Chapter 51: Football at the Center

Chapter 51: Chapter 51: Football at the Center

The Demon Qi was siphoned from the glove.

So, the demon’s control over the Demon Hunter wasn’t possession, but more like a horsehair worm’s parasitic control over its host.

Li Ye silently stuffed the glove into his pocket, mulling over how the demon controlled its user. From now on, coexisting with a demon would be his new normal.

The more he understood, the better he could guard against it.

"Li Ye, we don’t have much time. Demon Qis can sense each other. There were originally three streams of Demon Qi, and now only two remain. That Divine Dragon must be panicking. It’s definitely going to come kill us as soon as possible," the Team Emblem said.

"You’ve already devoured one stream of Demon Qi. Aren’t you stronger than it? Why would you still be afraid of it?" Li Ye asked in a low voice.

"You beat all the Demon Qi out of the glove! Besides, don’t I need to use it up too?!" the Team Emblem said irritably. "Without my Demon Qi, you would have bled to death long ago. I’m at my weakest right now. I need to replenish my Demon Qi as soon as possible."

"Right."

Li Ye gave a perfunctory reply.

The matter of the Divine Dragon was well within his expectations; he didn’t need its reminder at all.

He was pondering another question.

The Team Emblem was weakened, but the Demon Qi inside his body hadn’t diminished.

So...

’Is it possible that, in the future, when the demon is weak, I could turn the tables and gain complete control over it?’

Forces are reciprocal.

It made no sense that only a demon could control a person, and not the other way around.

In order to survive, Li Ye wouldn’t give up on any possibility.

Of course, for now, all Li Ye could do was think about it.

After all, he had no idea how to control a demon. It’s not like he was the Demon Suppression Tower...

’The Demon Suppression Tower?’

An idea flashed through Li Ye’s mind.

’The Demon Suppression Tower suppresses all demons, and can even control them from across universes. Isn’t that a ready-made method for controlling a demon?’

’In his three months at the Demon Hunting Bureau, Yang Feng never once mentioned the Demon Suppression Tower to him. After he got back, he had to find a way to learn more about it...’

...

The members of his team were still healing.

The common people looked at Li Ye, kneeling on the ground, weeping with gratitude for him having eliminated the Demon, but no one dared approach to disturb him. After all, Li Ye didn’t exactly look normal either.

...

Looking at the devastated landscape, Li Ye sighed silently. ’Once upon a time, Earth looked just like this...’

’Demons truly are the root of all chaos!’

’Can Demon Hunters really suppress all Demon Qi?’

Li Ye shook his head, forcing himself not to dwell on the painful question. "Hui," he asked, "now that you’ve devoured the glove’s Demon Qi, is it possible you’ve acquired its Attributes?"

"Forget it. That’s impossible. It will only be assimilated by me and become my nourishment," the Team Emblem said.

"Then can you leave the Team Emblem and attach yourself to other objects?" Li Ye asked again.

"..." After a moment of silence, the Team Emblem’s reply came. "No. If I could, who would want to stay inside a dead object? Stop thinking about these useless things. It’s more important to focus all your energy on dealing with the Divine Dragon.

A Demon Qi that enters a living being is naturally stronger than one that possesses a dead object. I don’t know why it hasn’t come to devour this stream of Demon Qi on its own, but you can’t let your guard down..."

...

On the way back to Weining City, sorrow enveloped Li Ye’s team. No one had any desire to speak; they just kicked the ball and traveled onward in silence.

Everyone had witnessed what a living hell looked like. From the Capital City to Yingzhou, corpses littered the ground, and there was hardly a living thing in sight.

The visual impact was more than anyone could bear.

Xiang Ying didn’t have the courage to step into the Capital City. He stood at the city gate, staring blankly in the direction of the imperial palace for a few minutes, before turning back. He didn’t even go to collect the bodies of his wife and children.

With no one alive for miles around, there was no longer any reason to linger in the Capital City.

...

"Lord Li, the events in the Capital City can’t be hidden. The surrounding barbarian tribes will not pass up this chance to invade Chu Country. With Chu’s bureaucracy now paralyzed, I’m afraid we’re powerless to deal with an invasion. I implore you, sir, to lend me a hand."

At a way station where they had stopped to rest, Xiang Ying, looking as if he had aged more than ten years, bowed deeply to Li Ye with reddened eyes and pleaded.

"The destruction of the Capital City might not be a bad thing," Li Ye said, looking at him. "Xiang Ying, you can use this opportunity to rebuild a new political system centered around soccer."

"Centered around soccer?" Xiang Ying was stunned.

"Right now, the teams in the Planet Cup are all elites. You can consider it the top-tier competition," Li Ye said. "You can then organize downward by player skill level, creating a first-division league, a second-division league, a third-division league, all the way down to youth leagues...

These leagues must be promoted with the power of the state. Xiang Ying, we must strive to get the entire populace involved in cultivation in the shortest time possible, and in one fell swoop, make the leap from a low-level civilization of Martial Heroes to a cultivation civilization."

Li Ye had no time for sentimental brooding. If they were talking about tragedy, Earth was the real tragedy.

This world, all told, only had three streams of Demon Qi, and now there were only two left. Earth, on the other hand, had countless demons and demonic creatures. Its population alone had been reduced by nearly sixty percent...

When you’ve seen too much of it, you become numb.

Besides, he was still here to deal with the remaining stream of Demon Qi.

If he were to fail, this world would truly be beyond saving.

Therefore, Li Ye felt no psychological burden using the state’s power to build a political system that would help him grow. He was, after all, saving this world.

As for what would happen to this world after he left, that was outside the scope of his considerations.

Perhaps this world would experience a period of turmoil, but at least more people would have survived.

As long as you’re alive, anything is possible.

"Make the leap to a higher civilization?" Xiang Ying was stunned. Seeing the horrific scene of corpses strewn everywhere, his mind had been entirely focused on how to mitigate the impact and restore the people’s livelihood as quickly as possible. He had long since cast aside any thoughts of cultivation.

"Isn’t guiding a civilization’s progress the most important thing a monarch should do?" Li Ye glanced at him. "The Soul Devourer’s rampage was suppressed by me, but there’s still the Divine Dragon Sect in the Western Regions. Do you want to see this tragedy repeat itself in the Great Chu Country?"

He sneered. "Besides, one day I will leave this dilapidated planet of yours. If, someday, another higher civilization were to invade, how would you respond then?

Close your eyes and wait for death?

Not everyone from a higher civilization is as kind-hearted as Lord Li, willing to leave behind a legacy of cultivation and help you raise your civilization’s level."

’Kind-hearted?’

’The Soul Devourer is your weapon, and the Divine Dragon is your food...’

’None of these disasters would have even happened without you!’

Xiang Ying complained bitterly in his heart, but he would never dare say these thoughts aloud in front of Li Ye.

A single rampaging glove had already scared him witless.

Moreover, faced with so many deaths, even the Grandmasters had fallen silent. Yet from beginning to end, Lord Li’s expression hadn’t changed in the slightest. He had even urged them to keep kicking the ball to hurry along the road.

Such indifference was enough to prove that Li Ye didn’t give a damn about their lives.

Xiang Ying could only feel fortunate that Lord Li needed to use them to recover his strength. Otherwise, their world would probably have become Lord Li’s plaything...

"Lord Li, Xiang Ying is eternally grateful that you are willing to pass down your legacy of cultivation in Chu Country. But what can we do for you?" Xiang Ying took a deep breath and looked at Li Ye. "Otherwise, all of Chu Country will feel we have received it unworthily!"

"What can you do for me? Just carry on Lord Li’s legacy." Li Ye chuckled and glanced at him. "I’ve already recorded your planet’s coordinates. In the future, if I’m ever being pursued by Federation police, I’ll come here to lie low and take refuge. Who would ever think that I’d be hiding on some backward, low-level planet..."

"..." Xiang Ying was dumbfounded, unsure whether to laugh or cry. ’Great,’ he thought. ’So my vast country is just a hideout for a scoundrel like you. That’s just perfect.’

"What’s with that look?" Li Ye glared at him. "I really ran into some trouble this time. I lost almost everything I had, and even my spaceship disintegrated. Next time I come by in a spaceship, I can just casually toss you one or two things, and it’ll be more than your entire civilization could ever use. You should be counting your lucky stars you’ve managed to latch onto my coattails!"

Xiang Ying’s heart suddenly began to race.

He was right!

The man before him was someone who treated a Divine Dragon as food. What was there to be dissatisfied about, having allied himself with such a formidable figure?

In the future, when Lord Li returned, perhaps eternal life would no longer be just a dream.