Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

The faucet was turned on.

Bai Xingjian buried his entire face in the cold water and rubbed his weaselly, ugly face for five minutes as if he were washing away the shell of camouflage and becoming his real self.

“Hu…”

Taking a deep breath, he smiled at the ugly man in the mirror. He touched the wrinkled military uniform of the federation with his long finger. Without any hesitation, he tore off the military uniform and retrieved a vintage suitcase from his Cosmos Ring. Then, he pressed two iron buttons and took out his idiosyncratic battle robe.

“Universe, I’m back!”

Putting on the battle robe, Bai Xingjian could not have been more excited. He glowed like a sword that had been whetted for a hundred years as he strode toward the bridge.

When he showed up in front of all the crew members with his brand-new appearance, even the most disobedient and bold bandits from the old days gasped hard, finding it hard to believe their eyes.

Bai Xingjian at this moment was wearing a red-and-green silk T-shirt. There were even coconut palms that were moving along with the wind and sea waves below them painted on the silk texture, making the clothing full of a tropical ambience.

The lower half of his body was covered in a pair of red, sloppy beach pants, a red so deep that it was almost purple.

Above his head, there was a grass hat with a broad, golden edge. On his nose was a pair of dark red sunglasses. In his hands, he was holding a cup of mixed juice made of coconuts and mangos, and on the top of the cup, there was even a tiny cocktail umbrella!

The commander of the Big Bai Fleet walked into the bridge in his slippers as if nobody else were around.

“…”

All the young crew members who were less than a hundred years old were dumbfounded as if they had been struck by lightning.

The seasoned space pirates who had travelled through mountains of dead bodies on Spider Den, however, were so excited that they almost could not breathe anymore.

Hundreds of complicated eyes were focused on Bai Xingjian. Bai Xingjian also raised his sunglasses to examine the brothers that he had carefully selected after decades, who were most qualified to roam the sea of stars with him.

Some of those people had served decades in prison before they were released. Their brutality and aggression seemed to have worn off.

Some were the descendants of old space pirates. When Spider Den was taken down, they had only been three to five years old, innocent and ignorant. Except for the blood of the space pirates that flowed in their veins, they had grown up in the age of the New Federation, living a life that had absolutely nothing to do with space pirates.

Until a few days ago, they had seemed no different from other soldiers of the federation army. They were all tiny screws that were devoid of personalities in the enormous war machine. At worst, they might have played some tricks within the tolerance of the military rules.

But right now, they were like wolves that had heard the howl of the alpha wolf, although they had hung around with dogs when they grew up.

The call of the wild made them unable to contain the force deep inside their blood or calm down their hearts that were about to explode. Uncontrollably, they sang the most savage battle hymn together with the alpha wolf!

“Brothers…” Bai Xingjian raised his cup high to his wolf pack. “We or our fathers used to be the most nefarious space pirates on Spider Den. We were shameless scumbags who were loathed and dreaded most. We were the slaves of our own desires and destiny. We were the wretched souls who struggled to survive after being pushed into the bloody slaughterhouse by various kinds of forces!

“However, the most unpardonable ones of us have been properly judged by the law of the federation. We have served decades in the dark prisons on alien planets and dug out minerals as high as mountains to answer for our crimes.

“In the fierce battle yesterday, a lot of our brothers also acted fearlessly and righteously and, to some extent, saved the entire federation!

“Enough. Both legally and morally speaking, all the debts that we owe to the Flying Star Sector in the past and the Star Glory Federation today have been paid back with interest! From this moment on, we can be liberated from the shadow of the past. We are absolutely free. No country can ask us to sacrifice ourselves, no fate will ever restrain us, and no force will ever stop us!”

The old space pirates as well as their children and grandchildren all held their breath and clenched their fists, listening to the roars of the alpha wolf.

“Freedom—that’s the new meaning that we will endow to the name ‘space pirate’!

“The space pirates in the past were just a bunch of worthless garbage who only bullied the weak. Even the ‘Pirate Potentate’ and the ‘Supreme Space Pirate’ were nothing more than the leaders of groups of scumbags.

“But in the new era of the grand universe, a new type of space pirates can certainly be born. That will be us!

“Even the demons, the culprits of the Great Dark Age who were irreconcilable with humans, could change themselves and accept the cheers of the people in public. Why can’t the space pirates pilot the fastest starships in the universe, control the most powerful crystal cannons, drink the most delicious wine, wave the sharpest chainswords and vibration sabers, and be the freest men in the entire sea of stars?

“Look!”

Bai Xingjian’s finger was like a super heavy cannon dozens of meters in diameter when he pointed it at the depths of the stars.

“There lies our path. That is where we will fight to our heart’s content!

“At the center of the cosmos, the Imperium of True Human Beings and the Alliance of the Holy Covenant, two of the greatest superpowers in the history of mankind, are colliding brutally. The place has been on fire for a thousand years, and it is the best natural playground for the space pirates!

“There are countless broken starships waiting for us to collect and upgrade ourselves. There are countless panicked troops that we can deceive and trick. There are thousands of resource planets whose defense arrays are riddled with holes for us to take advantage of. There are even chances to sneak into the most important arsenals of the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance to arm all our brothers to the teeth!

“Do you not want to enjoy the wonderful world at the center of the sea of stars?

“Do you not want to witness the legendary, bizarre alien species?

“Do you not want to see how soul-stirring it will be when ten thousand of the most powerful starships in the entire universe fire their destructive cannons together?

“Do you not want to find the relics of the Supreme Emperor and the Blood God, the unparalleled experts of mankind ten thousand years ago, and retrieve their unrecorded techniques or even remove their armor and see their rotten bodies with your own eyes?

“Do you not want the high and mighty people of the Imperium and the cold and ruthless citizens of the Covenant Alliance to know your name and tremble in fear the moment they hear ‘space pirate’?”

Bai Xingjian’s questions were like tides each higher than the last until they finally consumed the entire sky. The heart of every crew member was smashed hard.

Ravenousness beamed out of their deeply hollowed eyes, and swallowing sounds were coming from their throats, as if they had already torn off a piece of most delicious meat from the Imperium or the Covenant Alliance and were trying to stuff it into their belly.

“Yes, we do!”

“We want it more than anything else!”

“The child’s play at the edge of the cosmos is not fun at all. The space pirates should focus on greater jobs. Even if we must die, we will lay our bodies on the most precious treasures of the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance!”

Never-ending howls echoed in the wolf pack.

“In that case, what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Bai Xingjian grinned. “Stars are the destiny of every man. Look. How brilliant the stars at the center of the cosmos are! Come with me and rob the light of the stars for ourselves. We are the strongest space pirates in the three thousand Sectors!”

Glamourous radiance spread out from the bridge. Under the effect of the Grand Illusionary Land, mysterious ripples revealed themselves.

The cabin wall and the facilities around were all gone. They seemed to be floating directly in space, surrounded by the profound and splendid stars.

The ex-soldiers of the Big Bai Fleet, the second Deep Sky fleet of the federal army, and the new space pirates who had been revived could no longer hold back their ambitions, desires, and pride that had been sealed for a hundred years under the brilliance of the stars. They roared desperately at the top of their voices and bared their claws and teeth in every cabin as if they were lightning.

“Let’s go to the center of the cosmos to have some fun!”

“Let’s loot the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance. Even if we encounter the extraterrestrial devils, we will loot their underpants. We are the most magnificent and the freest space pirates in the whole universe!”

“Stars are our destiny. Even if I must die, I will die on the star that is the brightest!”

“Long live freedom! Long live the space pirates! Long live the commander!”

Like thousands of rivers congregating into an ocean, all the voices gathered into the same echo in the end.

“Long live the commander! Long live the commander! Long live the commander!”

Bai Xingjian pressed his arms hard for a long time with all his strength before he finally managed to hold back the zealous howls of the wolves.

“Brothers, today is the day we are reborn and given a new life. So, it is necessary for us to change the way we address each other.”

He smiled and said, “We no longer belong to the federal army or any other regime in the sea of stars. I am not a ‘commander’ anymore. Of course, I would rather not be called by weak names such as ‘Captain Bai’. You may call me…”

He sipped the iced juice slowly and allowed the long-expected sweetness to circulate in his mouth for a long time before he swallowed it. Then, he finally declared, one word after another, “You may call me… Boss Bai!”

Zhi! Zhi!

On the top of the grass hat that was extraordinarily huge on his head, a tiny door was suddenly opened, and a mouse made of crystals and machinery crawled out. It crouched on Boss Bai’s head and looked at everybody in ignorance.

“Move forward, the Big Bai Pirate Gang.” Boss Bai drank up the iced juice and burped in great satisfaction. He patted his belly and announced, “To where the stars are brightest!”