Forty millenniums of cul.., p.981
Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 981
"Only the individuals who are above a certain level—say, the top experts in the Nascent Soul Stage and the Divinity Transformation Stage, who have sufficient spiritual energy stored inside their body—can expect to survive the transformation. They are the primary hunting targets of the 'activation beasts'!"
"Fair enough!" Li Yao snapped his fingers in his heart. "Only the Cultivators who are strong enough are qualified to be transformed into members of the Pangu Clan. If that's the case, everything is explainable. Do you agree with my speculation?"
"Yes, of course," the mental devil said with a smile. "The succession and possession of civilizations are the most common things in the universe in the first place. Just like the Blood Stripe Virus tried to possess a different civilization, it's only natural that the Pangu civilization would try everything that they could to continue their civilization when they were dying.
"The life and death of individuals are meaningless. What the Pangu civilization pursued was not the reincarnation of a certain individual of the Pangu Clan but the rebirth of a whole civilization!
"If the transformation was completed, Wu Suiyun would still have been Wu Suiyun, and Meng Chixin would still have been Meng Chixin. However, they no longer belonged to human beings but the Pangu Clan. Naturally, they would shoulder the destiny to revive the Pangu civilization!
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. What a remarkable plan. It is much simpler, more efficient, and more delicate than the Blood Stripe Virus, which lurked on meteoroids like idiots and aimlessly drifted in the universe!"
The mental devil chuckled, as if it had found amusement in other people's misfortune. "If your speculation is true, the civilization of mankind is in an awkward situation right now!
"Let me tell you a story…
"Once upon a time, there was an invincible, wealthy general who lived in a splendid castle with his beautiful wife and concubines.
"Inside the castle were mountains of gold, pools of wine, the sharpest weapons, and the solidest armor!
"In a corner of the castle, there was a slave who did the most filthy, exhausting, and menial work in the castle. He was no better than the cows and horses raised in the castle.
"One day, the general was wanted for a certain mission, and he temporarily promoted the slave to be a 'doorkeeper', entrusting the whole castle to the slave. Then, he threw all his belongings and women into the castle and left, never to be seen again.
"Just like that, hundreds and thousands of years passed, but the real master of the castle never returned.
"Perhaps, the first generation after the slave remembered their identity as a 'doorkeeper'. They fulfilled their responsibility dutifully and did not dare do anything that was unexpected of them.
"However, the offspring of the slave gradually forgot that they were the 'doorkeeper'. They enjoyed the gold, the wine, the weapons, and the women in the castle at ease and considered themselves to be the master of the castle!
"Hehe. If the master of the castle never returns, this might be a happy ending for everybody.
"But what if the master comes back?
"Human beings have considered themselves the strongest fighting species in the universe and the only dominator in the three thousand Sectors since they raised their heads and found their ambition in the sea of stars for the first time.
"But are we the masters of the universe or just humble doorkeepers?
"Right now, the familiar footsteps of the master in the past are echoing outside of the castle and drawing closer and closer. What are we going to do?"
Chapter 1511: World-Blighting Crisis |
Li Yao was at a loss after hearing the mental devil's words for a moment.
But the next moment, he frowned and sniffed. "Cut the cr*p! You're messing with my mind again! Even if what you said is true, the original master of the castle never left voluntarily. He was expelled in humiliation after the uprising of the slaves in the castle!
"In any case, the universe is in the hands of human beings right now. Our ancestors once fought side by side with the Nuwa Clan and claimed the universe with their fists, blades, and blood. If the Pangu civilization is planning a comeback, they'd better be prepared to pay ten times more fists, blades, and blood!
"Hehe. Since we suppressed the Pangu Clan during the God-Sealing War, we can do so again right now and even annihilate them for good!
"It is perfectly realistic if you look at Wu Suiyun and Meng Chixin's personal experiences. However thorough and clandestine that succession plans of the Pangu Clan were, they were not guaranteed to be successful. They failed to control two ancient Cultivators, not to mention the brand-new human beings that are armed by the modern Cultivation civilization outside!"
Li Yao was full of admiration and appreciation for Wu Suiyun and Meng Chixin, the two seniors in the Divinity Transformation Stage.
It had nothing to do with their nationality, identity, affiliation, era, or morals.
He was simply deeply moved by the valor and the sense of sacrifice that somebody of his species could demonstrate!
In order to correct their mistake and prevent the devils of the primeval era from savaging the human world again, the two Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators had made the same decision simultaneously and killed each other in such a desolate land with absolutely no eyewitnesses!
Li Yao found it hard to imagine their mental state at that time. He wondered what he would have done if he were in the shoes of Wu Suiyun and Meng Chixin.
However greatly the two 'ancient Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators' differed from the modern Cultivators in terms of ideology, they lived up to their name as 'Cultivator' and were certainly nothing like the selfish members of the six major sects.
Li Yao also thought about whether or not their words were made up and were in fact a new trap. For example, they could have already been controlled by the Pangu civilization, and they might be luring everybody to their bodies on purpose.
However, on second thought, such a possibility was little to none because if they were indeed controlled by the Pangu civilization, it would have been unnecessary for them to tell everybody so much inside information.
They were obviously capable of maneuvering the Colossus. As long as they moved the black-skeleton-like Colossus to this place and broke the barriers by brute force, connecting the 'assault fang' of the Nuwa warship to the underground laboratory again, a lot of 'activate beasts' would certainly be released.
When two Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators were interfering nearby, a lot of the ignorant Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators would have been attacked by the 'activation beasts' and transformed into new members of the Pangu Clan!
It was the most simple, straightforward, and secure plan. Li Yao had simulated it many times in his head. The odds of success were almost one hundred percent.
What they were doing right now seemed redundant if they had ill intentions.
Therefore, Li Yao chose to believe them.
But then, there were new questions.
What choices would the two super experts in the Divinity Transformation Stage make after partly learning the truth about the universe and the threat that their home was faced with?
"Senior Wu, Senior Meng, in the hundred years that followed, have you always been waiting on this warship?" Li Yao asked respectfully.
"Yes. We did not really have an option other than staying here," Wu Suiyun explained. "When Meng Chixin and I attacked each other, we both felt that our souls were being corrupted by the mysterious force and undergoing very dangerous mutations. Therefore, we attacked as fiercely as we could without any reserve and nearly obliterated each other's soul!
"After we were killed by each other, only the broken pieces of our souls were still drifting in the warship. There was absolutely no self-awareness.
"If it were in the outside world, such feeble soul remnants would've been vaporized into nothingness under the scorching sun, and we would have gone for good.
"However, the shell of the deities' warship is particularly solid, and stable and comfortable gas fills the cabins. This place is almost like an artificial paradise where all the inference of the outside world can be resisted.
"A lot of crystals that were not dry yet could be found next to the various warehouses and corpses. For the soul, they were like inexhaustible food.
"Our remaining souls drifted for almost twenty years inside the warship and sucked the spiritual energy contained in the crystals, nurturing and recovering ourselves. Finally, we condensed our consciousness again and regained our memories of the past.
"However, we were still extremely vulnerable at that time. We were not even as good as the general ghosts, much less reproducing our Cultivation in the Divinity Transformation Stage.
"Outside of the warship was a snowy world in the Land of Eternal Land, which was frequented by the most violent tempests and blizzards. With the strength of our souls, we would have been ripped apart by the tempests and frozen by the snow after we took our first step beyond the warship!
"Therefore, Meng Chixin's soul and mine were confined to the deities' warship completely!"
Meng Chixin grinned and said, "Moreover, after discovering the deities' warship and the shocking secret in the underground palace, and since this place was a paradise for nurturing souls and there were so many primeval treasures and corpses worth studying, we couldn't bear to leave even if somebody asked us to!"
All the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators nodded. They understood the two Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators very well.
For the two unique Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators in the Ancient Sages Sector, they could get power, position, wealth, and all the other mundane things without any trouble. Chances were that they could not have felt more bored when it came to such things.
The deities' warship, the devils' underground palace, the primeval treasures, the prehistoric war between the deities and the devils… Only such things that concerned the 'origins' and the 'future' of the entire world were enough to attract the two Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators and make them explore and research willingly!
"Although Wu Suiyun and I belonged to different sides, and we even had a life-and-death battle for the fate of the Great Qian Dynasty and the Dark Cloud Prairies, we both realized that the Ancient Sages Sector was probably faced with unimaginable and barely resistible threads after we discovered the weird 'graveyard' in the underground palace and were transformed into terrible monsters. An out-and-out 'world-blighting crisis' was descending upon us!
"Compared with the world-blighting crisis, the fate of the Great Qian Dynasty and the Dark Cloud Prairies was insignificant and even hilarious!
"Only if we abandoned our grudges and cooperated with each other could we seize the slim chance to help the world that we live in survive the crisis!
"Therefore, in the decades that followed, we stayed in the deities' warship to recover our souls with the crystals while we studied everything there.
"There are quite a few advantages to being ghosts without real entities. Other than the few crucial cabins locked by special barriers, we could enter the rest of the cabins without any obstacle, and we could study everything inside however we wanted!
"After our research, we discovered an extremely shocking truth, which is about the existence of the 'deities' realm' that we mentioned just now!"
After saying that, Meng Chixin paused for a moment. He glanced at the many Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators who were pretending to be calm but in fact sweating hard. Then, he smiled and said, "It is not precise to call it the 'deities' realm'. In fact, there is an infinite sea of stars and countless worlds beyond the Ancient Sages Sector!
"Since we are talking about the sea of stars, do you know what the real 'stars' are?
"No. Not the glittering remnants around the Ancient Sages Sector. Those things can only be called cosmic dust in the boundless universe at best. How can they be qualified as stars?
"The real stars are enormous fireballs that emanate infinite light and heat, similar to the sun!
"Imagine it. In the sky above our heads, in places far, far away, billions of suns are hanging there, and next to every sun is a world that is similar to the size of the Ancient Sages Sector and possibly much more developed than ours!"
"Ah!"
All the super Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators were deeply awed by Meng Chixin's words except for Li Yao.
It was almost like some fish living in a small pond had suddenly discovered that outside its pond was an island and outside the island was a boundless ocean!
Billions of suns and billions of worlds!
Even the super experts such as Qi Zhongdao and Han Baling, due to the limitation of their experience and the environment that they had grown up in, found it difficult to imagine what those worlds looked like exactly!
Infinite emptiness, horror, and solitude immediately inundated every Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator's heart like black tides.
When human beings first discovered the vastness of the universe and that the world in which they lived was not the center of the universe but an insignificant speck of dust at the edge of the universe, they would also be mired in the abyss of fear and panic after they realized their unimportance and meaninglessness!
All the Cultivators in the worlds beyond had experienced the same drastic changes to their mindset a long time ago before they finally evolved from a planetary people to a universal people!
The locals of the Ancient Sages Sector were slowly catching up after such a long, long time.
Meng Chixin and Wu Suiyun observed the ten Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators' faces without saying anything.
Their eyes stayed on Li Yao's face for the longest time, as if they had noticed that the shock that Li Yao managed to feign was different from the other people's genuine shock.
The two of them looked at each other. There was something profound and thoughtful glittering inside their translucent eyes.
"If you think about it carefully, you will understand that it is a matter of course," Meng Chixin said unhurriedly. "How powerful must the primeval creatures have been in their age? Was it possible for them to be trapped in a tiny Ancient Sages Sector forever?
"All in all, after dozens of years of studying and researching, Wu Suiyun and I finally ascertained that a universe billions of times larger exists beyond the Ancient Sages Sector!
"We may call the infinite sea of stars the deities' realm, but I prefer to call it the 'extraterrestrial domain'!
"Since the deities' realm or the extraterrestrial domain does exist, we naturally have asked ourselves a very critical question. Are there 'deities' or other beings living in the depths of the universe? Do they know about the existence of the Ancient Sages Sector? If they do, what is their attitude toward us?"
Chapter 1512: More Concerns |
Other than Li Yao and Long Yangjun, the other super Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators were all greatly shocked.
Having climbed to such a high level and even the peak of the Nascent Soul Stage, and after all those years when they hung around with the tricky, malicious Cultivators, they all had a profound understanding about the darkness and cruelty of human beings.
Even the benevolent Master Bitter Cicada was not an innocent, wishful hypocrite.
Also, with the things that 'Deity Raincloud' who could have been an outsider had done just now, they were even more concerned and wary of the legendary 'deities'.
If the deities did exist, how did they view the 'mortals' in the Ancient Sages Sector, including the Cultivators?
Friends to cooperate with? Slaves to exploit? Toys to be played with? Food to be devoured? Or maybe… ants that they could casually stomp upon anytime?
The more the super Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators pondered, the more unpredictable they felt their future was. Bloody darkness seemed to be awaiting the Ancient Sages Sector!
Their faces all turned gloomy. Intense worries were popping up in their eyes.
Solemnly, Han Baling said, one word after another, "Although there are a lot of deities in the legends who helped and enlightened the mortals in their compassion.
"Such legends are just ridiculous propaganda to fool the ignorant folks! If the deities do exist, and they boast resources a hundred times more bountiful than ours and abilities far above ours, I don't see any reason why they should be kind to us!
"It is like how the central dynasty that occupies the most fertile land in the world will never show the barbarian tribes from the far-flung area any respect. After all, with just a royal decree, it can get anything that it wants from the barbarian tribes and exploit them however it sees fit. All the treasures, talents, women, and livestock of the barbarian tribes will be delivered to the central dynasty!
"When the barbarian tribes slightly disobey, the emperor's army will attack thunderously and annihilate the whole tribe at the order of the court!
"It's just like how the Great Qian Dynasty annihilated more than three hundred and eighty tribes in the borderland during the first five hundred years after it was established. In the east, west, south, or north, all the tribes were subdued by the emperor's army! It's because the Great Qian Dynasty gradually decayed due to internal conflicts that its control over the borderlands loosened!
"The relation between the deities' realm and the Ancient Sages Sector is probably the relation between a powerful central dynasty and a barbarian tribe. Those 'deities' will certainly not come in goodwill. They will only be here to extort, pillage, and strangle us! We have to remain fully vigilant and fight against the deities with our sabers and swords!"
"I think that Fellow Cultivator Han is being too extreme," Master Bitter Cicada said. "Since the deities' realm is billions of times larger than the Ancient Sages Sector, it is obvious that there should be a myriad of species and forces in many different paradigms. They can't be all ferocious, can they?"
Master Bitter Cicada crossed his hands and suddenly changed the topic. "However, while one should not hurt other people, he should always be prepared to be hurt. We don't know the first thing about the extraterrestrial domain, and we must tread lightly after weighing all the factors before any decision is made."
