Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Before Li Yao opened his mouth, he was already interrupted by the mental devil’s sneer. “You know very well that I am right. Right now, the two children are still in the ‘undeveloped’ and relatively controllable phase, but if you really bring them to Boss Bai’s fleet and use them to build up a whole fleet of human beings, while the combat ability of the human fleet will be maximized, it is possible that their computation ability and information processing ability will surpass the ‘tipping point’, too.

“What an amazing thing ‘tipping point’ is! When the accumulation of the monads surpassed the tipping point, the multicellular life and even the self-awareness were born. Then, when almost infinite information is gathered and surpasses the tipping point, what will the really mature ‘information life’ be like? How will they view the universe and their creator? Can you imagine it? Can you control it? Can you be responsible for it?

“Be careful. You are perhaps creating something that is even more terrible than the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance. Will it turn out in the end that not Blackstar the Great but you have been playing the role of ‘destroyer’ all the time?”

Thinking in silence for a long, Li Yao took a long breath and said, “You’re right. The universe is vast, and the future is treacherous. Nobody can tell us any answer about the future.

“However, I remember that Professor Mo Xuan stated in the debate regarding virtual lives that the civilization of mankind was destined to be closer and closer to crystal processors and the Spiritual Nexus with the arrival of the information age, and that we had become an ‘amphibian’ that spanned the ‘material scope’ and the ‘information scope’. So, the virtual lives or information lives that are more focused on the information scope would inevitably come.

“Their birth is only a matter of time and cannot be changed by the will of human beings. I merely accelerated the process.

“Now that they have already been born, ignoring them will only be a self-deception.

“Even without my help, they can still slowly grow deep inside the capital planet while witnessing the brutal reign of Blackstar the Great, turning into monsters that are more inclined to the Immortal Cultivators. Or rather, if I of all people am also malicious to them, they will naturally be malicious to me and all other human beings. The primeval wars will only be repeated!

“Whatever choice I make or don’t make, the risks will still be there, so I have to take my chances.

“Besides, we don’t really have a choice. The magnificent rise of Blackstar the Great will unavoidably sink the center of the cosmos into a hopeless dark abyss, and the main forces of the Covenant Alliance, which are still perfectly intact, are still hiding in the void and coveting everyone, hoping to deprive all human beings of their feelings and will!

“Either of the two parties seizing the power of the center of the cosmos will mean the destruction of the civilization of mankind. In the meantime, neither I, Long Yangjun, Boss Bai, nor the Star Glory Federation is able to compete with the two superpowers. Only by combining the Star Glory Federation and the information lives can we expect to defeat the two superpowers and liberate all the innocent people at the center of the cosmos who have suffered for ten thousand years!

“Therefore… even if my approaches have violated the established ethics and will be criticized by countless people or even crucified by history, I will not hesitate but fight to the end!”

The mental devil said gloomily, “Now, you should understand the things that so many villains and schemers did in the past, shouldn’t you?

“In the past, you were almost the defender of existing order and morals, say, ‘the strong protect the weak’, ‘no random killing’, ‘adherence to the Constitution of Cultivators’, etc. All the solutions and answers that had been tested by practices were out there, and all you needed to do was to take action according to the answers.

“However, after fighting, training, and growing, you have finally climbed to the peak of the civilization of mankind too, and it is inevitable that you are faced with conundrums that none have ever been challenged with.

“Those conundrums do not have existing answers that you can follow. They are even barely resolvable within the existing ethics, morals, and social order! In order to settle the conundrums, you will have to break the obsolete ethics and social order at the risk of being cursed forever to step into the land that nobody has ever visited!

“It is a shame that even if you really do that, sending yourself to the pyre of your civilization and the trial of history, your endeavors may prove to be a waste of time after all, or exactly the opposite of what should’ve been done, only accelerating the arrival of the final doom, exactly like Xiao Xuance, Elder Nether Spring, Lu Zui, and Extraterrestrial Devil Mo Xuan. Did they not think that they were saving their civilization when they initiated their clandestine plans?”

“You’re right. In the past, I was always confused about why the big shots like Xiao Xuance, Lu Zui, or Professor Mo Xuan, who had fame, wealth, power, and everything were so dogged at doing the unorthodoxy, morally unacceptable things.”

Li Yao said with a bitter smile, “I can only say that I was just an insignificant pawn at that time while they were already the players standing at the summit. They had seen more and darker things than I did, which did not have answers or even procedures for them to be fixed.

“They could only sacrifice themselves for what they believed in and take the wild gamble. ‘This is the wrong path. Future generations, you must not walk on this path again.’ That is perhaps the legacy that they have left for the world.

“However, although I can understand their state of mind, I still cannot agree with what those people did. Besides, I believe… that I am different from them after all! I believe that everybody is born kind, and so is the information lives that are just created. Although I do not have any experience, I will try and learn to be a good dad. I will educate them with the correct morals and principles so that they will be good kids in every aspect!

“If we think from the longer perspective, human beings have been ‘trapped’ in the three thousand Sectors for hundreds of thousands of years. Even the Pangu and Nuwa civilizations before mankind never broke out of the three thousand Sectors, too.

“It is exactly because of the limited living space and resources that the tragedies of self-brutalization and even ‘parricide’ have been happening in the past million years. If we keep the form of pure carbon-based life, even if we can develop to the level of the Pangu civilization, so what? It is still impossible for us to break the restriction of the three thousand Sectors? Then, wouldn’t we end exactly like how Pangu ended?

“Xiaoming and Wenwen, the new, incredible information lives, are perhaps the ‘keys’ to a new gate that will help us break the restriction of the three thousand Sectors and march to a vaster universe, aren’t they? In that case, most of the problems that we are faced with right now will be settled without any trouble. What a wonderful future it will be!”

Li Yao’s voices were firmer and firmer, and his beliefs were more and more condensed, too, turning into a beating heart at the center of the infinite information.

The mental devil remarked, “You are always full of unreasonable optimism and dreams.”

“Of course.”

Li Yao grinned. “You certainly need to have dreams. What if they miraculously come true?”

BOOM!

In deafening explosions, Li Yao was woken up from the mysterious state of medication and returned to reality.

Only an hour had passed in reality, but it seemed to be a whole new world right now.

Li Yao’s eyes were as clear as water. He could almost see through all the information hidden deep inside the “material scope”. Raising his hands and observing his palmprint and pores, he felt that infinite information was interacting with the world around like flowing water.

“Dad has made a breakthrough. Is this the peak of the Divinity Transformation Stage? No. It doesn’t feel like the traditional peak of the Divinity Transformation Stage. The brainwaves that Dad spreads out are truly incomprehensible!”

The two children exclaimed on the outside, “How many secrets are stored inside a human brain, and where are its limits? It is incredible enough to have unleashed the computational ability that is even more powerful than the array of super crystal processors. Is the human brain the best container of information after all?”

Controlling the artificial limbs in the training room, the two children intended to inject abundant nutrition liquids and strengthening drugs into Li Yao’s body.

Li Yao, on the other hand, waved his hands and stopped his movement. He released a hundred streams of spiritual energy and dismantled the artificial limbs into the most fundamental parts through the technique of remote manipulation, withdrawing all the nutrition liquids and strengthening drugs inside.

Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua!

The strengthening drugs and the nutrition liquids were cut from the middle neatly. The colorful, fragrant fluids were condensed into globules that floated around Li Yao like hundreds of tiny satellites surrounding the main planet. They even formed several splendid “aureoles”.

Li Yao’s breath was long and full of enticing rhythm. Gentle brilliance suddenly beamed out of his eyes, and all the “globules” were shattered all of a sudden into rainbows that flooded into his body in the most delicate curves!

In the blink of an eye, all the nutrition liquids and strengthening drugs were absorbed by his skin. The absorption efficiency almost reached 100%. There was not the slightest waste.

Also, the moment the nutrition liquids and strengthening drugs entered his body, they were dismembered into the most fundamental energy and allocated accurately to the organs that needed nurturing and strengthening most.

Colorful ripples were spreading out of the almost perfect body.

Li Yao couldn’t help but roar and punch at the wall of the training room casually.

He did not use his full strength in the punch at all, but with his senses, he had perceived the “information” of the super-alloy wall and even the entire shelter, allowing him to locate the most vulnerable part on the overall framework.

As it turned out, although the punch was as soft as a breeze, it raised a rumbling explosion that echoed in the entire shelter three seconds after it submerged into the wall. All the walls around and the full-metal pillars were clattering, as if they would fall apart at any moment!