Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

"I see."

Zhang Daniu rubbed his chin. "It does not sound unacceptable."

"Then, when will the 'Invincible Thunderbolt Super Brainwave Magnification System' be ready?"

Deep in thought, Li Yao asked, "Suppose everything goes well and '100% of Li Yao' is awakened, then what?"

"Three days."

Red Pole Star extended three fingers and looked at Li Yao deeply. He smiled and said, "In three days, the 'Invincible Thunderbolt Super Brainwave Magnification System' will be ready. By then, all the Hell Breakers on the island will be activated at the same time and help '100% Li Yao' to be reborn. I believe that it will be a heavy blow for the will of the planet. At that time, the people on the battlefield of the universe—including Ding Lingdang and the rest of them—will launch the fiercest attacks. We will be sure to win if we work together!

"Is that so?"

Li Yao narrowed his eyes and put on a smile that even he did not notice. He nodded and said, "The final battle is in three days!"

"That's right."

Red Pole Star moved her eyes away from his face and looked at Zhang Daniu. "Any questions?"

"In fact, there is a minor problem that may be irrelevant. You may not know the answer.

Zhang Daniu asked, "We've been talking about the 'will of the earth', but I can't understand it at all. If such a 'four-dimensional being' does exist, and it has captured billions of heroic spirits in the three-dimensional universe and locked us in a reincarnation prison named 'Earth', what is the purpose of all this?"

"It is quite clear that the will of the earth has the ability to kill all the martyred spirits. It can even turn all the earthlings into dreamless, brainless idiots, mindless walking dead, or think of thousands of ways to torture us so that we will live in literal hell and suffer all kinds of suffering and torment.

"But it didn't do that. Instead, it set a period from the 1970s to the 1950s, a period that could still be considered prosperous and glorious. It locked us inside and repeated it time and time again—it was completely unreasonable!

"The hunter told me that it was because we had committed a grave crime and we needed to redeem ourselves and repent in such a way. But I couldn't tell what 'redemption and repentance' meant at all. Although the Earth at this time was not peaceful, and many places were still shrouded in the shadow of natural disasters and man-made disasters, and the major countries were at each other's throats, the pressure on the people living in the cement forests was not small, either, but everything had to be compared horizontally. Compared to the history of the past thousand years, this was the best time for the civilization of mankind.

"We have TV, we have movies, we have computers, we have the Internet, we have forums, we have novels. Let's not talk about the developed countries. Even in the developing countries like ours, the vast majority of the citizens have at least solved the problem of food and clothing. They have made significant progress compared to a few decades ago. Do you understand what I'm saying? I'm saying, if the will of the earth really wanted to torture us, why didn't it arrange for the time of the reincarnation prison to be during the First World War or the Second World War? At that time, our lives would have been the 'Hell on Earth'. Maybe it was even earlier. The bloody invasion of foreign species. The high-pressure feudal rule. The dark medieval era. Even the primitive era where we ate raw meat and drank blood. Living in that era where we didn't have enough food to eat, we didn't have enough medicine, and any wound could have killed us. This is the treatment that a batch of criminals should receive, right?

"Moreover, in the medieval era, where technology and civilization were extremely underdeveloped, even if the prison breakers awakened the memories of their past lives, they did not have a powerful enough method of information output… I mean, let's say that the will of the earth set the world background in the medieval era. Even if Ding Lingdang and the others sent to my brain, it would still be impossible for me to spread it on a large scale, right? A novel with a few million words, or even ten million words, could be spread by printing with words or even printing with mud? The printer would kill me first! Even if no one killed me, and I had enough resources to complete the information output, the vast majority of people were illiterate and simply could not accept the information. There was simply no way to resist the will of the earth!

"All in all, everything that the will of the earth did was completely unreasonable and even seemed to be asking for trouble. Don't you think so?

Li Yao was dazed for a moment. He did not expect that Zhang Daniu would be so thorough.

"That's right. It seems that Master Niu was chosen as a 'type-2 Observer' not only because you are naïve and your soul is as pure as a blank sheet of paper!"

"As for the purpose of the will of the earth," the Red Pole Star said, "I've pondered and explored it multiple times in the previous reincarnation cycles. I even tried to pry into its core secrets with my own death in one of the reincarnation cycles. After all, there was indeed something wrong about it. Maybe its biggest weakness was the purpose of its reincarnation prison.

"After several reincarnations, together with the enlightenment I received from the battlefields of the great universe, although I don't have solid evidence, I have my own speculations.

"Before I tell you what I think, please tell me what you think is most important for a civilization.

Li Yao and Zhang Daniu looked at each other, deep in thought.

"Survival?"

Li Yao said uncertainly.

"Mating!"

Zhang Daniu was very confident.

The Red Pole Star laughed.

"Alright. I can't say that your answer is wrong. But survival and reproduction are the most fundamental factors. Almost all the low-level creatures, even the bacteria, need to reproduce. But the unintelligent creatures that can only reproduce cannot create a great civilization.

"I think that, for a super civilization that conquers the universe across the sea of stars, the most important thing is 'ideal'. The idea of conquering the universe must be the first thing that comes to mind. No matter how absurd the idea is, the civilization will never give up. No matter how many difficulties it faces, the civilization will always overcome them. Even if the odds of success are only one billionth, the civilization must devote 100% of its resources and efforts in order to become the ultimate dominator of the universe, right?"

Li Yao and Zhang Daniu nodded. "That's true."

"But 'ideal' is too big a word. What can create the greatest dream if it is dissected?

"I think 'emotion' and 'imagination'."

"Emotions and imagination?"

Li Yao and Zhang Daniu looked at each other in bewilderment. On second thought, it did make sense.

"Let's not talk about the 'swarm civilization' made of cold, automated machines. I've always believed that an automated bee civilization requires a high speed of network connection and information exchange. It is impossible for them to cover an almost infinite distance in the boundless sea of stars. Therefore, the speed and scale of their expansion are absolutely limited. They cannot be the dominators of the sea of stars in the truest sense. Let's just talk about the carbon-based intelligent life forms that we can understand. If their civilization wants to flourish and reach the top of the universe, they must be supported by strong emotions and a rich imagination. The two, especially the strong imagination, are absolutely indispensable for a great civilization.

The Red Pole Star said solemnly, "A long time ago, scholars considered the ability to make tools to be the difference between human beings and animals. They even believed that only human beings could make and use tools. But soon, we discovered that monkeys could use tools, leeches could use tools, and even gorillas could make tools on their own.

"However, whether it is monkeys, orangutans, or leeches, or dolphin-like creatures that boast extraordinary wisdom, they will never look up at the sky like human beings and fantasize about the secrets behind the brilliant stars. The ability that belongs to the 'spirits of all things' is imagination.

"It was imagination that drove our civilization forward. It was imagination that led our civilization on countless different paths in countless reincarnations. It was imagination that helped us conquer mountains, oceans, and even satellites around us. If we can break the seal of the reincarnation prison and conquer the endless universe one day, it will certainly be because of our ambitions, curiosity, and imagination that are even larger than the endless universe!

"Sounds reasonable."

"But what does it have to do with the purpose of the reincarnation prison?"

"That's the problem.

The Red Pole Star replied, "I highly doubt that the will of the earth has no emotions or imagination at all.

"Huh?"

Zhang Daniu was dazed for a long time. "I… don't quite understand what you mean. What is the so-called will of the earth exactly?"

"It doesn't matter what it is. It doesn't matter if it is a four-dimensional life form that we can't understand, it doesn't matter if it is a monster created by the earthlings a long, long time ago, it doesn't matter if it is a civilization of a different species or some random weird thing. What matters is that it must have strong emotions and imagination if it wants to continue growing, evolving, and expanding on the level of a civilization in the universe toward a higher peak.

"Unfortunately, it didn't," the Red Pole Star said. "Maybe it once did. But on the long road of evolution, it lost all its emotions and imagination and even exchanged them for tremendous strength as a price that it had to pay. Such strength may have helped it defeat invincible enemies, helped it become the most feared devil of destruction in the universe, and even helped it become the master of the universe. But it also drove it further and further away from the original meaning of 'life' and 'civilization'. It lost itself and forgot who it was and what its purpose was.

"Is that so? It sounds a bit 'mysterious'!"

Zhang Daniu looked at Li Yao.

But Li Yao's eyes were glittering. He lowered his head and kept quiet.

"Although it is just my theory and there is not much solid evidence, the assumption can be used to explain many questions.

The Red Pole Star smiled and said, "The so-called 'reincarnation prison' is not a prison at all but a 'farm' where human beings are grown and 'emotion' and 'imagination' are harvested!