Fist King to protect Han Te and Liu Li, he escapes the Land of Sin on Neltharion and go back to Jingle Bell, where his body is hidden.
Li Yao recovers his prowess and manages to infiltrate Manjusaka with relative ease. He sends Neltharion and finds a prison filled with sinners and criminals from the Empire. Coincidentally, he watches a test being done to Li Jialing, and eventually get to know each other. The latter wants to escape from the control of Li Lingfeng and the Li Family and offers to help Li Yao destroy Manjusaka and save the Starlight Cultivators that are on their way to a well concocted trap. Li Yao accepts, partly because he feels that Li Jialing is actually his foster father's biological son with Li Linghai.
When the day of the battle arrives, Wei Longtao unmasks himself as an Immortal Cultivator and a traitor. The Starlight Cultivators in the space are also mired in a trap, and the battle is being broadcasted for all of the Imperium to see, in order to make the Cultivators look like clowns. In the midst of their despair, Li Yao launches his ambush and manages to release the mutants and prisoners inside Manjusaka. He quickly moves towards the core of the City in the Sky and kills Wuying Lan, the manager of Manjusaka. Afterwards he begins to stream to all of the Imperium the fall of Manjusaka and the massacre of the Immortal Cultivators. After fighting briefly with Li Lingfeng in their respective Colossi, Li Yao manages to escape and reunites with Han Te, Liu Li, and company. Together they find Great Mountain, one of the Starships from Starlight and the still living Cultivators that fell along with Manjusaka into the ground.
After Li Yao recovers for some time, he leaves the Starlight Cultivators and escapes flamboyantly to call the attention of Li Lingfeng's troops. He encounters Li Jialing and try to escape together in Jingle Bell, however, they are soon found out by Li Lingfeng who is chasing doggedly after them. They make a dangerous space jump and land in the main planet of the Sand Primitive Sector, where Jingle Bell is completely scrapped. However, Li Lingfeng is determined to capture Li Jialing and pursues them with all his remaining forces.
Li Yao and Li Jialing manage to put some distance between them and Li Lingfeng, however, the latter is attacked by surprise by Li Linghai, who has been following him in secret, and is quickly defeated and put in the run. Li Lingfeng tries to convince Li Yao and Li Jialing to help him threaten his sister, and the three apparently reach an agreement. Li Linghai catches up to them and after talking some secrets with Li Lingfeng, she eventually kills him with the secret art of the Supreme Emperor. Then she confronts Li Yao and Li Jialing, and when she tries to kill her son, Li Yao tells her the truth about his foster father and manages to convince her to eventually work together.
Volume 7 Alliance of the Holy Covenant (Chapters 2691-2971)[]
Volume 8 Tomb of the Gods (Chapters 2971-3163)[]