Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

”You claim that you are creating the brightest future, but isn’t the future of Iron Plateau made of every Iron Plateau native’s future?”

Xiong Wuji crossed his hands. Two thick-backed, broad-edged sabers appeared in his hands. The auras of his blades extended out into a burning crosshair. He said, ”When a war between Iron Plateau natives and space residents breaks out, with the Immortal Cultivators stirring trouble, even if the experts can be melded with the Blood Stripe Virus, what are the ordinary people going to do? From Iron Plateau to the space, billions of ordinary people will die! They do not even have a ’present’, and you are talking about ’future’! What kind of bullsh*t future is that?”

Yan Xibei burst into laughter. His six insect limbs moved forward like paddles as he accelerated. The spreading bloody brightness around him condensed into two sharp claws again, which snatched at Xiong Wuji from both sides!

BOOM!

Their spiritual gas collided heavily. As if a crystal bomb weighing a hundred thousand tons had been detonated, quite a few True Qi tanks nearby were knocked into the air and smashed the ground, turning into wasted iron and copper.

All the qi-trainers and Cultivators found it hard to keep their eyes open against the blast. The sweeping dust blocked everything. They could only hear Yan Xibei scream in the center of the sandstorm, ”For the succession of our civilization, some people must be sacrificed. Too many of our ancestors have sacrificed themselves while we struggled to survive in the desolate planet for thousands of years. What’s wrong with sacrificing more right now? All the deaths will be worthwhile as long as our civilization proceeds!”

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Two True Qi trains seemed to be crashing continuously inside the sandstorm, or maybe they were two hungry tyrannosaurs that were mauling each other. Not only was the earth shaking, even the stars in the sky seemed to be unable to withstand the summit confrontation of the two best warriors of Iron Plateau. The rays from the sky were feeble and shivering!

Xiong Wuji roared, ”Didn’t our ancestors choose to stay on Iron Plateau in order to protect our home and the ordinary people living on it? Our ancestors worked hard for five thousand years so that the wasteland could finally be revived. But right now, you are going to set it in war flames again and kill so many ordinary people! A civilization that passes on in such a way is definitely not the civilization that our ancestors wanted. Definitely not!

”There are clearly many other ways to solve the problem of being possessed by an alien civilization! We can cooperate with the space residents! All the human beings can work together and crack the mysteries of the Blood Stripe Virus!

”You’ve been bewildered, Yan Xibei! No. You are not Yan Xibei at all!

”The Yan Xibei I knew was willing to fight for every Iron Plateau native, no matter whether they were strong or weak, qi-trainers or ordinary people, old or young, and from the Burning Sun Tribe or the Furious Bears Tribe. When they were in danger, the real Yan Xibei would show up and fight for them at any cost!

”If sacrifices were unavoidable, he would only sacrifice himself! He would definitely not let someone else die and shamelessly call that ’sacrifice’!

”Yan Xibei is dead. You are only the Blood Stripe Virus, the Blood Demon, taking his body as your shell!

”When your plan succeeds, the Iron Plateau natives and the space residents will all be destroyed and turned into a species entirely different from human beings! That is your real plan. Your plan of possession!

”I, Xiong Wuji, might not be a real Iron Plateau native, but regardless of whether I am an Iron Plateau native or a space resident, I won’t let things go your way!”

BOOM!

As Xiong Wuji roared, an unparalleled blast spread out crazily and blew away the dust around the two of them. A picture of two statues was revealed!

Xiong Wuji’s dual sabers were pushed against the two mantis forelegs on Yan Xibei’s insect body. Although they were absolutely still, dazzling sparks were bursting out from where the blades kissed each other!

Xiong Wuji’s immense spiritual gas of the 99th level of the Refinement Stage condensed incessantly around him like an unyielding torch that was burning crazily with his life as its fuel!

Yan Xibei’s bloody aura, on the other hand, had turned into two enormous hands and pressed Xiong Wuji’s flames of spiritual gas!

Earsplitting thunders were breaking out where the two streams of spiritual energy clashed!

The two parties seemed to be in an impasse. However, Yan Xibei was smiling and showing no signs of trouble, while Xiong Wuji’s face was red, and the veins on his neck were twice as swollen as before.

BOOM!

Yan Xibei pressed downward. Xiong Wuji finally couldn’t bear it any longer. He grunted, the skin all over his body fracturing with blood jetting out. He fell to one knee.

Centered at him, the earth ten square meters nearby collapsed for half a meter!

”Chief!”

”Chief Xiong!”

Although Xiong Wuji had resigned as the chief of the Furious Bears Tribe in front of all the qi-trainers, many of them forgot to change their way of addressing him in the time of urgency.

Pa!

Yan Xibei’s scorpion tail turned into a streak of blackness and whipped Xiong Wuji hard. Xiong Wuji could not dodge and had to take the blow the hard way, only to be slapped almost fifty meters away and crash into two rocks before he finally fell to the ground. A shocking purple bruise appeared before his chest, and he vomited a mouthful of black blood!

”Did you see that? This is the formidability of the apocalyptic body! The 99th level of the Refinement Stage is but the strength of an ant in front of me!”

Taking a deep breath, Yan Xibei was fascinated by the unprecedently strong body, with joy beaming out of his face. He rubbed his mantis forelegs and crawled toward Xiong Wuji slowly, while he remarked coldly, ”Do you think that everything will be fixed after you finish the Blood Stripe Virus?

”Naïve!

”The human civilization has been too fortunate. Unbelievably fortunate!

”In the hundreds of thousands of years while we evolved from monkeys into human beings and built up a civilization with a territory beyond one planet, we were never once discovered by any strong unknown species. We lived our lives like babies in cradles, safely and happily.

”In our childhood, when we explored the sea of stars, the constellations around us were all inhabited by creatures far weaker than us. We could conquer them, enslave them, and plunder their resources at our will. Finally, we built a powerful nation called the Star Ocean Imperium in our peak!

”However, luck is not going to be on our side forever!

”If the Blood Stripe Virus could discover us, why can’t the deity-like civilizations that I saw in the heritage of the Blood Stripe Virus?

”Or rather, in the depths of the endless cosmos, will there be a super civilization that is stronger than any alien species that the Blood Stripe Virus has seen? Maybe human beings are but ants for them!

”Even if we fixed the problem of the Blood Stripe Virus today, what if a stronger civilization invades us tomorrow?

”What if another apocalypse breaks out, this time, not about passing on knowledge and possessing our civilization but about pure destruction? What are we going to do if a deity-like civilization yawns and stomps on an ant accidentally?

”Just wake up! The carefree childhood is long over. We are surrounded by a perilous sea of stars and a dark forest where countless ferocious animals and birds are lurking. If they so much as sense our existence, they will jump out and swallow us for dinner!

”Be stronger!

”We have no other options except to become stronger. Become stronger through whatever methods at whatever cost!

”Tigers eat men, but men can eat tigers, too. Our only path is to get stronger and stronger and be men who eat tigers and dinosaurs. If deities do exist, we will eat all of them someday!

”Melding with the Blood Stripe Virus and evolving into stronger, more excellent human beings is the first step!

”After that, we will continue evolving. Eliminate the weak and become even stronger! Only by doing so can we expect to compete with the invincible deities and survive in the dark forest for all eternity!”

Standing in front of Xiong Wuji, Yan Xibei looked down at him.

While vomiting blood, Xiong Wuji smiled miserably. ”Eliminate the weak? The deaths of billions of ordinary people are nothing but ’elimination’ for you?”

”I don’t like the Immortal Cultivators, but they’re right about one thing.”

The bloody brightness around Yan Xibei was still condensing. It was even darker and denser, making him look like a devil being born from blood. He said, ”The evolution has long begun. Cultivators, Immortal Cultivators, and qi-trainers are all new human beings who have made a step forward in the path of evolution!

”Stronger, smarter, better human beings are the only hope for mankind. From the perspective of the civilization as a whole, ordinary people who cannot evolve are utterly useless. Their only value is to serve as soil and provide nutrition and resources for us.

”If the conditions allow, I am not a man who hungers for blood.

”But right now, the environment we are faced with is too harsh. The useless ordinary people have already become burdens and nuisances!

”Put down the burdens and cut off the nuisances so that we can march into the battlefield with a light pack. Concentrate all our resources on evolution. That is the only way of survival in the dark forest!

”Hehe. The selfish members of the Temple of Immortals are too scared of death and only pursue their own longevity. They are shameless enough to call themselves ’Immortal Cultivators’.

”Maybe, the new human beings who pursue the immortality of the human civilization with every method possible, such as myself, are the real Immortal Cultivators!

”What I am Cultivating is the real great path of immortality!

”Evolve! Continue evolving! One day in the future, the human civilization will evolve into a celestial civilization, and we will be the strongest hunter in the dark forest!”

Pa!

Wu Mayan dashed to Xiong Wuji’s back without anybody knowing and dragged him back quickly, while he shouted at Yan Xibei, ”Look at yourself. Celestial civilization? I call it a cockroach civilization!”

Yan Xibei was dazed for a moment and smiled without being bothered. ”Celestials or cockroaches, the critical thing is that we are alive.

”Survival is everything. There are endless possibilities as long as we are alive!

”Live. Live on. Live on like insects, swine, tigers, wolves, dragons, snakes, gods, or devils!

”This is my path and the path leading to the immortality of the human civilization. This is the only real path of immortality!”