Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

When Li Yao found Li Jialing in the mess of debris, half slithering and half crawling, the young man was trying to move away from the garbage on him.

Huala!

Li Yao waved at the garbage, and the broken remnants flew away immediately, freeing the young man from the cage.

“This is—”

Looking at the rough environment around, Li Jialing was more or less stunned too. Pondering for a moment, his voice somewhat shivered as he asked, “Have we jumped to the Sand Primitive Sector?”

“Yes. I have found the mainframe crystal processor from the debris just now and checked the automatic navigation and landing system again. We have indeed jumped to and landed on the only habitable planet, and the home planet, of the Sand Primitive Sector.”

Li Yao said, “How much do you know about the Sand Primitive Sector?”

The Martial Meritocrats Sector and the Sand Primitive Sector were two deeply-involved worlds that were similar to the Heaven’s Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector.

Of course, they were not as close as the Heaven’s Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector, which were a pair of “twin worlds”. But the distance between them was still much shorter than the regular distances between Sectors.

Otherwise, the first exploration fleet sent out from the Martial Meritocrats Sector wouldn’t have discovered the Sand Primitive Sector first or introduced the natives of the Sand Primitive Sector, which led to the destruction of the Martial Meritocrats Civilization and the birth of the Immortal Cultivators.

Therefore, when Li Yao commanded Jingle Bell to automatically search for and lock onto the nearest world to the Martial Meritocrats Sector according to the star map, it was only natural that they jumped to the Sand Primitive Sector.

The intelligence about the Sand Primitive Sector that Li Yao knew of was all from Su Changfa and Di Feiwen. It was the outdated information from more than a hundred years ago, and their descriptions about the Sand Primitive Sector were mostly quite obscure.

Li Jialing, however, knew more about the issue. Pondering for a moment, he said, “Li Lingfeng once told me something about the Sand Primitive Sector. By the time Blackstar the Great returned to his hometown with infinite wrath, the Martial Meritocrats Sector and the Sand Primitive Sector had already been highly integrated. They even had a coalition government and were sort of the same civilization.

“Therefore, when the Martial Meritocrats Sector suffered the attacks of the Imperium’s fleets, the same thunderous blows happened to the Sand Primitive Sector too. The civilization was completely destroyed, and the planet was reduced to a scarred land of nothingness.

“No, that is not entirely accurate. The Sand Primitive Sector had been a land of nothingness in the first place. It was a great desert where the environment was terrible and life was highly difficult. Otherwise, the people of the Sand Primitive Sector wouldn’t have tried so hard to immigrate into the Martial Meritocrats Sector with all their wisdom!

“The Sand Primitive Sector was not very suitable for the survival of human beings in the first place. According to the evaluation of habitable planets in the Imperium, it was at the worst and most unacceptable level, and its ‘Index of Human Survival and Development’ was close to zero.

“The strikes from the fleets of the Imperium only made the situation worse. It completely became a lifeless land of silence and death.

“Later, the Imperium seemed to have turned the Sand Primitive Sector into a gigantic laboratory of magical equipment too. But different from the ‘Land of Sins’, the place was used for the experiments of massive destruction with no consideration for the survival of human beings at all.

“After hundreds of years of experiments, the natives of the Sand Primitive Sector completely went extinct. The place has been completely forsaken since then.

“After all, the experiments of massive destruction could be conducted in any random desolate planet. There was no reason why they had to come here after a long journey for the experiments, right?

“The Sand Primitive Sector right now is exactly an abandoned and forgotten world whose values have been fully exploited.

“In the thousand years of war between the Imperium of True Human Beings and the Alliance of the Holy Covenant or in the universal war earlier between the Star Ocean Imperium and the rebellions of the Blood God, the extraterrestrial devils and the remnants of demons, it wasn’t rare for vigorous, prosperous worlds to be entirely blown up and reduced into desolate worlds. The Sand Primitive Sector does not have anything unusual.”

Li Yao nodded his head thoughtfully. Then, he asked somewhat curiously, “If it does not have anything unusual, why do you appear scared just now?”

While the environment of the Sand Primitive Sector was harsh, it was only so for the ordinary people.

Li Yao had the apocalyptic body that had been modified by the mental devil. His primeval cells had all been activated, and the organs inside his body were much more strengthened than general Cultivators.

Li Jialing, in the meantime, had also been through multiple procedures and could turn into a ferocious animal as hideous and aggressive as Wuying Lan at any moment.

The two of them were both out-and-out monsters. Although the air of the planet contained tremendous lethal elements, they could not cause any harm to the two strangers.

Besides, Li Yao carried abundant water, food, and crystals in his Cosmos Rings. There wouldn’t be a problem at all if they were to lurk here for a while.

Li Jialing, however, replied rather worriedly, “However, the Sand Primitive Sector is still slightly different from other abandoned worlds. I’m told that a lot of ‘apparitions’ live here.”

“Apparitions?”

Li Yao blinked his eyes, “What is that?”

“They are like the extraterrestrial devils of the lowest level, except that they are much more brutal.”

Li Jialing explained, “The Sand Primitive Sector was the territory of the Sand Primitive natives at the beginning, and the unique training system of the Sand Primitive Sector was different from the mainstream hierarchy of the Refinement Stage, the Building Foundation Stage, the Core Formation Stage, the Nascent Soul Stage, and the Divinity Transformation Stage of the outside world. The natives of the Sand Primitive Sector worshipped the Chiyou Cult. When they practiced the techniques to the best, they could summon ‘God Chiyou’ into their bodies, which would grant the unparalleled combat ability to even the ordinary people.

“According to the studies of the Imperium, it was some sort of ‘berserker’ technique that involved psychological hints and self-hypnotization to activate the forces deep inside the brain. The natives of the Sand Primitive Sector who practiced such a technique would have weird changes in their souls, and it was very possible that tremendous ‘apparitions’ would be left after their death.”

Li Yao had once communicated with “Mother White Lotus Wan Mingzhu”, an expert spectral Cultivator, in the Ancient Sages Sector. He had some basic understanding of the arts of the spectral Cultivators and the difference between “ghosts” and “apparitions”.

All the intelligent creatures had a soul in the world of Cultivation. If a person’s soul and will remained after their death, it would turn into a “ghost”.

Ghosts boasted most of the memories, self-awareness, and personalities when they were still alive. Other than the loss of the body of flesh and blood, they were not significantly different from the living people. That was why the Star Glory Federation had granted all the ghosts fundamental human rights and treated all of them as special human beings.

But not all the ghosts were lucky enough to maintain a stable form and structure for a long time.

Or rather, the ghosts who could maintain a stable form for a long time were the minority. Most of the ghosts would soon be disrupted by the radiation and the magnetic fields of the outside world after losing the protection of the body of flesh and blood. They would be shattered and lose most of their memories and personalities.

The soul pieces that had lost their true selves with only the slight instincts of life left were known as “apparitions”.

Apparitions were some sort of transitional beings between life and pure energy. Without too many interferences, they would be naturally transformed into pure energy and included in the vigorous cycle of life of the universe.

But if they were under evil influences, or if the master of the apparitions used to be a ferocious, brutal, bad-tempered guy when alive, it was also possible that the apparitions would not disperse for a long time. They might even absorb the foul and negative energy around and gain destructive strengths.

Some theorists held that the apparitions were the initial form of the “extraterrestrial devils”.

Some other theorists believed that, while the apparitions were not technically extraterrestrial devils, they were the soil for the birth of the extraterrestrial devils. When thousands of apparitions were combined, it was possible for a strong extraterrestrial devil to be born!

Li Jialing said, “Most of the people who practiced the Chiyou Cult were the fearless, disobedient rogues. Their souls did not disperse after their death but turned out countless apparitions that still haunted and roamed the scarred land of desolation. Even the hundreds of years of destructive experiments from the Imperium failed to completely annihilate all the apparitions.

“According to Li Lingfeng, the authorities of the Imperium changed their mind later. They wanted to close the Sand Primitive Sector for one or two hundred years as a way of preservation to see if the apparitions in the Sand Primitive Sector could evolve into beings such as extraterrestrial devils. If they could, the Imperium studies on the origins and the evolution of extraterrestrial devils would make a giant leap forward, and the Sand Primitive Sector would be valuable again for the tests of magical equipment and techniques designed to resist the extraterrestrial devils.”

Li Yao raised his eyebrows. “Is that so?”

“Yes. Li Lingfeng and Wuying Lan talked about it before.”

Li Jialing said affirmatively, “During one of their chitchats, they mentioned that it wouldn’t be that many years before the reopening of the Sand Primitive Sector. If the few projects on the Land of Sins are all successful, they would have enough capital to bid for the monopolization rights of the Sand Primitive Sector. If they could win the lease of Sand Primitive Sector and invent some secret techniques to resist the extraterrestrial devils or even enhance their combat ability with the extraterrestrial devils, they would certainly make a fortune.

“There are still more than ten years to go before the reopening. Besides, it would be a public bidding instead of a clandestine deal. So, they simply talked about it openly. I see no reason why they would lie about it.

“So, I’m worried that some powerful apparitions, or even things like extraterrestrial devils, are active on this planet. It will be quite a disaster.”

While talking, Li Jialing looked far away at the gloomy, raging winds and fogs.

The bolts of lightning were condensing into appalling faces in the tornadoes, as if extraterrestrial devils were grimacing at them.

“Extraterrestrial devils?”

Li Yao grinned and said casually, “Rest assured. I estimate that there can only be some unworthy apparitions or insignificant devils living on the planet. Otherwise, the authorities of the Imperium would’ve opened the Sand Primitive Sector in advance to ‘reap’ them.

“Even if there are really extraterrestrial devils, Hehehehe, I happen to be their ancestor. They will definitely be a great deal!”

Li Yao and the mental devil both licked their lips.

Last time in the Star Glory Federation, the two of them worked together to rip apart the “Internet devil” and devoured tremendous tenebrum energy from the enemy, which laid down a solid foundation for the upgrades later.

The sweet and refreshing feelings were still lingering in their tongues!

At first, Li Jialing thought Li Yao was bluffing.

But after he saw Li Yao’s casualness and recalled his rampant killing inside “Manjusaka, the City in the Sky” like a lunatic, he couldn’t help but shudder in coldness.

It’s possible that the guy is not bluffing.

The young man secretly mumbled to himself, “Judging from how brutal and violent he was, it should come as no surprise at all if he did swallow some extraterrestrial devils before!”