Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Long Yangjun switched the light beam and played a music video as a disguise. Then, she went on. “The Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital is a private hospital solely funded and established by Lei Yuqin. It is one of the best brain hospitals in the entire Star Glory Federation. The hospital is best known for their treatment on the Spiritual Nexus Sudden Death, or rather, ‘SNSD’ as most people call it.

“As the Spiritual Nexus develops—especially after all kinds of immersive virtual cabins, brain scanning helmets, and super-remote signal transmission technology were invented—human beings are more and more connected to the Spiritual Nexus.

“At first, they merely scan the information on the light beam with their bare eyes and listen to the sound of the crystal processors with their ears.

“However, in the nerval interaction liquids of the immersive virtual cabin, or in the holographic game helmets that can directly scan the brainwaves, it is possible to stream boundless information from a hundred lightyears away into the user’s head through quantum entanglement, gravitational waves, and other means, creating a more abundant and vivid effect than the traditional Grand Illusionary Land. One might even say that it is a more than perfect simulation of reality!

“The overly-saturated sense of reality built by the tremendous data, while providing convenience and joy to the user, doubtlessly poses a heavy burden on their brain. It is especially so for many of the virtual worlds that boast the effect of ‘lengthening time’. One hour in reality can be transformed into three to five hours in the virtual world.

“When their speed is not changed, naturally, the flow of time cannot be twisted. The only reason the time in the virtual world is slowed down for the users is because the virtual cabins and the game helmets impose strong stimulations on their brains to increase their brain cell activity and make their brains overload. That’s all!

“The human brain is the most precise organ as well as the most mysterious area in the entire world. To this day, countless mysteries are still waiting to be solved. Under normal circumstances, only ten percent of the human brain is active, while the other ninety percent is all hibernating temporarily. But it doesn’t mean that only ten percent of the human brain is developed. That’s all because human’s soul is too powerful. Developing ten percent of the brain has already reached the limits of the brain. The other ninety percent of the areas all provide certain ancillary and recovery functions to ensure that the human brain can run stably.

“The modern Spiritual Nexus, virtual cabins, and game helmets, on the other hand, can increase the development rate of the human brain to above fifteen percent or even higher through the stimulation. That’s only for ordinary people. For Cultivators, their brain development rate can be even more terrifying!

“Naturally, such overloading may cause problems. The most common symptom is serious cerebral hemorrhaging after a long time online. In the relatively better cases, the patients may suffer seizures, paralysis, or nerval disorder. In relatively worse cases, they may fall into a coma and turn vegetative or even be killed on the spot. That is known as Spiritual Nexus Sudden Death or SNSD. It is a troublesome new disease in the New Federation when most traditional diseases have been taken care of!

“According to the statistics, the annual affliction rate of Spiritual Nexus Sudden Death in the past ten years is seven in a hundred and fifty thousand, which means about seven million people. Most of them only suffer mild symptoms and recover soon after treatment, but one tenth of them, which means almost one million people, suffer from irreversible symptoms, turn into vegetative persons, or get killed instantly. I read that data on the official site of Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital. Lei Yuqin is an expert in treating the disease.”

Li Yao was greatly shocked. “Such a high death and disability rate? The Spiritual Nexus is a rather terrible thing. Why is the technology so popular when it is so immature?”

“The death rate is actually not very high,” Long Yangjun said. “The files that I found suggest that eighty million people are injured in traffic accidents every year, eight million are permanently disabled, and one million are killed.

“The culprits of the traffic accidents—namely shuttles, flying fins, mystic ray jets, and other vehicles boosted by spiritual energy—were invented in the age of the Star Ocean Imperium. They have a history of almost ten thousand years. Even considering the technological stagnation in the Great Dark Age, they have still been reinvented for almost a thousand years. They are very mature and ‘safe’ technology.

“In comparison, the virtual cabins and the game helmets are at least much more mature, safe, and reliable than shuttles.

“It is also needless to say that on many resource planets where the environment is terribly harsh and the space towns that can easily make people suffer from claustrophobia because of the lack of room, there is nowhere for the residents to go even if they want to go outside. They can only go online inside their small rooms.

“Of most injuries that are caused by the Spiritual Nexus and game helmets, most of them only have simple symptoms that can be treated quickly. Also, sometimes it is hard to tell whether the more serious cases—say, cerebral hemorrhage and sudden death—are actually caused by their addiction to cyberspace or because their bodies already had hidden problems. Those accidents alone are not enough to make people give up the Spiritual Nexus or lower the methods and speed of the network to a preliminary phase.

“In any case, people have to go to the Spiritual Nexus. Even if ordinary people can control themselves when they are merely entertaining themselves online, Cultivators cannot control themselves at all when they are on the Spiritual Nexus for their work and studies.

“Of the victims of Spiritual Nexus Sudden Death, sixty percent are Cultivators. They take up more than eighty percent of the vegetative and death cases. Considering the population ratio of Cultivators to ordinary people, this is truly an astounding number, but such a number is also hardly avoidable!”

“Cultivators…” Li Yao mumbled to himself. “The stability of a Cultivator’s soul should be higher than that of ordinary people. Why are their injury and death rates higher, too?”

“Because Cultivators often increase their brain cell activity to more than ten times of the regular state,” Long Yangjun replied. “They are burning their life and soul to break their limits, and a few of their brain vessels may break apart every day. If they do this all the time, it is only natural that they suffer brain diseases!”

Li Yao coughed. He remembered his brain vessels also exploded a lot when it was overloading during his studies, training, and refining.

Although Cultivators’ brains were much harder than the brains of ordinary people, and they could repair their bleeding brains with their spiritual energy in most cases, humans were not machines. Besides, even machines suffered from fatigue!

If their brain overloaded for a long time, it was quite possible that something might go wrong.

“The past hundred years was the golden phase of development for the New Federation,” Long Yangjun said, “but the fast speed of development did not come from empty talk. It was earned by countless people who burnt their life and soul and even sacrificed themselves.

“Other than the few years during the Uranian Ring War, the federation has lived a hundred years in peace, but the death rate of the Cultivators has not lessened at all. For most of the admin-type, research-type, creation-type, and even culture-type, their daily job is their battlefield, and the crystal processors and the Spiritual Nexus are their best weapons.

“All Cultivators unleash their vitality on the battlefield by burning their life and soul and fully making use of their brains. Analyzing the primeval treasures on Kunlun from hundreds of thousands of years ago; running a major city that has millions of residents; developing a brand-new crystal suit, crystal tank, or crystal warship… Everything makes the Cultivators break the limits of their brains time and time again until they finally collapse in their posts.

“That’s the only reason the Cultivators are much more susceptible to Spiritual Nexus Sudden Death than ordinary people. The Cultivators of the federation have been overly exploiting their brains without considering their own lives!”

Li Yao was lost for words.

He recalled the famous slogan in the age of the Old Federation.

Cultivators should not be scared of death, and those who were scared of death should not become Cultivators!

Long Yangjun went on. “To deal with the scourge of the Imperium of True Human Beings, few Cultivators are willing to slow down their research. If they develop a few pieces of magical equipment or make the mines, cities, and sailing routes more efficient today, the chances of winning if war breaks out tomorrow will be slightly higher.

“Therefore, even if they are aware of Spiritual Nexus Sudden Death, no Cultivators are willing to give up the Spiritual Nexus. This is a war that has lasted a hundred years. In a war, a death and disability rate of less than 0.01 percent is negligible!

“While Cultivators take the risk gladly, the Spiritual Nexus, brain, and Meditation Healing specialists still have to resolve the conundrum. In the past few decades, the studies on Spiritual Nexus Sudden Death have been a notable subject. Lei Yuqin is the most skilled specialist and academic authority in that field!

“Since her Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital was founded, it has presented a lot of influential research products on the functioning mechanism of Spiritual Nexus Sudden Death, the specific process in which it affects the brain, the corresponding treatment methods, and many other findings after only decades. She is also particularly good at treating patients whose brains are severely damaged. There is a large Deep Sustenance Treatment Center in the hospital that specifically accepts vegetative patients from every part of the federation. Most of them are Cultivators who overly exploited their brain during high-intensity work on the Spiritual Nexus and fell into a coma after mental derangement.

“Of course, because the Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital is a private hospital, the fees every day in the Deep Sustenance Treatment Center are astronomical. Other than the wealthy, high-level Cultivators, the families of the lower-level Cultivators and ordinary people can barely afford to send the patients to be treated in this place.

“All in all, vegetative patients are delivered to the special ‘rehabilitation cabins’ after they are moved into Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital. There, their body functions will be maintained by nerval stimulation and the injection of nutrition liquids. Meanwhile, Lei Yuqin will explore and stimulate their brains on a deep level through her secret techniques in order to help them wake up.

“It is said that more than ten percent of the vegetative patients who were sent to Lei Yuqin have woken up. There are even cases where the patients woke up after being treated for only two years when they had been in comas for decades. Those patients did not suffer many aftereffects after they woke up, and they were even able to continue their training!”