Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Faced with Li Yao's berating, the voice was silent for a long, long time. It even gave Li Yao the feeling that it was running away.

The voice… More precisely speaking, the Primeval Beings who had established the program billions of years ago had never thought that such a bold tester would appear one day and castigate them.

Li Yao heard vague sighs inside his brain, as if the ghosts of the Yuanshi Clan were sighing in regret.

"You may have a point, but it is too late.

Finally, he managed to say, "The mistake that was made thousands of years ago has never been corrected. We can only walk on the bloody, thorny road without looking back.

"In order to correct a mistake, the best time is the moment when the mistake takes place, followed by the present billions of years later!

Li Yao said resolutely, "Even if it was a mistake made by your predecessors, you never tried to change or make up for it. How do you know you can't?"

"Because there is no time.

The voice smiled bitterly. "Just like the Primeval Civilization did not give the alien species and the low-level civilizations time to evolve, the flood did not give us the opportunity to change or make up for it at all. The terrifying flood swept across the entire universe almost instantly and spread to every sub-universe ruled by the Primeval Civilization.

"Oh?"

Li Yao was refreshed. "This should be the final test, right?"

A new challenge had begun in his brain.

As he expected, although the territory of the Primeval Civilization had expanded billions of times and almost covered the entire Universe Ocean, the resources and fleets that he could control had shrunk. Also, judging from the picture, the planets that used to be prosperous and peaceful had all been savaged by the flames of war and seemed to be in dire straits.

It was apparently because of the fourth world war, the super civil war of the Primeval Civilization, which led to the 'great division' and 'great decline'.

Since the branch of the Yuanshi that had fled to the Pangu Universe came from the 'Cultivation Universe' with black hair and black eyes, Li Yao could only manipulate the branch of the Yuanshi to deal with the challenges. The challenges were mostly related to the sub-universe nearby. The development of the 'Magical Universe' and the 'Battle Aura Universe' and even real-time communication had been blocked by the fierce war and the long distance.

No one knew the origin of the flood.

Maybe it was because several different Guilds of Provenance developed new 'ultimate weapons' during the civil war and lost control.

Maybe it was because a certain alien species or a low-level civilization that had been driven to the edge of the sea of stars by the Primeval Civilization had finally experienced a technological explosion, or maybe it was because the so-called 'Children of Destiny', unparalleled experts that could not be seen in billions of years, had emerged and led the civilization, leading the drastic mutations that had taken place in only several hundred years. Then, they had united all the other intelligent carbon-based creatures who had lost their homes, family, and glory into a terrifying coalition army.

Of course, it was also possible that the expansion of the Primeval Civilization had significantly changed the sea of the universe and finally attracted the interest of a certain powerful existence beyond the sea of the universe, which cast an intimidating shadow on the sea of the universe.

In short, because of the isolation of information and distance, when the branch of the voice discovered the 'flood', the trend of destruction had already been established. The flood had become an unstoppable force.

It was hard to tell what the true form of the tide was. Most of the time, it appeared in the form of an invisible mist that blocked the sky and the earth, and it was the subordinates and claws of the tide, or the so-called 'Flood Tide Legion', that brought slaughter and destruction.

It was not hard to guess that the alien species and the low-level civilizations that had to flee to the edge of the sea of stars because their homes had been destroyed by the Primeval Civilization were the main force of the Flood Tide Legion.

They had been defeated by the Primeval Civilization in the first place, and there were only a few of them left. Logically speaking, they were not enough to deal fatal damage to the Primeval Civilization. The Primeval Civilization even hoped that the remaining soldiers could be gathered so that they could catch all of them.

But the alien species and the low-level civilizations who had come for revenge with the flood tide were no longer as weak and stupid as they used to be. They had grasped advanced technology, extraordinary tactics, and a continuous industrial production system. They even had their own starships, which were even more mysterious, weird, and powerful!

What the Primeval Lord of Heaven feared most had happened.

Sure enough, their enemy had experienced a 'technology explosion'. In only several thousand years or even hundreds of years, the technological gap between the two parties had been closed, and they were now even closer to the Primeval Civilization.

The alien species in space boasted tremendous individual combat ability in the first place. Together with the enhancement of high-tech technology and industrialization, the combat potential that they boasted was too much for the Primeval Civilization to deal with. Even though they occupied the most prosperous sub-universe and abundant resources in the sea of stars, and they had an initial army that was hundreds of times larger than that of the Flood Tide Legion, the Primeval Civilization could not be united. They were all loose sand and did their own things. The war was extremely difficult.

As the battle went on, another shocking truth was discovered—the Flood Tide Legion was mixed with a lot of the Primeval Clan, who had provided a lot of technologies to the alien species and the low-level civilizations and helped them realize the 'technology explosion'!

The unbelievable news was like a bomb that was tossed into the hearts of all the self-proclaimed 'Supreme Beings of the Universe'.

They could not figure out why their compatriots would degrade themselves, cooperate with the alien species and the low-level civilizations, and even transmit valuable technology to each other to deal with their own compatriots.

Even though an earthshaking civil war had just broken out and the flames of war in many sub-universes had not died down yet, there was no way that they could cooperate with the alien species and the low-level civilizations. Wouldn't that be digging their own graves?

The Primeval Civilization had captured some 'betrayers', too, who had joined the Flood Tide Legion.

They had thought that the Primeval Beings joined the Flood Tide Legion because of the hatred of the civil war or because of conflicts of interest. But the results of their interrogation and research were far from that.

It seemed that the defectors who joined the tide, as well as the alien species and the low-level civilizations, had been brainwashed by a mysterious yet invincible existence and believed that they were part of the tide. They had been connected to a certain enormous network or consciousness and formed a new civilization of bees!

From the moment they joined the Flood Tide, the hatred of the past had been forgotten. The estrangement between the two species was gone, too. They were no longer independent entities but tiny cells inside the Flood Tide. Everything was for the Flood Tide, which was above everything else. All the technology, techniques, and information could be shared without any reservation.

"I see!"

Li Yao suddenly realized why the voice hated the 'swarm civilization' so much. The flood was actually a strengthened version of the bee civilization!

However, the ordinary civilization of the bees, such as the 'Houyi Clan', originated from the same species of intelligent creatures on the same mother planet. They could only mutate after absorbing the genes of other species, but it was difficult for them to transform other species into their own.

On the other hand, the tides could be transformed and absorbed regardless of their species. It seemed that they retained the natural talents and wisdom of their original species. On second thought, if they had the techniques and wisdom of a thousand or even ten thousand different species, they would be invincible!

"The most terrifying thing about the flood is the power of brainwashing and transformation.

He gnashed his teeth, but there was nothing he could do about it. "If they are just the coalition of the defectors, the alien species, and the low-level civilizations, they are just a bunch of mobs. No matter how divided we are, we can always crush them.

"But the Flood Tide is not an enemy in the conventional sense at all. It is a virus, a plague, and a burning flame! Often, after a protracted battle is over, after we've achieved a difficult victory at the cost of countless sacrifices, we will find that a lot of our own people have been corrupted by the Flood Tide and become members of the Flood Tide Legion. They will input all our technology and secrets into the Flood Tide, leading to the collapse of the rear defense line. How are we going to fight the war if such a collapse is repeated thousands of times?

Along with the lamentation, countless planets under the control of the Primeval Civilization appeared in Li Yao's mind.

Li Yao had mixed feelings when he saw such scenes. He didn't know where to stand.

The war in which the Primeval Civilization was corrupted by the tides was like a replica of the war between the Star Glory Federation and the Star Ocean Imperium—or rather, an enhanced version.

The expansion of the Primeval Civilization to the entire Universe Ocean was not glamorous at all. It was even cruel and brutal.

However, during the prolonged colonization and development, the different species of the Primeval Race had developed a new civilization in the ever-changing sub-universe. The new generation born and raised in this place had the right to live a happy life and free will, too.

Li Yao could not bring himself to say that the new generation of the Primeval Clan born in such an environment must be carrying some sort of 'original sin'.

Even if they were really going to repent for everything that their ancestors had done and 'abandon their civilization, abandon their free will and self-awareness, join the flood tide, and become a cell in the flood tide', such a punishment was too miserable and unreasonable!

At this moment, Li Yao finally understood why the civilization of the Fist King, including the 'voice' in front of him, was so scared of the arrival of the flood.

It was true that free will was the most precious thing for a human being. If he had been in the situation at that time, he might have scorned the actions of the Primeval Civilization. But he would rather die than join the flood. He would definitely fight against the enormous 'hive' until the end!

* * *

Fourthly, human beings would never be slaves.