Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Li Yao did not wake up until the next morning. In his trance, he felt that his cheek was still aching, and even his burps were tasted like condiments. He was intimidated by the feast last night when he thought about it again.

He had not drunk much alcohol, even though the muscular and unconstrained Iron Plateau natives all seemed to be excellent drinkers. It was because everybody was a qi-trainer and could barely got intoxicated. Drinking alcohol was as boring as drinking cold water for them.

Therefore, the way that qi-trainers expressed their hospitality on Iron Plateau was to offer meat instead of wine.

The qi-trainers of Iron Plateau were quite old-school. They considered one’s appetite a good gauge for strength. The more one could eat, the better one would be able to control their body, and the stronger one would be!

Li Yao, as the new best warrior of the six tribes of Iron Plateau, was naturally the primary target that received the most attention during the feast. Not only did the leaders and elders of the other five tribes bring the gluttons of their tribes to toast meat in turn, even many qi-trainers of the Furious Bears Tribe had gone to him with beef steaks and lamb chops, raising a civil war.

Li Yao had never been fond of liveliness, but he felt somewhat embarrassed that the five tribes had given him so many Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures for free.

The trip to Iron Plateau had definitely been worth it. For him, he had looted the warehouse that stored the trophies in the battle of apocalypse. For Sparkle, it had explored Iron Plateau’s underground and found a lot of relics from five thousand years ago in which many remnants of magical equipment were buried.

Right now, the five tribes had even offered their most valuable treasure that they had kept for years to him.

By Li Yao’s preliminary estimation, the resources would be more than enough to establish a small sect.

Although their gratitude to Li Yao for saving their lives was sincere, Li Yao always felt that he was not justified enough to accept all the gifts. With such thoughts, how could he reject their toasts? In the end, he just let go of his self-restraint and started eating!

Li Yao utilized the Art of the Swallowing Whale to the maximum and had the biggest meal of his life. At the beginning, he had still managed to keep counting how many lamb legs he had eaten. But later after he choked the chief of the Giant Axe Tribe, he was somewhat drunk with meat and start eating carefreely.

Li Yao scratched his belly and walked out of his room, only to find that Xiong Wuji and Sha Yulan were waiting for him outside.

Since he did not intend to live long on Iron Plateau, he had been crashing at Xiong Wuji’s house.

Snatching a cup of cold tea on the table and drinking all of it, Li Yao frowned and said, ”Chief Xiong, please don’t tell me that you didn’t know they were giving me such a pillar.”

”Of course, I did, but what could I say?”

Xiong Wuji shrugged and replied matter-of-factly, ”You were the one who revealed the Temple of Immortals’ scheme and killed Yan Xibei in front of everyone. The thousand qi-trainers on site all witnessed Yan Xibei’s toughness in person. Even he was no match for you! Who else deserves to be the best warrior of the six tribes of Iron Plateau if not you?

”Iron Plateau natives never go back on their word and always pay compliments when compliments are due. Your contribution in the whole event cannot be exaggerated. Yesterday, they were only offering a little something as a signal of their gratitude. Could I say no to that?”

Li Yao felt a light headache. He said, ”It sounds reasonable. But I wonder, did you receive such a giant pillar with ’Invincible in Iron Plateau’ on it when you were acknowledged as the best warrior of the six tribes of Iron Plateau?”

”Then and now are different,” Xiong Wuji replied solemnly. ”You know our current situation as clear as I do. We lost a large number of elites in the battle of the apocalypse. Then, because of the trouble that Yan Xibei caused, we suffered even more losses. There is no telling whether or not the Temple of Immortals still has other plans, and the remaining Blood Stripe Virus might still be lurking in the Dark Continent!

”Large-scale communication with the space residents is a two-sided coin, too. Whatever the consequences are, Iron Plateau will definitely be greatly changed!

”Right now, everyone in the six tribes is anxious about their future.

”Naturally, a heroic figure such as yourself must be decorated and promoted to calm everybody down.”

Li Yao was dazed for a long time before he replied, ”Fair enough, Chief Xiong. However, with the giant spotlight over my head, how am I going to get away from here? You are not expecting that I stay and guard Iron Plateau under the title of ’best warrior of the six tribes of Iron Plateau’, are you? That, I can’t do. Besides, my identity issue hasn’t been resolved yet!”

Xiong Wuji looked at Sha Yulan with a smile and said, ”Don’t worry about that. I’ve figured out everything. It’s definitely a perfect solution!”

Sha Yulan projected a light beam from a mini crystal processor and showed Li Yao a proposal.

After the large-scale communications began, Sha Yulan, with her life experience both in space and on Iron Plateau, became an important official in the newly-established ’Association of Interstellar Communication’.

”Right now, the relatively simple trade deals have been settled and are about to be carried out,” Xiong Wuji explained.

”For example, there are many mother lodes on Iron Plateau that we cannot exploit with our current technology, but with the space residents’ help, we will be able to excavate and refine them.

”Also, Iron Plateau is a scarce planet. With enough resources and guards, it is an excellent place to develop agriculture and livestock production. For many space towns that have very limited room, Iron Plateau will be a great manufacturer of diary goods and farm products. In the meantime, the farming will gradually change the terrain of Iron Plateau, and we might flourish again like five thousand years ago.

”In short, the deals regarding resources are easy, but cultural communication is much more difficult.

”The biggest problem at hand is that space residents and Iron Plateau natives don’t know each other.

”Space residents think that Iron Plateau natives are simple-minded barbarians with more brawns than brains, if not wildlings who feast upon blood and raw meat.

”On the other hand, Iron Plateau natives consider space residents all cunning, cowardly, and conceited rats.

”The thousands of years of separation cannot be filled up in only one day. Besides, there’s also the competition of rightfulness between us and the six sects of Heavenly Saints City. Direct talk is not an option.

”Therefore, after a long discussion with the leadership of the two supreme colleges of Heavenly Saints City, we decided to gradually resolve the problem with the academic circle as our starting point.

”More specifically speaking, we are going to introduce a series of inter-planet study programs and visiting scholar programs. We’ll send a hundred young people to study in the two supreme colleges of Heavenly Saints City as a start.

They’ll get to study the advanced techniques of the space residents, and their understanding about the society and culture of the space residents will be deeper. More importantly, they are going to disseminate the culture of Iron Plateau and show the space residents that we are not primitive barbarians and that muscles are not our everything.

”Students of the two supreme colleges will all be pillars in the world of Cultivators in the future. If they have a few classmates from Iron Plateau, the communication between the two parties will be a lot easier later!”

”Wait!” Li Yao suddenly waved his hand, as he thought he knew where the conversation was going to. He asked, ”Chief Xiong, you are not asking me to join the hundred students and be an exchange student, are you? I’m sorry, but I’m definitely not going!”

This had to be a joke. Even ignoring the superlative height of the Building Foundation Stage, which was of his own invention and assuming that he was merely at the peak of the Building Foundation Stage, he was still among the top experts in the world of Cultivators.

The leadership of many sects, the experienced refiners of major crystal suit centers, and the teachers and even professors in many renowned universities were merely in the peak of the Building Foundation Stage.

And now, he was going to start from scratch as a student like a rookie?

Of course, he wouldn’t waste his time in such a way!

”Of course not!” Xiong Wuji immediately replied. ”Right now, you are officially the best warrior of the six tribes of Iron Plateau, and you stand for the top combat ability of Iron Plateau. Asking you to be a student equals to admitting that we are weaker than the space residents. Why would we do that?

”What I was meaning to ask was whether or not you are interested in going to the two supreme colleges of Heavenly Saints City to communicate and doing the research work as a visiting scholar and a representative of Iron Plateau.”

Li Yao was dazed. ”Visiting scholar?”

Xiong Wuji smiled and said, ”Yes. We have come to an agreement with both Flying Star University and Heavenly Saints Institute. In the next five years, we will send at least ten visiting scholars to Heavenly Saints City.

”The visiting scholars are all the well-known experts on Iron Plateau. Naturally, their expertise and their jobs are different from the students’.

”According to our agreement, the visiting scholars can choose designated projects based on their interests and specialties and work with the most talented geniuses in the world of Cultivators.

”They can also teach courses in their special fields.

”Faced with the threat of the Temple of Immortals, the two parties are both genuine about the agreement. We will exchange techniques for techniques. The two supreme colleges will provide the best treatment for our visiting scholars. All the research programs will be open for you. As long as you prove yourself to be capable enough, all the project teams will welcome you, and all the available resources will be at your disposal.”

”Is that so?”

Li Yao was greatly interested. His lips curled up into a smile.

If the two supreme colleges that represented the highest academic level of Cultivators opened all their resources and programs for him, becoming a visiting scholar seemed to be much a better choice than working in the three crystal suit centers.

After all, most of the cutting-edge theories, advanced experiment facilities, and talented geniuses were all gathered in the two supreme colleges.

Even the experts in the three main crystal suit centers were mostly the professors or visiting professors of the two colleges.

”I’ve given it a lot of thought. This is the best choice for both you and Iron Plateau,” Xiong Wuji explained. ”Since the moment you slew Yan Xibei, you have been destined to become the strongest expert on Iron Plateau and the center of admiration. Can you vanish quietly? How will I explain it to all the Iron Plateau natives when they find out that you’re gone?

”The identity of visiting scholar, on the other hand, gives you a perfect excuse to leave Iron Plateau for Heavenly Saints City.

”In a few years, after the chaos on Iron Plateau is settled and new experts emerge in the six tribes, their memory of you will gradually fade.

”At that time, you can live in Heavenly Saints City and choose to not come back to Iron Plateau again as an ambassador of Iron Plateau. It won’t feel strange anymore, will it?

”On the other hand, if you are all by yourself, even though you are the super refiner Li Yao whose both hands can surpass the speed of sound, it’s very possible that you won’t get access to enough resources. You will most likely end up being an ordinary worker in the three main crystal suit centers if you file your applications.

”But everything will be different if you are a representative of Iron Plateau, won’t it?”