Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Peipei felt that her head was dizzy. She felt that her father's words were wrong, but she could not tell what was wrong. After all, she was a kind and innocent girl who thought that 'kindness' and 'innocence' could solve all the problems in the universe.

"H-Nonsense!"

Her body was shivering, and her nose was aching. She kept telling herself that she should not cry. She had grown up and was no longer the little girl who cried all the time. She had to protect Shanuya, and she could not cry if she wanted to protect Shanuya. "This is just my speculation. You adults are too paranoid. I will not turn Shanuya into a monster. I promise!"

"Promise? What can you guarantee?"

His father's voice turned even colder. "Compared to us human beings, it is a monster in the first place, a… devil. All we can do is try our best to delay it from revealing its true nature. But in the end, however hard you try and however reluctant you are, the day will come eventually.

"Don't be in a hurry to refute me. Think about it carefully first. Look at the files. The top-secret files are all the disasters caused by the Void Hunters in the past. Open your eyes and face reality, my daughter!"

His father tapped on the light beam and showed the comprehensive images and data of dozens of disasters to Peipei.

There were no words that could describe what he saw, nor were there any words that could describe his current mood.

In some of the pictures, the broken tentacles of the Void Hunters were mixed with the debris of starships, turning into a graveyard floating in the sea of stars forever.

In some of the pictures, the furious Void Hunters were indeed devils that had descended from the four-dimensional space beyond the understanding of human beings as their father had described. They were waving their tentacles that were tens of thousands of kilometers long and crushing the ripples of destruction in the three-dimensional universe.

Some of the pictures were filled with cold numbers and pale names that were flowing silently like a waterfall of the Nether River as if they would never run out.

"Since the moment we encountered the Void Hunters, such an enormous object beyond our understanding has been existing in the form of two sides of the universe. Yes, it can protect us from the 90% of disasters in the universe and expand our cruising range by thousands of times. But at the same time, it has also become our most terrifying memory, a disaster that could cost billions of lives at any moment.

His father said, "Yes. My dear daughter, you must tell me that the Void Hunters did not do it on purpose. They don't understand the concept of 'life and death' in our life form at all. They don't know how much damage they've caused us. They don't know what kind of catastrophe they can bring by twitching and shivering!

"However, on second thought, isn't that the most terrifying point?

"The 'unintentional' actions of the Void Hunters can lead to the loss of billions of human beings. What if one day, it suddenly awakens a certain self that we cannot understand, it suddenly decides to do something 'conscious', and it suddenly decides to become the real 'Shanuya'? What should we do then? What should we do?

Peipei did not know.

She suddenly felt that her father was very similar to the crazy Void Hunters in the light beam.

She was scared.

He did not know whether he was more scared of his father or the Void Hunters who had lost control.

"You are very kind, Peipei. It is not a bad thing. In the dark universe today, 'kindness' has become a rarely-seen quality, like the most brilliant gem. I hope you can be kind forever."

When his father saw the fear on Peipei's face, his father's expression turned somewhat complicated and sad. With a bitter smile, he said, "But I still want you to understand that what we are discussing right now has nothing to do with 'kindness'. A man with a gun and a man without one will never be able to be friends. No matter how kind a man with a gun is, no matter how much he promises not to use his gun, it will be of no help, especially when there is only a bun in front of the two of them.

"To maintain their friendship, unless both of them have guns, or neither of them have guns, do you understand what I mean?"

"No."

Peipei shook her head. "Dad and my brother both like to play with guns, but I don't understand—what do we need guns for? There are not many alien species in the sea of stars that need guns."

"Silly child. Guns were not invented to kill foreign species in the first place.

His father smiled and said, "Forget it. If you can't figure out these complicated things, then don't think about them anymore. In any case, we are not really going to kill Shanuya. We are just going to help it be reborn. You should know that the life form of a Void Hunter is very strange. From a certain perspective, it is 'immortal'. Even if we help it 'explode' manually, its tentacles will still survive and become the new generation of Shanuya.

"At that time, maybe you can become the new Dream Maker of Shanuya and tell it all the stories.

Peipei frowned and thought for a long time.

Then, the girl shook her head.

"No."

She said seriously, "The tentacles after 'explosion' will lose their memories and consciousness and turn into muddleheaded fetuses. Even if they grow up again one day, they will not be the Shanuya they are today.

"It's all Shanuya."

His father said, "What's the difference?"

"Yes."

"Other Shannuas are not 'My Shannuas'. There are many Void Hunters named Shannuas, but only one of them is 'Prince Shannuas'."

"It seems that you are deeply in love with your 'Prince Shanuya'.

His father narrowed his eyes and said in a low voice, "Or maybe, our 'Prince Shanuya' has developed an unbelievable neural network in secret and grasped tremendous mental power that can interfere with the will of a human being!

"No!"

"Everything I said was from my heart. I thought of it myself. It has nothing to do with Shanuya!"

"We will figure it out. Now, take a rest."

His father pondered for a moment and said, "Wait. I've changed my mind. Peipei, you should go to the hospital and take a good rest for two days. Let the other dream creators take care of the rest. Lei Qi?"

Her brother appeared behind her and pressed her shoulder. The girl had never felt her brother's armor so cold before.

"No—"

"You can't do this!"

"Send your sister to the hospital and ask the Meditation Healer to examine her head."

His father said to his brother emotionlessly, "Don't let her leave the hospital for the next two, no, three days."