Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“What is real, and what is fake? The so-called soul is nothing but a cluster of special energy waves, and the fleshly body is just a combination of protein and carbohydrates! All of a human being’s feelings, your joy and your pain, aren’t they the result of the nerve endings being stimulated by bioelectricity?”

Professor Mo Xuan kept his arms straightened at him. He earnestly said, “Is protein destined to be superior to silicon chips? Is the glow of bioelectricity at the nerve endings more real than the ’emotions’ triggered by the spiritual energy in rune arrays? Look around. Look at the fragrant cuisine, the peaceful and quiet village, and my lovely, innocent granddaughter. Are they not ‘real’ enough for you?

“Pleasure is pleasure. Happiness is happiness. Pain is pain. Desperation is desperation. There is no such disparity as real and false!

“But let’s just say that everything here is false. So what? Isn’t the most illusionary happiness ten thousand times better than real pain? To live a carefree life in a false paradise, or to be ravaged and slaughtered by a real war. For most people, do they really need to think to pick an answer?”

Li Yao gritted his teeth. Flames of spiritual energy gradually surged out of every pore on his body, forming a fuzzy shadow around him. His soul was too powerful. The form and frequency of his surging spiritual energy had surpassed the calculation limits of the Peach Blossom Paradise. The data could not be handled in real time. The whole world grew more and more unsteady, as if a minor earthquake was happening at the core of the earth.

“I will not listen to your demagogism!” Li Yao bellowed. “Real is real, and false is false! A palace constructed on a beach is absolutely useless no matter how splendid and delicate it seems. You want to bring absolute peace to the world, but the only thing you can present is absolute darkness! Is there any essential difference between the so-called ‘new world’ and ‘Peach Blossom Paradise’ that you have constructed and the drugs that narcotize and give them the ultimate sense of pleasure? That’s not real happiness. It’s just the seemingly glorious light you see before your death!

“Regardless of whether you are Professor Mo Xuan or the extraterrestrial devils, whatever your plan is, I will not let things go your way!”

The flames of spiritual energy around Li Yao became more and more turbulent until they almost formed a small storm that was gradually shredding the hut and the entire village.

Ah Luo, the virtual girl, shrieked in fear and dropped the bamboo cylinder to the ground. The deep pure plum syrup flowed everywhere.

Her tears were also dropping like pearls, but she summoned her courage and stood in front of Professor Mo Xuan. Her voice shaking, she said, “What—what are you doing? Don’t hurt my grandpa!”

This illusion is damn vivid! Li Yao cursed in his heart. But he suddenly lost the courage to look at the girl ‘Ah Luo’, who was shocked and frightened, in the eyes.

He even felt sorry for the five dishes that had been blown to the ground by his soul storm.

It was the way of the extraterrestrial devils’ attack. Invisible and yet unbelievably sordid!

You—you are shameless enough to simulate the most sacred feeling of mankind as your weapon and your shield. I will not be deceived by you. I’m going to destroy this place!

Thinking about his family, friends, and compatriots who were fighting fiercely in space, Li Yao gritted his teeth and hardened his heart, summoning the explosive strength deep inside his soul.

As his soul power continued expanding, wind and thunder were blowing around. The clouds and mist grew thicker and thicker, but the whole world seemed to dim, as if the rendering quality was getting lousier and the running speed was turning sluggish!

Finally, the entire Peach Blossom Paradise was slowed down to a point where mottled light spots showed up, as if thousands of colorful butterflies were crumbling. Li Yao, Professor Mo Xuan, and the virtual girl ‘Ah Luo’ all became sharp, fuzzy, and dim as they were gradually disintegrated.

“You cannot destroy the Spiriters’ Realm.” Professor Mo Xuan’s casual voice echoed from his body that was gradually falling apart. “People who entered the Spiriters’ Realm in the past, especially the soldiers who suffered PTSD, were often too obsessed about the so-called ‘real’ and ‘fake’ at first just like you. They obliterated the ‘fake world’ every now and then, but before long, they would accept this place, grow fond of everything, and be completely integrated with the Spiriters’ Realm. They consider this place reality and the world outside an ugly illusion!

“Hehe. Many of them fell in love with my granddaughter, Ah Luo, and even married her. Ah Luo is indeed a very lovely girl and will be a great wife. Maybe you will fall in love with her one day.”

Li Yao was truly creeped out. “You are mad. You are not Professor Mo Xuan. What kind of monster are you?”

“Huh?” Professor Mo Xuan sounded quite surprised. “Since we met for the first time, you seem to have been very certain that I am not Professor Mo Xuan. That was why you began your investigation into me, too. Why? On what grounds is an expert from the Ancient Sages Sector so suspicious of a professor in a foreign world hundreds of lightyears away? I believe that my camouflage in the Tinder Base was immaculate. There shouldn’t be any point that called for your doubts, unless…”

Li Yao was greatly alarmed, crying that it was not good in his heart.

Long Yangjun was quite right. In such weird metal warfare, his real identity was indeed his last trump card.

If Li Yao had exposed his identity carelessly in Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital or even earlier, the virtual world and the girl appearing before him would have probably been Floating Spear City and Ding Lingdang instead of the Peach Blossom Paradise and Ah Luo!

Would he really be determined enough to kill his wife’s illusion?

“Whoever you are, we have seen through all your secrets. Your vile scheme is now completely disrupted!”

Li Yao tried to disturb Professor Mo Xuan’s mind by attacking actively. He spat hard, and his soul storm raged toward Professor Mo Xuan overwhelmingly.

“I don’t believe that you are as confident of your victory as you appear to be. Do you really think that the twelve experts from the Ancient Sages Sector are made of paper? You want to corrupt the souls of the twelve of us in a row? Not so easy! Old man, you are now both swallowing the souls of the twelve of us and hacking the Spiritual Nexus and the mainframe crystal processor of the federation. It can’t be easy for you, right? Your computational ability and your soul power have been pushed to the limits, right? You are going to collapse immediately as long as I slightly move my little finger, right?”

“You have suddenly changed the tone of your speech to be a very dramatic and exaggerating one. What are you trying to hide?” Professor Mo Xuan was utterly unmoved. His eyes were still emitting profound brilliance in midair although they had been vaporized into ashes. He eyed Li Yao up and down as if Li Yao were a piece of magical equipment. “There’s really no explanation for that. Your real identity has clearly been exposed. There should be nothing that you need to disguise. Besides, the two of us do not know each other. What can I do even if I know your real identity? Therefore…”

Cold sweat was running out from the deepest part of Li Yao’s soul. Professor Mo Xuan deserved to be called a human-shaped crystal processor. His computational ability was too unbelievable!

“It doesn’t matter now.” Professor Mo Xuan suddenly smiled casually. Before the entire world was ripped apart and collapsed, he remarked, “The infiltration and control has long begun. There are two enormous troops in the Heaven’s Origin Sector right now. Both of them feel good about themselves because they believe that their enemy has been deceived by them, but they do not know that they are just two animals that have fallen into traps without them knowing it. They are just bait for each other—bait that I threw out. After they maul each other and get exhausted by each other, it will be time for me to fish them up!

“After I control the two most powerful troops at the edge of the cosmos, I will boast the sharpest blades in the ten thousand lightyears around, which will allow me to realize my dream the way I want—to turn swords into ploughs and embrace a new world of absolute peace!

“I once told you that such an action was like pulling up seedlings to help them grow. Hehe. Maybe I am indeed too hasty. But in some cases, evolution is not linear but requires a leap. Just like when hideous caterpillars turn into beautiful butterflies, it needs a moment of sublimation!

“Open your arms and embrace the new world because you can do nothing other than that!”

With ear-splitting laughter that did not sound like Professor Mo Xuan at all, the whole world collapsed all of a sudden. Darkness and fire replaced each other and brought Li Yao to…

…

In the command center of the Defense Counsel of the Star Glory Federation in the Star Glory Federation, more and more parliamentary, military, and major sect leaders had been summoned to the place by Wan Guqing, the Speaker of the Federation. A lot of independent experts had arrived, too, to listen to the commands of the Defense Counsel together.

When those leaders and experts stepped into the command center, the very first sound they heard was the ever-ringing alarms.

“Such—such powerful gravitational waves!”

“Countless massive objects are breaking the barrier of the three-dimensional space and creating an enormous, temporary wormhole. They are about to show up in the Heaven’s Origin Sector!

“By—by preliminary estimation, the objects passing through the wormhole weigh more than two hundred million tons. What a huge mass. It must be the Black Wind Fleet’s second attack group!

“Based on the intelligence of the captives and the deduction of our experts, after the second batch of starships jump over, more than half of the combat units of the Black Wind Fleet will have been gathered in the Heaven’s Origin Sector!

“What about the No. 1 space gate? Have we still not reclaimed it? Damn it!”

The urgent military news made the leadership of the federation either worried, furious, or grit their teeth. The air in the command center was so intense that it seemed as if it would explode at any point.

Wan Guqing, the Speaker of the Federation, was as calm as ever, however. He seemed not concerned by the agitating battle at all.

But when he noticed that the time on the light beam had reached a certain number, he slightly turned his head and looked at the gate of the command center.

DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM!

Heavy footsteps of crystal suits stomping on the ground echoed from outside of the gate. A team of elite, fully-armed Exos, wearing the cloud-and-moon emblem of the Secret Sword Bureau, suddenly barged in. Gawked at by the astonished leadership of the federation, they were regrouped into four squads. While one squad stayed on alert, the other three squads walked to three leaders in the room. Before their targets realized what was going on, they had already captured the targets like wolves and tigers.

“Excuse me, Representative Li, Leader Ouyang, and Deputy Advisor Zhao, you can save the expressions of disbelief. You are now under arrest for treason and espionage!”

Guo Chunfeng, the director of the Secret Sword Bureau, the guardian god of the dark frontline of the federation, known as the almighty super Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, slowly walked into the command center.