Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Liu Wenshan was unable to give them the answers to the questions.

But somebody else could.

Lei Yuqin floated in midair. Her brainwaves, which had fallen silent, were spreading out again, triggering feeble flames like the dying light.

Her white hair stood up like a waterfall that was running reversely. Even the air was rippling under her laughter.

Her satisfied laughter seemed to imply that her destiny had been accomplished and that she was now able to return the embrace of the eternal universe without any regret!

“You—”

Flames of spiritual energy surged out of Li Yao’s and Long Yangjun’s bodies, turning into shackles that confined Lei Yuqin tightly. It was even condensed into thorns that crawled into her brain and prevented her from going on a rampage with the last bit of her vitality.

“Lei Yuqin,” Li Yao scolded, “is this the way that you and Professor Mo Xuan save people? Where did Professor Mo Xuan go?”

“To save people. To save everyone!” Lei Yuqin’s aged skin that was full of wrinkles and spots was emitting gentle brilliance. Her voice regained some stubborn vigor, too. “What’s wrong about the way I save people? I am a doctor. I’ve treated all my patients with my best. I never did harm to any of them!

“The patients whose brains were not seriously damaged and whose souls were mostly intact have long woken up and gone back home under my careful treatment!

“The rest of them all suffer too severe brain lesions to be woken up with their broken soul. Activating their souls by brute force and releasing them to live in the world outside will only make them age and perish under the corruption of the all-pervasive radiation. Even a tiny sunspot outbreak is enough to rip them apart completely!

“That’s why I invited them to live in the Spiriters’ Realm. That’s the only place suitable for them. It is the new home for all the Spiriters!”

Lei Yuqin replied confidently. Her eyes were clearer and clearer. There was not the slightest regret or embarrassment on her face.

Li Yao burst into fury. “How do you explain the bodies of the battle-type Cultivators? To think that you have turned the bodies of the vegetative patients into dreadful weapons! Are you shameless enough to call yourself a doctor after doing such insane things?”

“For a doctor, a body without a soul is just a piece of common flesh,” Lei Yuqin said casually. “Tens of thousands of years ago, when everybody considered the bodies of their own kind to be some sacred taboo, doctors were already dissecting and studying them. Some doctors even dug up dead bodies that had just been buried in the cemetery to autopsy. Such behavior that was creepy in the eyes of normal people is the foundation of modern medical science, which has saved millions of people!

“Those battle-type Cultivators were all close to the state of brain death after they fell into deep comas due to mental derangement. After their souls that were still rescuable were transferred to the man-made brains, the bodies left would be nothing more than a cluster of regular meat. They were the same as tumors that are cut away after an operation, medical garbage that must be thrown away. What’s wrong about recycling the garbage and using it to defend our cause and the future of mankind?”

Li Yao gnashed his teeth. “You do know how to dress your actions up, but you and Professor Mo Xuan locked them up, forced them to carry out research, and deceived their families, not telling their families where exactly their souls were hidden!”

Lei Yuqin smiled and said, “Yes. That’s the only thing that I have done wrong and unqualifies me as a doctor. However, their family will soon learn the truth and meet them. Very soon…”

Li Yao suddenly had an ominous feeling. Increasing the sharpness of the thorns of spiritual energy, he demanded, “What are you up to exactly? Where did Professor Mo Xuan go with the tremendous battle shells and Deviant Spirits?”

Lei Yuqin continued smiling. Her eyes looked past Li Yao and Long Yangjun, as if she could see the depths of the universe through the solid shell of the space city. In an almost melodramatic tone, she said, “A war is about to break between the Star Glory Federation and the expedition army of the Imperium. It is going to be an unprecedented war that will burn up a whole area of the sea of stars. A lot of heroes will present the most soul-stirring stories for future generations to remember, but countless innocent people will die in silence, too, ending up as cold names on a monument. Or maybe they won’t even have a chance to leave their names, and they will be gone like grains of cosmic dust that have never been noticed.”

Her words were exactly what Professor Mo Xuan said before.

“The rise of a dynasty means the downfall of another one, and it is the common folk who suffer. Even if the Star Glory Federation wins the war after paying gory prices, so what? Is this going to be the last war of the federation?”

Looking at Li Yao, Lei Yuqin shook her head and said, “No. The Star Glory Federation is going to march toward the center of the cosmos one day. The ambitious Jin Xinyue and Ding Lingdang, who talks about liberating all the people in the universe that are oppressed, are both living embodiments of slaughter. They are envoys of destruction. They crave war, war, and more war, like drug addicts!

“War… war never ends. Even if the Star Glory Federation truly marches to the center of the cosmos one day and rises to be on equal terms with the Imperium of True Human Beings and the Alliance of the Holy Covenant, after half of the population in all three thousand Sectors are wasted, everyone might finally be united under one of the banners. However, what awaits them is not eternal peace but just a hiatus in war!

“Therefore, is there any meaning if the Star Glory Federation wins the war of self-defense in the traditional way? Is there any meaning to defeating the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance? Is there any meaning to being the greatest superpower in the universe? The federation will eventually perish into the cosmic dust after ten thousand years, just like the Star Ocean Imperium that was once splendid in its heyday. War, resource shortages, and poverty will come back again, turning into a cycle that harasses mankind and can never be resolved!

“What are we up to exactly, you ask?

“Hehe. We are going to break the cycle once and for all! We are going to end the bloody wars! We are going to end mankind’s infinite desire for resources! We are going to end the suffering, oppression, and inequality that human beings are born with!

“We are going to create a heaven, a new world that is forever peaceful and devoid of contradictions, wars, and suffering, a world where everybody’s every demand can be met!

“I don’t know who you are exactly and why you boast such high strength, but whoever you are, please join us!”

Lei Yuqin extended her hands toward Li Yao and Long Yangjun. At this moment, the brilliance in her eyes had entirely consumed her eyeballs, as if two orange fireballs were directly blossoming out of her eye sockets. Her voice… did not seem to be uttered by herself but was bursting out of her dry chest as if thousands of men and women, seniors and children, were pleading at the same time.

“Join us. Let’s create a new world with infinite beauty!

“Join us. Life is itself just a dream. Illusions are the only reality!

“Join us. In the Spiriters’ Realm, there is no distinction between poor and rich, smart and stupid, ordinary people and Cultivators. Everybody’s free to establish a world that solely belongs to themself and become the king of the universe!

“Join us. As long as all human beings live in the Spiriters’ Realm and all resources are virtualized, we will be able to end the eternal wars and save everyone!”

The cacophony of voices that were highly compressed spread in all directions and shattered into pieces after hitting the cold wall. It could be vaguely distinguished that children were giggling, hotblooded young men were bellowing, women were speaking gently but firmly, and old people were sighing with endless regrets.

The broken pieces of thousands of voices resonated into the same echo:

“Join us… Join us… Join us… Join us…”

Li Yao had seen countless creepy scenes that caused goosebumps all over his body before.

However, at this moment, Lei Yuqin, who was dying and tightly suppressed by two Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, made him feel more frightened than he had ever felt before.

“Insane. You are insane!” Li Yao mumbled. “Professor Mo Xuan said himself that evolution cannot be accomplished overnight. Even if you believe that the virtual life form is the future of mankind, you shouldn’t try to compress the evolution that is supposed to take billions of years into one single moment. You won’t succeed!”

“Yes. It’s true that we shouldn’t have done that!” Lei Yuqin smiled miserably. “We might be doing the wrong thing that is very likely to fail. There’s a ninety-nine percent likelihood that we will be crucified on the pillar of dishonor in history as unpardonable villains.

“However… however, as a doctor, how can I watch so many of my compatriots and their offspring struggle and suffer in the swamp of fire in the real world while doing nothing about it?”

Before Lei Yuqin’s sacred face that was mixed with pity and righteousness, Li Yao was completely lost for words.

Long Yangjun, on the other hand, bulged her eyes and shouted, “I’ve got it. Professor Mo Xuan must’ve taken his army of ghosts to the Grand-Unified Spiritual Nexus Information Processing Center. Hundred Flowers City is a hub of transportation and information in the federation. The information processing center there must be the most important node of the whole Spiritual Nexus in the federation!

“At first, we speculated that Professor Mo Xuan intended to control the three ‘Gai’-level super crystal processors, or maybe even more ‘Jing’-level ones, but from what we have seen right now, his appetite is apparently much bigger than we anticipated. What he wants to control is the Spiritual Nexus and the network of everybody, including both the Star Glory Federation and the Black Wind Fleet!”

In the middle of Long Yangjun’s roar, Lei Yuqin uttered high-pitched laughter. There was no telling when it started, but the white hair all over her head was burning furiously like white fire, illuminating the entire secret chamber.

“You are too late!” Lei Yuqin put on a weird smile. Her voice became both profound and dull, as if it were rumbling thunder that came from the depths of the universe. It felt like a whole different being instead of her was bellowing, “Now that you have come here, do you still think you can leave?”

Every pore on Li Yao’s body was restricted to the minimum.

The half-open gate behind them, on the other hand, was shut as fast as lightning before the two Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators could take action.

The flames of light flooding out of Lei Yuqin’s eye socks enshrouded her entire head. Her skull seemed to have been replaced by a brilliant supernova. Despite the suppression of Li Yao’s and Long Yangjun’s spiritual energy, it was impossible for them to stop the explosive energy that absolutely did not belong to the training system of human beings from surging out of her brain!

The supernova inside Lei Yuqin’s brain broke out!