Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Boss Bai’s body was so small, yet the dominance unleashed from his body and the ambitions that could melt the sun were so wild that even the Fist King’s ninety-nine iron clones were forced to step back because of the scorching air from Boss Bai.

“Boss Bai, I have sensed that your brainwaves are in an extremely unstable state.”

The Fist King said, “It’s almost like you are suffering mental derangement every second, but you somehow get the derangement under control, or rather, you are used to the derangement. Is it the source of your strength and why you are significantly above the regular Divinity Transformation Stage? It’s truly incredible and crazy.”

“Maybe. Maybe I’ve been deranged since a long time ago, and I will continue to be deranged in the future.”

Boss Bai took a deep breath and enjoyed his craziness. “If I were not insane, I could’ve stayed at home living a comfortable life in the company of my family and even the worship of the people, but for a real space pirate, would there be any difference between such a boring life and death?

“Now that I’ve made the step and come to the center of the cosmos, it’s naturally the craziest dream that I will pursue after and the most invincible enemy that I will fight. I will explore places that nobody would, dare, or could explore billions of years previously and billions of years later!

“Fist King, join me. I’m told that your goal is to be the strongest in the universe, but there are universes above the universe. Even if you become the dominator of three thousand Sectors, you would still have to flee in panic under the destructive torrent of the doom. Could that be called ‘strongest’ at all?

“Come with me and conquer the higher-dimensions and reduce those scumbags into nothingness. That will be the real ‘strongest in the universe’!”

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

The ninety-nine iron clones of the Fist King were all caught in extreme thinking with noises and smoke popping nonstop. Thinking for a long time, he finally said in a daze, “Your proposal sounds fair enough, but Li Yao said…”

“Forget whatever Li Yao said. The cowardly, indecisive, shortsighted elementary school student knows nothing. Whoever teams up with him will only be killed because of him.”

Boss Bai interrupted the Fist King and stepped forward. Hugging one of the Fist King’s iron clones warmly, he said, “It will be much more promising if you hang around with Boss Bai more. Just look at the Blue Sky Market and so many starships that we have just earned. Don’t you agree?”

The Fist King was confused by Boss Bai’s sudden hugging. Thinking carefully for a long time, he still hesitated and asked, “Are you really not bothered that I am… not a human?”

“Human? Hahahaha, you are not a human, but who’s a real human?”

Boss Bai laughed and hugged the Fist King’s iron body even more tightly. “Ever since the Cultivators awaken their spiritual roots and accelerate their evolution, they have been developing from ‘humans’ to ‘superhumans’ or even ‘nonhumans’. The more they train themselves, the further away they will be from the narrow concept of ‘human’.

“Are you a human if you can blow up a mountain?

“Are you a human if you can unleash electricity from your pores or resist the heat of thousands of degrees with the body of flesh and blood?

“Are you a human if your soul can leave your body and travel thousands of kilometers away in the blink of an eye?

“Since we are bros, it doesn’t hurt to tell you another little secret. Say, after a Cultivator died, his soul split into five hundred mice. The five hundred mice killed and swallowed each other, but they also mated and reproduced. After a hundred years of branching and fusing, the final remaining souls were melted with the soul of another Cultivator, giving birth to a brand-new ‘human’. Then, is that a human, a ghost who possessed a body, or a rat that has gained wisdom? Hahahaha. Who can tell?”

The Fist King was deeply confused. He realized that his computational ability was never enough before Boss Bai. “A human transformed from five hundred mice, well…”

“So, I do not care if anyone is a human, nor do I care about other people’s opinions and definitions on what’s right and what’s wrong. Who’s qualified to decide those things on behalf of you and me?”

Looking at the Fist King in the eyes, Boss Bai said, “Your background is not important. The other people’s opinions, comments, and definitions on you are bulls*it too. Whether or not you are a human, and who you are, it all depends on what you do right now and in every second to come. You define yourself with everything you do in your entire life, and you will find the real answer the day you embrace death and destruction in the end. That’s the only time you can reach a conclusion.”

After a brief silence, the Fist King said, “I seem to understand it now.”

“No, you don’t, neither do I.”

Letting go of the Fist King, Boss Bai said casually against the sea wind with his hands in his back. “What is a human, and who am I going to become… Such questions can never be answered with a few words. Every time we think we understand them, we are merely stepping into the greater unknown, to be faced with even more confusion and choices.

“Maybe only by training, fighting, and questioning continuously and examining what we have done in the past in retrospect at the last moment of our lives can we know whether or not we are a real human, and what kind of person we are. Haha. Perhaps that is the significance of Cultivation.

“Fist King, come and join hands with me. Let’s find our outcome, embrace survival or destruction, and define whether or not you are a human with your iron fists!”

“I seem to have been convinced by you.”

The Fist King’s previously indifferent voice was mixed with emotional waves.

“Hahahaha. I knew that you would be the perfect comrade for me!”

Boss Bai laughed crazily. “If a fleet is commanded by the two of us together, what world can’t we conquer, what treasures can’t we loot, and what enemy can’t we defeat?”

“But that’s all for the future.”

The Fist King said, “You are perhaps a passionate daydreamer, but I am a doer who pays more attention to the details and the actual work. The wizardly world and the four-dimensional universe are too far away. If we set our midterm goal to be establishing the strongest fleet in the Cultivation world and cross the ‘black wall’ that lies beyond the three thousand Sectors, then, our ‘minor goal’ in the short term should be to crush the fleets of the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance in order to win their super warships, tremendous resources, and of course, the most distinguished and ambitious talents.

“If the ‘minor goal’ is dissected, the chaotic situation in the Imperium is a problem that we have to address immediately.

“Despite our commanding ability, our force is too weak and underdeveloped right now. Neither the reformists nor the four families are enemies that can be dealt with easily. We need to make thorough plans.”

“That’s not a big deal.”

Boss Bai immediately changed from a frantic daydreamer to a heartless schemer. He sneered, “Li Wuji is a spineless dog and will surely bend to our will. Then, we will be able to wear the skin of the National Protection Army for a while longer. When the reformists and the four families fight one another in the ‘battle of Seven Seas’, we will take advantage of the mess.

“Even if the war between the reformists and the four families ends soon, it still won’t be a big deal. I don’t think that the Covenant Alliance has vanished so easily. There’s bound to be a war between the Covenant Alliance and the Imperium. Then, we will do the same and swallow more crushed fleets to build up ourselves!

“We can talk about the subsequent details later. What matters most right now is to combine the resources in the Blue Sky Market. We are truly having indigestion after devouring twenty-eight pirate gangs and Li Wuji’s entire fleet. All the starships are damaged and will not recover their combat abilities without one to two months of maintenance. It is safe to say that this is our weakest moment, like a boa that had just swallowed an elephant. We can barely move right now.

“But it doesn’t matter. With Li Wuji in our hands, as long as he sends a report of victory back to his family, we will simply stay and rest under the name of the National Protection Army. Nobody knows the truth, and nobody will disturb us. We will be back to ourselves in one month and ten times stronger than before!

“I’ve taken all the details into consideration. Every procedure is seamless and flawless. There can’t be anything wrong. Fist King, don’t you agree?”

“Yes.”

The Fist King said, “I have also run a meticulous analysis with my most powerful array of crystal processors. The four families have entrusted the battle of the Blue Sky Market to Li Wuji, and the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors is busy defending the Seven Seas Grand Market, their nest. So, as long as Li Wuji bends, there will be absolutely no problem. Nobody will come to disturb our digestion and upgrade.”

“That’s good to know.”

Having been approved by the Fist King, Boss Bai nodded his head confidently and laughed again.

Right then, his wrist crystal processor buzzed lightly. He checked what it was about, only to discover that one of his subordinates was calling him in panic.

“Did I not tell you that I was going to have a meeting with the Fist King and that we were not to be disturbed whatever you might hear?”

Boss Bai frowned. Looking at his subordinate’s twisted face, he asked suspiciously, “What’s wrong? Did the captives have a riot?”

“No… Not exactly.”

His subordinate shrieked, “We just received a distress call from the edge of the Blue Sky Space Zone. It-It’s quite weird!”

“A weird distress call?”

Boss Bai and the Fist King were slightly stunned and looked at each other in bewilderment. He pondered for a moment and said, “Forward it to my portable crystal processor. What can possibly intimidate you into this?”

His subordinate swallowed hard and immediately forwarded the signal that had been processed.

Half a second later, a voice, which sounded as twisted as an earthworm and like a hen whose feathers were set on fire, echoed from Boss Bai’s portal crystal processor.

“Boss Bai, help! Boss Bai, help! Boss Bai, help! Boss Bai, help! Boss Bai, help!”