Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Li Yao was rendered speechless for a moment.

His mind was still half occupied by the picture of the fierce battle in space that he had just seen. When he thought that his wife, his disciples, and his friends were fighting against the most brutal Immortal Cultivators from the Imperium of True Human Beings right now, his head was a complete mess.

He knew that it was just Professor Mo Xuan’s trick to disturb him, but how could he really forget everything?

Professor Mo Xuan continued grinning hideously. “If destroying such a village in a virtual world is unpardonable enough for someone to be called a ‘lunatic’, what do those people deserve to be called who raise wars that involved dozens of Sectors in reality and demolish cities and planets with a population of millions?

“In the virtual world, towns can be rebuilt after destruction, and women and children can be revived after death. As long as you slightly modify a few instructions and roll back the data, all the miserable memories will be wiped out, and all the pain and desperation will be gone!

“But in reality, everybody has only one precious life. When they die, they will be gone forever!

“You said that I am a lunatic and a fiend who is stomping on the most beautiful feelings of mankind. Then, let me ask you, if I don’t do this, is there any other way that can completely push the civilization of mankind away from war and make it embrace eternal peace within the next few hundred years so that no living human being will ever bear the pain that you are bearing right now?”

Professor Mo Xuan’s every word was like a meteor that contained immense mental power. They were bombarding Li Yao’s soul brutally.

Li Yao felt that the picture before his eyes was blurred and that his soul was being melted quickly. Greatly alarmed, he knew that it was the most direct collision of mind, will, and ideology. It was the out-and-out competition of beliefs!

At a moment like this, the most important thing was to firm his belief. If he failed the competition, there would be cracks on his soul, and the enemy’s theories would find their way into his soul through the weakness, until he was completely convinced and turned into the enemy’s puppet!

In terms of mental power, Li Yao and Professor Mo Xuan were both extraordinary. They were both enhanced by the extraterrestrial devils of different natures, too. One might say that they were on par with each other.

It was true that Professor Mo Xuan was enhanced by hundreds of super crystal processors, but he was running much more tasks simultaneously right now than Li Yao. Therefore, their mental power, computational ability, and soul power were very similar at this moment.

Thus, all that mattered was whose belief was more correct and immaculate!

“Nobody likes war.”

Li Yao forced himself to calm down and shift his attention from the bleeding stars and the burning village. He bellowed, “I wish that there were no wars and slavery in the universe, too, and everybody could live happily ever after. That is also the goal that I have always been fighting for!

“Maybe… we do share the same destination, but you cannot avoid wars by transforming the entire civilization of mankind into nothingness! Is this any different from curing a terminally ill patient by killing them and extracting their soul?

“Yes. The resources in the universe are finite, but the desires of human beings are infinite. When finite resources come across infinite desires, wars are bound to break out and bring pain and destruction. It was so ten thousand years ago, it is so right now, and maybe it will still be so in ten thousand years. Nobody can expect to completely stop it.

“However, it is exactly because of the forever irreconcilable contradiction between ‘finite’ and ‘infinite’ that mankind’s never-ending curiosity, sense of enterprise, and ambition to march into deep parts of the universe have formed. That is how our splendid, soul-stirring history was created and how our civilization has developed to what it is today, too!

“Discontent. Ever since our ancestors broke the shackles of the Pangu Civilization and the boundary of the Three Fundamental Laws hundreds of thousands of years ago, our civilization has always been greedy, ravenous, and never understood what satisfaction is! We marched up tall mountains, we marched across vast oceans, we marched to distant planets, we marched to the three thousand Sectors, and we marched to the boundless universe beyond the three thousand Sectors. Given enough time, we will push forward to the border of the universe, shatter the border, and then continue marching beyond the universe! Perhaps our dream to satisfy our infinite desires with finite resources will never be realized, but doesn’t the whole significance of the civilization of mankind lie in the pursuit of the great dream?

“And you, what have you been doing?

“On the surface, you are creating a perfect, absolute, and wonderful new world, but in fact, you are confining the future of humanity with an illusionary cage! You are suffocating mankind’s creativity, imagination, curiosity, ambition, valor, and all the other most beautiful things!”

“Nonsense!” Professor Mo Xuan opened his arms. Colorful flowers were suddenly blossoming around the furiously burning village. There were even butterflies dancing among the flowers, which was a vivid and yet devastating contrast to the village that was struggling on the brink of destruction. He declared, “Look. We can create any most beautiful thing freely!”

“When there is no darkness, there is no brightness. If you wipe out pain and ugliness by force, the so-called happiness and beauty will be utterly meaningless,” Li Yao declared resolutely. “The contradiction between finite resources and infinite desires is the only engine of advancement for mankind. It is also the reason our civilization is so brilliant and splendid. If your new world does not have any contradictions, it will never make any progress but will stay as a pool of backwater forever!

“I will never allow you to transform the civilization of mankind into a seemingly delicate aquarium!”

“That is just your opinion. That is just the opinion of the big shots and the great heroes!” Professor Mo Xuan suddenly burst into fury. “Ambitions to march to the border of the universe? Curiosity and creativity to explore infinite possibilities? ‘Wars are unavoidable’? Li Yao, you are of course qualified to speak such jibber-jabber. After all, you are an unparalleled expert who dominates the sea of stars. Even if you die, your death will be splendid enough to stun the entire universe!

“But what about the ordinary people who cannot control their fate? What about those people who are being savaged by war right now? Do they have to sacrifice their precious lives just for the unsubstantial term ‘civilization of mankind’?

“Your life in reality is already brilliant enough. You are essentially a walking legend. Which ordinary person can live like you?

“Maybe most of the ordinary people do not give a damn about your so-called creativity, curiosity, and ambitions to march out of the universe. They only want to live peaceful, carefree lives. What’s bad about being fish in the aquarium? At the very least, they wouldn’t need to worry about brutal predators and turbulent currents in the ocean!

“Do not gauge the ordinary people with your standard. 99% of people can never be like you!”

“Shut up!” In his fury, Li Yao was shouting in a louder and louder voice. “It is you who are defining the ordinary people with your standard and claiming that it is for their good!

“Don’t underestimate ordinary people, professor! Even if they are not as strong as Cultivators, everybody can have the same courage and hope for the future! Even if they are ordinary people today, they may become a dominating big shot and great hero tomorrow by striving through hard work. Even if they remain ordinary people for their entire life, their offspring will be stronger generation after generation! This is hope, the most precious hope for mankind!

“Your virtual world, on the other hand, has completely exterminated such hope! Once they are lost in the Spiriters’ Realm, their dreams of fame and fortune and their emotional needs can be satisfied instantly, and all their goals will be achieved within a moment. No more epics, no more heroes, no more anything! What is the hope in such a life? What is worth fighting for? What’s the meaning in living?

“Henceforth, our progeny will forever be parasites trapped in silicon chips and the Spiritual Nexus, fed by illusionary, digital drugs every day and doing nothing at all, until the silicon chips and the super crystal processors that support such an illusionary civilization one day cannot last any longer and collapse abruptly. Everything will be obliterated into nothingness at that moment. Is that the ultimate form of the civilization of mankind in your vision, professor?”

Professor Mo Xuan seemed to have been convinced by Li Yao. He stared at his opponent and did not say anything for a long time.

Li Yao’s soul glowed brilliantly, as if the entire world was under his control. Confident of his victory, he went on. “You’ve got nothing to say for yourself anymore, professor, do you?”

Pa! Pa! Pa!

Professor Mo Xuan clapped his hands slowly, with a weird smile popping up on his face. “You do have a point. I’m indeed a bit… speechless right now, Li Yao!”

Blinking his eyes and scratching his chin, Li Yao felt that something was not right.

A moment later, cold sweat was pouring from his forehead.

Li Yao stared at Professor Mo Xuan in silence.

Professor Mo Xuan looked back at him quietly, too.

The atmosphere was a bit awkward at the moment.

“Hey, that was highly immoral of you to play such a dirty trick when we were having such a passionate debate of beliefs.”

“Hehe. So, you admit that you are Li Yao?”

“Well, what if I say that Master Spiritual Vulture’s original name is Li Yao? It is a rather common name. It’s perfectly normal for two people to have the same name, isn’t it?”

Professor Mo Xuan was utterly unmoved. “Hehe. The dark nebula, the Ancient Sages Sector, and the eerie Master Spiritual Vulture. I should’ve guessed that it was you. Besides, who else but Vulture Li Yao would speak such nonsense that sounds blood-boiling but is in fact only high-school level despite the immense capabilities he has?”

“Fine. Well played. It’s sordid enough. I can finally confirm that you are definitely not Professor Mo Xuan. The real professor is not half as sleazy as you. What—what are you exactly?”

“What am I?” Professor Mo Xuan, or rather the being that was pretending to be Professor Mo Xuan, put on a weird smile. Cracks were appearing on his face, and overwhelming flames were blossoming from the cracks. He asked in return, “If you are Li Yao, do you not understand my life form? We are clearly the same kind!”