Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“Her?” the Fist King said. “Xin Xiaoqi is a famous broker and intelligence dealer on the Bloody Plateau. She is capable of accomplishing what other people can’t and finding the bizarre items and people. She helped me find a lot of spiritual puppets of ancient models before, and she persuaded many gangs and bandits to join my army in the Battle of Liberty City. It never crossed my mind that she might actually work for Xiahou Wuxin.

“However, betrayals and defections are anything but unusual in the Land of Sins. What’s special about the woman?”

“The woman is nothing special herself. I only feel that her ability to survive must be particularly remarkable.”

Pointing at the light point that was glittering and moving quickly, Li Yao said, “Look. Despite the chaos right now, she is not moving randomly like a headless fly but zigzagging at a fixed pace. It’s almost like she knows where she’s going and what she will find.”

The Fist King, Han Te, and Liu Li observed for a while. They indeed found that, while the trajectory of the light spot was twisted, it did not show any hesitation but had an obvious destination.

“She is going somewhere, perhaps to meet someone.” The Fist King calculated Xin Xiaoqi’s route quickly. “That place or that someone is right below the tower at the center of Liberty City!”

“Even a blind person can tell that Liberty City is a dangerous warring zone right now. Xin Xiaoqi does not strike me as a ferocious warrior who is fearless of death, either. If she wants to save her life, she should be running away,” Li Yao said with a smile. “Running to the central area of Liberty City in such a rough environment like a moth darting toward the fire, where exactly is she going, or rather, whom exactly is she looking for?”

After pondering for a moment, the Fist King replied, “Xiahou Wuxin!”

“Exactly,” Li Yao said. “Xiahou Wuxin has governed Liberty City for decades and is known as a cunning and meticulous person. A dozen of attacks targeting Liberty City and himself previously were all resolved without any trouble. Now, he’s been killed after being punched several times by you? I don’t think he’s so fragile.”

“He is not dead,” the Fist King said casually. “I could clearly sense that the several punches at that time were not enough to kill him. However, my interests were all attracted by the mysterious angels and the City in the Sky. I did not care whether he was killed or not.”

“That’s right. Think about it. Some of the angels who were known as ‘players’ were introduced into your army by Xin Xiaoqi. Xin Xiaoqi naturally couldn’t have known that they were ‘players’ or that the war was merely a ‘game’. She only knew that they were assassins from the Valley of Thorns, and she did everything according to Xiahou Wuxin’s instructions.”

Pausing a moment, Li Yao said, “Then, as the employer of the ‘assassins’ or ‘mercenaries’, Xiahou Wuxin certainly knows part of the truth. He knows that the Valley of Thorns does not exist.

“In other words, his mission was to entertain the players from the sky so that they could have as much fun in the war game as possible!”

“It does make sense,” the Fist King said thoughtfully. “During his decades ruling over Liberty City, Xiahou Wuxin issued and pushed forward countless missions for Manjusaka. He also sent a lot of people into the City in the Sky. It is said that he knows a lot of angels and has received gifts from the sky. With his cunningness and sordidness, how can he know nothing about the sky?”

“Then, he is the angels’ accomplice to help them exploit the sinners,” Han Te shouted angrily. “Damn, we are not ‘sinners’ at all. He helps them to exploit us from the ground, doesn’t he? My sister was deceived by the rulers of the Elysian Worlds like him to go to the sky!”

“All in all, Xiahou Wuxin should know some ways to go to the City in the Sky. At the very least, he knows more about the City in the Sky than we do,” Li Yao analyzed calmly. “Also, as the saying goes, a clever rabbit always has more than one burrow. Having served the ‘angels’ for decades like a dog, he must’ve accumulated tremendous wealth. The wealth in the Land of Sins cannot be gold or jewelry but is more likely to be high-purity marrow crystals, powerful magical equipment, and all kinds of elixirs, which are all what we are most in need of right now.

“Let’s follow Xin Xiaoqi and track down Xiahou Wuxin. Then, we will interrogate them for the secrets of the City in the Sky and loot the resources that he has saved for decades to create a stronger artificial body with his precious materials for the Fist King. After that, we will figure out how we are going to escape from Liberty City and leave for the sky. Do you have any opinions on my plan?”

“We will do whatever you say, Grandpa Yao!” Waving his fists, Han Te gritted his teeth and said firmly, “I have to learn from Master Fist King. One day, I will shoot down the goddamn Manjusaka from the sky!”

“In that case…” Liu Li’s big eyes were glittering. “Nobody will ever monitor us, manipulate us, or play with us. Besides, a lot of assets must be hidden inside such an enormous City in the Sky and so many Heavenly Rails. Chances are that we will be able to build a new home with those assets!”

“So, you are named ‘Grandpa Yao’,” the Fist King said. “Such a weird code name?”

Li Yao coughed. “You can call me ‘Fiend Star’. However, how should I call the real you?”

“You can still call me ‘Fist King’ Lei Zonglie,” the Fist King said. “I am already used to the data output model.”

While speaking, his man-made eyes got brighter and brighter. The air around him was focused into swirls and attached to the metal shell like glimmering flames. Even the swamp was burning and uttering weird noises.

“Nobody can ever fool me like this. Nobody.” Clenching his fists, he laughed in a deep voice. He was no longer a cold machine but the ambitious, arrogant, and dominating ‘Fist King’ Lei Zonglie they met last now. “Manjusaka, the City in the Sky, I will make you pay a price that you cannot bear!”

“M—Master Fist King…” Frightened, Han Te and Liu Li both stammered. “You—You look horrifying right now. Are you sure you are not a human being?”

“No. This is a reasonable reaction that I have simulated with the comprehensive data of the character and action pattern of the real Lei Zonglie.”

The Fist King’s voice became extremely peaceful and cold again, as if the thing that had just released infinite fury and bellowed like an animal was not him.

“I do not have a life, a soul, or self-consciousness. I am just a machine and a puppet driven by the highest instruction.

“During our conversation just now, I ran 352 deductions and calculations. My conclusion is that if I want to be stronger, I will have to work with you, at least until Manjusaka is shot down. So, you can trust my sincerity.”

“Well…” Han Te and Liu Li looked at each other in bewilderment. They had barely seen any spiritual puppets that boasted automatic learning and upgrading functions before. They wondered if the other spiritual puppets were the same as the Fist King.

Li Yao was stunned for a while, too. He could not help but think of another problem.

He thought of the artificial intelligences in the virtual worlds on the Grand-Unified Spiritual Nexus in the Star Glory Federation.

When the extraterrestrial devils backed off and the virtual worlds were shut down, could the artificial intelligences have realized that they were not human beings but a paragraph of code, a cluster of data, a puppet, and a machine that did not have a real entity?

“Can we go now?” the Fist King said calmly. “I can’t wait to taste the feeling of the broken brains, shattered bones, and bleeding bodies of the high and mighty ‘angels’.”

“Alright, let’s go.” Calming himself down, Li Yao looked at the Fist King and suddenly said, “Right. You mentioned that there were a lot of stories of the natives of the Martial Meritocrats Sector in your database, including the journals and last words of the Cultivators?”

“Yes,” the Fist King replied.

“After we escape from Liberty City, when we have more time, would you like to tell them to us, especially the two little fellows here?” Li Yao asked.

The Fist King glanced at the two little fellows. “Yes.”

“Well, this is just my random thought, but for your information… Actually, I think that the Cultivators’ theory sometimes makes sense. Maybe the Cultivators represent true strength. Now that you have tried a lot of paths that did not work out, why don’t you try the Cultivators’ path when you have the chance? Maybe it will be a pleasant surprise.”

“How is it possible?” the Fist King said. “Although I am just a spiritual puppet, do not think that you can fool me. To be honest, I think that the Cultivators’ theory is silly.”

“Silly… Of course it is somewhat silly, but why don’t we think it in the opposite way?” Li Yao said. “To put it simply and straightforwardly, the Cultivators’ ideal is to protect the world while the ideals of the other myriad of experts are basically to reign or sabotage the world, right?”

The Fist King tilted his head and thought for a while. “It is indeed simple and straightforward. Fine. Let’s say that it is true, so what?”

“Allow me to make a metaphor,” Li Yao said quickly. “The two of them are about to have a match, with me holding a shiny, fragile vase in my hand and you waving a giant hammer weighing more than a hundred kilograms in yours.

“The requirement of my victory is to keep the vast from being smashed by you, whereas the requirement of your victory is to break the vase. Which of the two of us has a higher difficulty?”

The Fist King said, “Of course, your difficulty is higher. So what?”

“So, as a real expert, shouldn’t you try to challenge the highest difficulty?” Li Yao said solemnly. “It is apparently much more difficult to protect than a world than to destroy one. Since you have been born with the destiny to be the strongest, how can such a lowly mission like killing and destroying worlds be worthy of your supreme destiny? It is only reasonable for you to take the heavy world unhesitatingly and challenge the mission of the highest difficulty in history, which is to protect world peace!”