Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“Swallow you?” Professor Mo Xuan bulged his eyes as if he were greatly insulted. The fire that was burning the village down behind him grew even more furious. He waved his hands and said, “This is our world. If I truly meant you any harm, I would’ve swallowed you with the power of the entire world. Why would I bother to tell you everything frankly in order to win your trust?”

“Hehehe. You really think that I’m so gullible, that you would just walk away if you had the opportunity to swallow me with the least effort?” The mental devil cackled. “You are now setting both the federation and the Black Wind Fleet up with your scheme, controlling the entire Spiritual Nexus, and constructing countless Spiriters’ Realms to corrupt so many experts from the Ancient Sages Sector. You must’ve reached your limits, mustn’t you? Maybe the fierce fight between you and me will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Your entire plan will be disrupted if so. That is perhaps the only reason you are calming me down with your fancy delusion.”

Gritting his teeth, Li Yao struggled to wave his arms and shouted, “You—Whatever scheme you may have, I will not let things go your way!”

“Shut up!” The mental devil grinned hideously. “This is a serious business meeting between extraterrestrial devils. Are you even qualified to interject? Just be a good boy. Wash your neck and wait to be killed, idiot!”

Together with the laughter, more and more blood red thorns grew out of Li Yao’s body, tying up the right half of his body and forcing him to bellow in excruciating pain. He had fallen to one knee, trembling harder and harder.

“Hehe. It doesn’t matter if I have to tell you the truth now. Yes. I’ve been lurking inside the body of this idiot the whole time, partly because I was waiting for the best opportunity to devour his soul when the odds of success were highest and the cost was lowest!”

Rounds of blood stripes blossomed around the mental devil, which waved like dancing snakes, making it even more hideous. It proudly declared, “But on the other hand, this idiot was lucky enough to rise into a high position in the Star Glory Federation. My days were quite comfortable!

“The Blood Stripe Virus is different from the new extraterrestrial devils that consider cyberspace as a carrier such as you. We reside in the bodies of intelligent creatures and feed on their strong emotions, especially the negative ones in wars!

“Hehe. The Star Glory Federation is going to march to the center of the cosmos. Too many great battles will break out. It doesn’t matter whether or not I can devour the soul of this idiot, because I can get everything I want under the identity of ‘Li Yao’!

“Therefore, why should I, an ancient extraterrestrial devil from a traditional field, work with you, a weird, unorthodox cyber extraterrestrial devil? However hard you brag about your plan of cyberization of mankind, it is nothing but a bubble!”

“Cyberspace is the future of mankind. It is most certainly not a bubble!”

Perhaps because ‘it’ was really Professor Mo Xuan, or maybe because the extraterrestrial devils had their beliefs, too, Professor Mo Xuan suddenly raised his voice when the mental devil criticized the Spiritual Nexus as bubble. He shouted desperately, “We are about to usher in a new era of the ‘Internet of Things’. Nothing can stop the trend!”

“Oh?” The mental devil chuckled and narrowed its eyes. “Then, what can an old devil like myself, whose host is still a fleshly body, do in the era of the Internet of Things?”

“Listen to me!” Professor Mo Xuan gradually calmed down, with passionate and earnest brilliance beaming out of his silver eyes. “I have really never lied to you. I have been searching for you all the time—the king of the Blood Stripe Virus of the highest level!

“I believe in the eventual cyberization of mankind, but your concerns are valid, too. In order to prevent more innocent victims from being killed, and to make the new world of absolute peace to come sooner, it is true that I may have rushed into certain things.

“Right now, we haven’t prepared the most advanced super crystal processors for mankind as the containers of their souls. You may have seen the super crystal processors at the bottom of Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital that were 3D printed with biomimetics on a molecular level. They can simulate 99.99% of a human brain, but not only are they extremely costly, there is also a slight difference between them and real brains, which may lead to all kinds of side effects.

“Even if our plan works out, a fleshly body will still be the necessary ‘shell’ for the Spiriters for a long time in the future. At the very least, a brain is definitely needed!

“Therefore, I’ve been studying ways to build up the brain of humans so that they can be better adapted to constant life in the Spiriters’ Realm.

“You also know that the human brains are too fragile right now and not fit to live inside cyberspace for long. The higher the simulation rate and the slower the virtual time, the heavier the burden for the human brains will be. They need to quit after every couple of hours to cool down their brains before they reenter!

“That’s all because the human brain is too primitive. It was designed for collection and hunting in the barbaric world in the first place. Only a hundred thousand years of evolution is far from enough to drive it into the new era of the Internet of Things!

“Besides, there is still the problem of reproduction. It’s true that we haven’t figured out a way for Spiriters to have offspring in the Spiriters’ Realm—real offspring. So, in reality, the brain and the reproductive organs cannot be abandoned but have to be strengthened!

“However, my research hit the bottleneck.

“As you have pointed out, I am merely a specialist in the Spiritual Nexus who is not good at biological and genetic technology. Besides, the construction and maintenance of the Spiriters’ Realm alone already consumed most of my energy. Did I really have the time and vitality to explore a second field of studies?”

“So,” the mental devil said coldly, “you thought of me?”

“Exactly!” Professor Mo Xuan exclaimed. “Five thousand years ago, when your ancestors arrived on Iron Plateau, we were already neighbors. Although we never had the opportunity to meet, we did know about each other’s existence in a certain mysterious way!

“Li Yao informed me of his experience on Iron Plateau later. Besides, the Glorious Sunlight Group came across certain uncanny creatures that were believed to have been infected by the Blood Stripe Virus when the Dark Continent of Iron Plateau was developed on a large scale. Such creatures were studied and determined to be ancient living creatures between bacterium and virus that boasted the function of activating the genes and building up the body!

“When I realized that the brain and the reproductive organ cannot be abandoned, naturally, the first thing that came to mind was you. I plan to develop brand-new brains that are oriented to the era of the Spiritual Nexus with the help of the Blood Stripe Virus!”

“That thing between bacterium and virus was not the real Blood Stripe Virus,” the mental devil explained. “It was an ancient, primitive life from billions of years ago and the first-generation carriers of the Blood Stripe Virus. Or to quote your theory, it was just a ‘shell’. You may consider them to be escape capsules that are prepared for long-distance journeys in the universe!”

Professor Mo Xuan was even more convinced after hearing the explanation. “It makes a lot of sense. I should’ve figured it out earlier. Although those things were capable of infecting and building up living creatures, they did not appear to be half as strong and intelligent as the Blood Stripe Virus that was attached to Yan Xibei in the past!

“It seems that most members of the Blood Stripe Virus are still low-level, primitive life, just like how most of the extraterrestrial devils wandering between the three-dimensional and the four-dimensional universes are nothing more than humble, underdeveloped ‘energy worms’. The high-level extraterrestrial devils that have melded with intelligent life perfectly are few after all!”

The mental devil sniffed. “You are going off topic. How do you expect me to cooperate with you?”

“I want you to modify human brains to make them more powerful and better separated with the soul!” Professor Mo Xuan replied. “You have the naturally-endowed techniques of the Blood Stripe Virus, and you stayed in the Blood Demon Sector that was best known for their biotechnology for a long time.

“After we seize the supreme power of the Star Glory Federation, tremendous resources and the most distinguished talents will be supplied to you. I think that it shouldn’t be a problem to complete the project within a hundred years, right?

“By then, the brains of all human beings will be connected to each other through cables or biochemical nerves, allowing them to spend a long time on the Spiritual Nexus. It will be not just the Internet of Things but the Internet of Brains!

“As for the rest of the body parts, to conserve the precious resources as much as possible, all of them can be abandoned except for the reproductive organs. I will need your help in that regard, too!

“Look. The demands that I proposed are all long-term ones. They are evident enough that I’m not just improvising a trap to fool you but hoping to cooperate with you sincerely!”

The mental devil tilted its head and thought for a moment. Then it remarked, “Wait a moment. Let me conclude your demands. You are hoping that I can develop human beings into the following form. They boast a gigantic head, with a capacity five to seven times larger than right now, so that there will be enough room for cooling and to buffer the blast of overwhelming information for a long time. Their heads may also have certain natural interfaces where multiple types of biochemical nerves and crystal cabins can be plugged. But their limbs and internal organs can be restricted to the minimal size or even be removed once and for all. All they need is a system of rather powerful reproductive organs that allow them to produce normal seeds for their offspring to be born. That’s what you want, right?

“Or to put it in a more vulgar way, the new human being in your mind will be a head with a dick hanging below, correct?”

“Not correct,” Professor Mo Xuan said gravely. “The new human being does not need external genitalia. After all, artificial insemination technology nowadays is quite mature. Sex can be conducted in the Spiriters’ Realm. In the material world, the only thing that is needed will be tiny internal genitalia. This is the most energy-conserving and optimal form. Do you have any questions?”

The mental devil frowned. “My question is, what can I gain from all this?”

“Of course, there will be tremendous benefits,” Professor Mo Xuan said. “The evolution of the new human beings cannot be completed without the help of the Blood Stripe Virus. By then, the Blood Stripe Virus will live inside the super brains of all new human beings and absorb intense emotional fluctuation without doing anything. Isn’t this your greatest dream?”