Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“This is… splendid!”

Li Jialing exclaimed in amazement as Li Yao’s guard near the Gold Vulture wearing the super crystal suit that could transform in three phases.

He was a young man after all. Although his pursuit was “absolute freedom”, he still found it hard to control his hot blood when hundreds of starships leaped out of the void and worshipped Li Yao.

He vaguely had a feeling that it would be great if he was the one to whom those starships were paying homage.

Li Jialing had been raised by Li Lingfeng as a half-heir in the first place. Tremendous wisdom of cruel competitions and the abilities to see through the truth had been poured into his head through secret techniques.

It was just that he was suppressed by Li Lingfeng in the past, and he was unwilling to use the abilities at all as a rebellious young man. He only wanted to run to the corner of the universe as far away from Li Lingfeng as possible.

But right now…

Both Li Lingfeng and Wu Suiyun were dead. He had finally broken the shackles on his body and gained preliminary freedom.

But he was rather at a loss about what to do next.

The fleet that was as vast as an ocean before him, and their light that eclipsed the stars, however, ignited the natural-born desires in his heart that were inherited from his mother.

Thinking of the unstoppable expedition in the past three days, Li Jialing still felt that he was in a dream. Even his fingertips seemed to be on fire.

Li Yao’s terrifying performance left a particularly deep impression on him.

In “Manjusaka, the City in the Sky”, he had already witnessed Li Yao’s incredibility.

But little did he expect that after the full upgrade of the Colossus, and with the enhancement of the “Imperial Fire Pearl”, Li Yao could be strong enough to challenge an entire fleet on his own!

When the gold light that was enough to rip apart the universe flowed out of Li Yao’s body crazily, even Li Jialing felt that his bones were shrieking. No wonder the small fries in the investigators’ fleet chose to surrender.

“Almost all the fleets in the Third Battle Area have answered to General Lei Chenghu’s call and gathered here for an uprising. Even some of the warships in the neighboring areas have jumped over without caring about anything. General Lei’s prestige in the expedition army is truly unparalleled!”

Under Li Lingfeng’s education, Li Jialing’s little head was filled with the heraldic knowledge of the Imperium, which allowed him to tell the fleet, family, sect, or world to which a warship belonged quickly from the emblem on it. Pausing for a moment, he said again to Li Yao in the point-to-point secret communication channel, “However, besides General Lei’s prestige, Brother Yao’s invincible capabilities were a major factor in attracting them over, weren’t they? The picture of you slashing into the flagship of the investigators’ fleet in one attack has been spread to the entire universe through the secret channels established by the Business Alliance of the Ten Thousand Sectors. It was ten times more awesome than what you did in the Martial Meritocrats Sector a month ago. No wonder those people are convinced that you are an expert from the royal palace. Even I would’ve believed in your origin if I were not aware of the truth.”

“Nobody is silly nowadays. They do not necessarily believe that I am an expert from the royal palace. It’s just that they are in need of an expert from the royal palace in such a situation.”

With a smile, Li Yao accepted the flashes of homage from the starships, but he was fully aware of his identity. “General Lei Chenghu’s prestige, my combat ability, or even the fabricated ‘expert from the royal palace’ and ‘secret decree’, are not the reasons why the local armed forces have come here. The only reason why they are here is that they have been pushed into desperation by the four Kurfürst families, and they have no choice but to fight.”

Li Jialing was deep in thought. “What do you mean?”

“If we get to the bottom of it, this is the most fundamental contradiction lying at the core of the ‘true path of immortality’ that can never be resolved.”

Li Yao sighed and said, “When ‘survival of the fittest’ becomes a self-justifying truth and the priority rule that guides the operation of a society, it will mean that the universe will completely become a bloody slaughterhouse.

“Today, the Immortal Cultivators can regard the ordinary people as ‘hominoids’, savaging, torturing, and exploiting them as if the latter are an inferior species. Then tomorrow, the high-level Immortal Cultivators can also regard the low-level Immortal Cultivators as a different and lowlier species that they can take advantage of without boundaries.

“But there are always higher levels. For an expert in the Divinity Transformation Stage, is somebody in the Nascent Soul Stage a ‘lowly animal’ that is not the same species as himself and can be oppressed and butchered randomly?

“As a result, the entire civilization of Immortal Cultivators will become ‘everybody’s war against everybody’. True human beings and hominoids are not the same species. Those in the Refinement Stage and those in the Building Foundation Stage are not the same species. Neither are those in the Core Formation Stage, the Nascent Soul Stage, and the Divinity Transformation Stage… There is no foundation of the most fundamental trust and cooperation. Everybody is a natural competitor for each other.

“Everybody is an enemy. Nobody is trustworthy. The greatest purpose of training is no longer to contribute to the country and the civilization, but to build up oneself regardless of the cost. Climb. Climb higher using whatever methods possible, and you will be able to eat other people. If you can’t, you will only be eaten!

“Such an Imperium of True Human Beings does not have any cohesion at all. Despite all the fancy propaganda and fake glory, it is not an interstellar primitive jungle that has been decorated into a country.

“Even the wise people in the ancient times know that do unto others as you would have them do unto you. When true human beings regard hominoids as weeds, hominoids will naturally regard true human beings as enemies in return. Same goes for the high-level Immortal Cultivators and the low-level Immortal Cultivators, the four Kurfürst families, and the local Immortal Cultivators at the periphery of the Imperium. When the contradictions are intensified to the apex, one tiny spark will be enough to raise the fire of rebellion. We are now nothing more than a ‘spark’.”

Li Jialing mumbled, “It’s true that the four Kurfürst families can be too greedy sometimes. Has it never occurred to them that such harsh exploitation will only lead to strong discontent in the local areas?”

“It is not about greed or if they can think of the consequences.”

Li Yao said, “The cruel rule of ‘survival of the fittest’ works within the four Kurfürst families too. In the ruthless competitions where everybody else is an enemy, who can possibly consider the interests in the long term? They are all trying to earn the most benefits in the shortest amount of time possible to build themselves up.

“Those who think otherwise will soon be eliminated. Only the most sordid, vile, brutal, and ravenous people can survive and grow into the controllers of the families step by step.

“After hundreds of years of filtering, such a rule has been carved into their bones. Now that they have bitten a piece of fat meat, they will not let it go even if their heads are broken.

“Besides, the extreme admiration of power tends to make them ignore the voices of the ‘weak’. They do not know how terrifying the fury of the ‘weak’ is once the ‘weak’ are gathered. Perhaps they will not realize it until the moment of their death!”

Li Jialing was silent for a long time. He then asked, “Then… do you think the Imperium is still rescuable? Can General Lei and the queen save the Imperium?”

“If they can indeed destroy the four Kurfürst families and soothe the contradictions of other Immortal Cultivators with the dead bodies of the four behemoths, they will perhaps be able to earn themselves a buffer period of several hundred years.”

Thinking for a moment, Li Yao said, “However, the day will eventually come when the resources left by the four Kurfürst families are used up, and the smaller forces in indignity today will expand into voracious, insatiable beasts too. They will turn into new cancers and the next-generation ‘four Kurfürst families’. What can you do by then?

“If we get to the bottom of it, this is a systematic problem and the natural flaw of the true path of immortality. It cannot be changed for a perfect Immortal Cultivator of honor and integrity.

“Yes. Even I have to admit that, despite our disagreement on methods and ideologies, General Lei Chenghu is indeed a pure, selfless Immortal Cultivator who considers nothing but the civilization of mankind.

“But so what? How many Immortal Cultivators are as pure, loyal, and selfless as him? Even if he can revive the glory of the Imperium today, what will happen after he dies? The ‘new Imperium’ will only corrupt faster than the ‘old Imperium’!

“It can’t be helped. There may be one or two such pure, perfect Immortal Cultivators, but it is impossible for all the Immortal Cultivators to be like Lei Chenghu, because it is against human nature, unless you learn after the Covenant Alliance and brainwash everybody to deprive them of their desires. But as a result, the whole society will be lifeless and run like clockwork, with no vigor and innovation.

“Therefore, only—”

Before Li Yao said “only the Cultivators can save the universe”, Li Jialing interrupted him, “Brother Yao, what you said may be true, but I still feel—

“While 100% pure, perfect Immortal Cultivators are rare, 100% pure, perfect Cultivators are hard to come by too, aren’t they? Serving and even sacrificing for the ordinary people when they clearly boast unparalleled strength sounds like something that is against human nature too!

“If a country has to be maintained by 100% perfect Cultivators, it won’t take long before the country turns into what the Imperium looks like today, right?

“Perhaps even the most perfect theories of the Immortal Cultivators or the Cultivators are just theories that cannot defeat the corrosion of time or ‘human nature’. In the end, they will all be corrupted into their opposites.

“The universe is too vast and chaotic, and human nature is too complicated and mysterious. What should we do?”

Li Yao was silent for a long time.

“… I’m still willing to believe in human nature.”

In the end, he admitted frankly, “Your question is too huge for me to answer right now, but I am certain about one thing. If the queen and Lei Chenghu win the war and crush the four Kurfürst families, they will buy a few more hundred years for the civilization of mankind at the center of the cosmos.

“Who knows what will happen in a few hundred years? It is possible that a new generation that is smarter, more rational, and more visionary than us will appear and solve the conundrums that we can’t solve, right?

“This is also the reason why I, a Cultivator, am participating in a civil war of the Immortal Cultivators.”

Li Jialing said with mixed feelings, “Wow. Why do I feel that you are so philosophical, Brother Yao?”

“I have always been very philosophical, except that I prefer to keep a low profile and do not like to show off. However, the wisdom and talents in my head can’t be covered no matter how I try to, and they may spill out when I’m not careful. Try to catch them for me.”

On the Gold Vulture, Li Yao rose abruptly and looked around at the myriad of starships. “Let’s go. Almost all the elites are here now. We will go to meet General Lei and get things started!”