Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Compared to the ferocious-looking mercenaries and the indifferent cheetah nearby, the passenger with a headful of messy hair looked like an ordinary person that could be seen everywhere. His age and his appearance could not be told, and he would immediately be forgotten after he merged into a crowd.

But he had a pair of eyes that were filled with joy, making them as warm and peaceful as the sunlight in a winter. It did not carry any air of evilness but slightly comforted Huo Dongling’s heart that was just scared a moment ago.

The girl looked back again, only to discover that the few mercenaries had retreated to the opposite corner of the cabin, burying their heads in their food boxes without any courage to look at them.

When she looked back again, the passenger with pleasant eyes was raising his hands in a hilarious posture before he said with a smile, “It’s alright. Just sit down, my surname is Li. You may call me ‘Mr. Li’.”

“… Mr. Li.”

Perhaps it was because the guy’s eyes were too gentle and harmless, or perhaps it was because Huo Dongling had nowhere to hide at all in such a narrow cabin should he truly mean any harm, so the girl simply sat down.

Thinking for a moment, she slightly moved toward the cold cheetah. After all, you could never judge someone from how they looked. The bad people these days were always smiling. The cheetah had just saved her anyway!

The cheetah glanced at her and did not talk. Sniffing, he devoted himself to the meal again.

“Your name is Dongling, right? I heard the crew calling you this morning. You are the daughter of the ship’s owner.”

The messy-haired passenger said with a smile. He then suddenly recalled something and gave her a simple silver bracelet. “Dongling, this is a gift for you. Consider it… the consultation fee!”

“This is—”

Huo Dongling was even more scared. Her heart in a mess, she began to wonder if the guy was an Immortal Cultivator. She had never seen any Immortal Cultivator that was so kind and generous with ordinary people.

The best Immortal Cultivators she had seen in the past were just cold like the cheetah nearby and ignored all the ordinary people.

Thinking, Huo Dongling was even more uneasy and waved her hands hard, not having the courage to accept the gift.

“Take it. The bracelet is some sort of protection for you.”

The messy-haired passenger said, “The hyenas a moment ago were not wrong to say that the world today is too chaotic for a little girl like you to travel. You may encounter all kinds of dangers.

“Do you see the helical rune array on the inside of the bracelet? Here. Sting your right thumb and make sure your fingerprint is soaked in blood. Press your fingerprint at the helical rune array as confirmation, and you will activate the bracelet. In case any bad guy molests you in the future, the bracelet will automatically detect the temperature, heartbeat, and adrenal secretion of the bad guys and unleash powerful electric arcs as well as a unique soul signature when they are out of the alarm range. They can be released ten times in total.

“As long as those bad guys are Immortal Cultivators, they will certainly be able to recognize the Cultivation of the owner of the soul signature.

“Then, you will tell those bad guys that the bracelet is a gift from a good friend of your dad—no, your granddad, for your own safety. You don’t need to say anything else. I believe that 99% of the bad guys will back off.

“However, if you are spending time with your lover, do remember to take off the bracelet first, bahahaha. It will be awful if your lover is electrified!”

Huo Dongling lowered her head in embarrassment. She did not have any lover yet. But this Mr. Li did have an interesting way of talking.

“Did you make the food yourself?”

The messy-haired passenger picked up the food box and took a deep breath. He complimented, “It smells delicious. Dongling, you are a great chef!”

Huo Dongling was briefly stunned before she replied awkwardly, “Not exactly, Mr. Li. This is just the most typical self-heating quick food that has been manufactured in bulk. Look, it’s printed on the box.”

The messy-haired passenger: “… Alright, let’s cut to the chase. Where exactly did your ship set off from?”

Huo Dongling admitted frankly, “We’re from the South Spirit Planet of the Scarlet Star Space Zone. I doubt Mr. Li has ever heard of it before. It’s a minor planet that has been only developed for a hundred years and does not have a stable atmosphere even today. There are only four settlements on the planet, and I was born in one of them.”

“I don’t know anything about the South Spirit Planet, but I do know the Scarlet Star Space Zone. That is not very close to the Seven Seas Grand Market, our destination. For a civil business ship like yours, it will perhaps take dozens of space jumps and a couple of months before you can arrive, right? Also, the journey is quite dangerous.”

The messy-haired passenger said, “It’s havoc outside with battles everywhere. I was told that the authorities announced that the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors is a rebellious organization, and the Seven Seas Grand Market is about to be attacked. Why are you doing business there with such great risks? Even if your father prefers money to his life, he doesn’t have to bring you with him, does he?”

“We don’t have a choice.”

Huo Dongling said in devastation, “How can the high and mighty Immortal Cultivators understand the life of the poor folk? The South Spirit Planet has only been developed for a hundred years. We do not have many powerful connections or rare local specialties. Even to this day, we cannot satisfy our own demand on life necessities. We’ll be starved without the imported food and die of thirst without the water cleaning cartridges introduced from the outside world!

“Before, the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors had a convenient business network and tremendous free fairs. Business teams stopped by our planet every month regularly, purchasing our minerals and selling us food, water, and air. When the supplies were low, we could also purchase them at the nearest free fair. It only required two short-distance jumps, and the whole journey took one week at most.

“But when the war broke out, we were in trouble. The four families announced that the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors is a rebellious organization. They disrupted the business network and destroyed the free fairs. They had also recruited all kinds of space pirates to attack the enemy, leaving no chance for survival for the poor folks at all.

“It’d been three months since any business team passed the South Spirit Planet. We were running out of food, water, and air, and nobody was here to acquire the raw minerals that had been heaped into hills on the ports. We could only watch the minerals grow more and more worriedly.

“We thought to make deals in the nearest free fair, but it was a mess after we went there. The free fair was surrounded by the fleets of the four families and completely destroyed. Even our tiny business starship was almost knocked down because we were thought to be associated with the rebels.

“Later, we met a few business ships that came to do business from a few neighboring space zones. It was not until then that we learned the four families’ fleets had removed all the free fairs in the few Sectors nearby. There were also countless space pirates and mercenaries that had been recruited by the four families. They cruised among the sailing routes like wolves and would not let any business team of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors pass.

“Even if some of the secret fairs were not destroyed, the prices there were astoundingly high. The common minerals of the South Spirit Planet could not be exchanged with many assets that were necessary for our survival.

“If we wanted to eat, to drink, and to keep the stability of our thin atmosphere, we could only risk going to the Seven Seas Grand Market that the four families hadn’t conquered yet to do business. After all, the goods here are mostly complete, and the prices are relatively low. Also, it’s slightly safer with the protection of the garrison of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors.

“We also knew that it was very risky, but there was no telling how long the war would go on. If we did not come out for businesses, we would be stranded on the South Spirit Planet alive! My father was the most experienced captain on the South Spirit Planet. How could he have stayed back when his hometown was in perils?

“As for me, I asked my dad to bring me. After all, if ‘Little Bear’ could not return with the necessary assets, the South Spirit Planet would not be able to survive a year. My ending wouldn’t have been any better!”

Perhaps because of the guy’s warm eyes, Huo Dongling let out all the anger in her stomach. Her tears flowed out as she talked. She mumbled, “Why do the Immortal Cultivators have to fight? What are they fighting for? They can fight if they want, but why can’t they leave a chance of survival for the small folks? We need to do business, we need to have food, and we want to survive!”

After a brief silence, the messy-haired passenger sighed and said, “Are there similar cases in the peripheral worlds of the Imperium?”

“Of course, there are a lot of them!”

Huo Dongling gritted her teeth and said, “There are almost ten planets that are just like the South Spirit Planet. A hundred years ago, the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors sold the planets to the ordinary people at a low price after preliminary cleaning. A mortgage was optional too. The down payment and the interest rate were almost zero. The properties were almost gifts.

“At that time, many ordinary people did not know it was a trick. They purchased a lot of planets from the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors with all their savings and migrated to those places, enjoying the freedom of being the masters of their own lands.

“Little did they know that it was not simple to develop and inhabit a planet. It was true that the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors pegged the planets at a low price. Considering the cost of the early development, it was a great bargain. But the subsequent consumables, such as food, water cleaning systems, and atmosphere stabilization units, had to be refilled every month or every quarter.

“Taking advantage of our weakness, the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors raised the consumables many times. Thanks to their large business teams, they had also monopolized our exports and pegged our products at a low price. As a result, all we had been doing in the past hundred years was to work for the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors.

“In such a way, the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors controlled countless resource planets and planets at the edge of the Imperium, dragging us to their boat. But we could still make do however difficult the life was. However, now that the four families declared war on the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, our ways of survival have been entirely cut off. Thousands of settlements like the South Spirit Planet are in perils. They will be trapped to death if they do not risk coming out and doing businesses!”