Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Li Yao was still thinking about what had happened during the day.

Although he was far away from the web novelist at that time and didn't see the scene clearly, he didn't know whether or not he was hallucinating, but he seemed to have heard the sound of a chandelier breaking, falling, and the web novelist's bones breaking.

Later, when the crowd was rioting and everybody was running away, he vaguely saw that the blood on the booth was like a zigzagging snake that was trying to send him a message.

Later, he received news that the web novelist had passed away due to serious injuries.

Modern society had developed a lot of information. Most of the young people had seen a lot of bloody and brutal videos. Their psychological endurance was not that bad.

But Li Yao's heart was still beating fast. The whole thing was echoing in his head.

Was it… fear?

No. Other than fear, there was confusion. Something inexplicable was flowing inside his brain.

Li Yao thought of the two masters in the fields of fantasy and animation from the East and West—Gilson and Takaya Ibo's death.

After half a day of fermenting, the two incidents had already caused a huge uproar in the small circle of fans of fantasy literature and animation. All kinds of half-truths and half-false posts were flying everywhere, and netizens were spontaneously mourning and so on.

Logically speaking, Li Yao was not a particularly enthusiastic fan of fantasy literature or comic. There was no need for him to join in the fun.

However, he could not help but watch the news of the passing of the two masters again and again, not letting go of a single photo. He even compared the two news clips with the accident at the Comic Festival.

He didn't know why he was doing this.

A Japanese cartoonist who loved mahjong, a ruthless master of Western fantasy literature, and a local web novelist… There was not the slightest bit of similarity, nor was there any connection.

Although it was a bit of a coincidence that accidents happened at almost the same time, there were so many authors of fantasy, science fiction, and fantasy literature around the world, as well as a large number of cartoonists and animation producers, as well as ten times the number of workers. It was not strange for accidents to occur.

But Li Yao just felt that…

Through the slanting wind and drizzling rain on the balcony, one could see that the entire Jiangnan University Town was flickering with a dim yellow fire under the illumination of the twilight. Not far away, the construction had just been completed, and the rumbling of a car could be heard coming from the high platform that connected the entire city. The campus was filled with colorful umbrellas, forming a world as gorgeous as a kaleidoscope.

This world seemed to be a bit duller than the previous one.

No. Not now. More precisely, when the burning lamp fell from the sky and hit the web novelist's head, Li Yao felt that the color of the world had become duller and lackluster.

It was like a world made of 18,000 colors. One color was gone, and only 17,999 colors were left.

Maybe, one day, the entire world would turn black and white, and maybe even black and white would cease to exist. There would only be dead silence and gloom, forever and ever.

"What kind of hysteria am I having?"

Li Yao woke up from his trance and couldn't help but laugh. He tapped his head hard. "Did you read too many novels or have too many strange dreams? What are you thinking about?"

It was already graduation season.

The students were all busy writing papers, doing their internship, looking for a job, and welcoming the first wave of society.

Li Yao's grades and family were ordinary. They were not good enough for him to daydream all day long.

He was not particularly ambitious, but he was not so depraved that he would abandon himself to despair. After all, he was just an ordinary person in the world of mortals. He could live however other people lived. As long as it was neither too high nor too low, he could live as long as he had 60 points and 100,000,000 years. Wasn't that the case for the vast majority of the people in the world?

"Stop thinking about these useless things."

Li Yao took a deep breath and extended his hands to the outside of the balcony. He caught a handful of cold raindrops and rubbed his hot face hard. "Do you think you can get a good job by daydreaming all day? Starting from tomorrow, I really can't fall like this. I have to prepare my graduation thesis and participate in the job fair. I have to try to find a job with a bigger development opportunity. Buy a house, buy a car, marry a wife, have children… Speaking of which, it's really hard to find a job this year. Now that the property prices are so high, I don't know when I will be able to collect the down payment. Who will marry you if you don't have a house?"

Li Yao sighed. He felt powerless from the bottom of his heart.

He felt that an invisible membrane was covering his head, making him unable to see the direction, breathe, or exert any strength.

Maybe, this was how real life was like. There was a lot of pressure. Everyone had to do everything they could and be exhausted in order to fight for some breathing space in the steel forest. Only in this way could they complete their duty and mission.

It was better to be down-to-earth. After all, he was no longer at the age where he could dream irresponsibly.

They could not live in absurd dreams forever and never grow up, could they?

Li Yao shook his head hard, trying to get rid of all the messy thoughts—the accident during the day, the death of Master Fantasia in the east and the west, and the tyrannosaur that had been smeared with blood in his dream.

He washed up simply, climbed into his bunk bed, and threw his entire body into the bedroll. His body was extremely tired, but his mind was extremely clear. He resisted the thought of falling asleep. He didn't know what he would do if he fell asleep and saw the tyrannosaurus rex, who had smeared red lipstick, in his dreams. And if the tyrannosaurus rex invited him to "wake up and fight" again.

Li Yao turned on his phone and prepared to read a few more news and posts.

In the pop-up window, Zhao Kai's profile picture blinked as he sent Li Yao a link—the web address of "Forty Thousand Years of Cultivation".

It seemed that Zhao Kai was really excited.

In the beginning, Li Yao didn't have the mood to read any novels… It was said that from tomorrow onwards, he couldn't fall so low. He had to work hard, he had to struggle, he had to study hard and improve every day!

However, it was not tomorrow yet.

Li Yao opened the link and was ready to close the webpage at any time.

The title of the book was somewhat exaggerated.

["This is a 'Heavenly Wolf'-level crystal warship weighing 390 million tons and manned by 1,523 Refinement Stage Cultivators. The mainframe crystal processor can calculate 90 million telepathic thoughts per second, and its computational ability is equal to that of a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator. It can suppress a planet instantly!"

Standing in the middle of the endless sea of stars, Li Yao looked at the enormous object in front of him and calculated silently, I need—seven seconds to dismantle this warship into scrap!

In the Cultivation Era of 40,000, an ordinary teenager at the border roared at the stars and dominated the galaxy!

Li Yao was not excited at all when he saw his name appearing in the introduction in such an awe-inspiring way. Instead, he felt both embarrassed and amused.

The introduction was too silly.

What Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators? What computational ability? What mainframe crystal processor? What were they talking about?

Roars of the stars and dominates the universe? The authors nowadays can't even write a proper book about the armed conflict between two villages, and yet they dare to write about planets, galaxies, and universes? They are really too arrogant.

As for the word 'hot blood', according to Li Yao's limited reading experience, it meant that the author would use a lot of exclamation marks.

Li Yao yawned and scrolled to the top of the page.

Uh, isn't this a cultivation novel? How did it end up in the science fiction section?

If this "roaring the stars and dominating the galaxy" thing could be considered a science fiction novel, then snails were also awesome.

The title, introduction, and column were enough to make Li Yao lose 90% interest.

However, he was afraid that Zhao Kai would ask him about it tomorrow morning, so he decided to just casually browse through a few chapters.

Li Yao clicked on the main text and opened the first chapter, which was named 'Magical Equipment Graveyard'.

Magical equipment graveyard?

For some reason, Li Yao's heartbeat was disrupted.

A needle that was thousands of times thinner than a hair pierced his heart softly.

Wake up! Wake up!

The heroic spirit that had slept for billions of years woke up!

The war had begun. Horns were roaring!

The Universe Ocean needs you. We… need you!

"What the hell? Have you been worrying about graduation and finding a job recently? Did you not sleep well and have a nervous breakdown?"

Li Yao dug his ears hard to clear the annoying noise. Then he rubbed his chest and continued reading.

[ Lake Rusty.

Special Waste Treatment Plant No. 23.

It was also known as the 'Magical Equipment Graveyard'.

With the continuous development of the cultivation civilization, the magical equipment that used to be high and mighty and could only be driven by cultivators had entered thousands of households, becoming a necessary tool for ordinary people to stay at home, travel, study, and work.

Not only did it bring convenience to his life, it also produced a lot of wasted magical equipment and metal garbage.

Most of the garbage magical equipment still had a lot of spiritual energy left, which could easily lead to radiation pollution. The rune arrays to build the magical equipment were extremely unstable, too, and there was even a risk of explosion. If left alone, the environment could be seriously damaged.

Therefore, in every major city of the federation, there would always be several "special waste treatment centers" that specialized in the disposal of scrap magical equipment.

Special Waste Treatment Plant No. 23, located in the southern suburbs of Floating Spear City, a major cultivation town of the federation…

Li Yao stared at the words for a long time.

It was indeed as Yu Xin had said. The writing was rather… crude. It could only be considered as explaining things clearly. There was not much outstanding about the background setting. It was the usual opening of such a garbage dump. Even though Li Yao did not read many web novels, he had read more than ten similar opening novels. He simply could not understand why these authors were so passionate about the garbage dump. Or was it because they did not use their brains when they wrote and simply "refer" it?

"This is a common, plain, and shoddy web novel. There's no need to waste any more time.

Li Yao bit his lips hard and warned himself in a high-pitched voice, "Stop watching. There's no need to keep watching. Stop. Stop. Stop!"