Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“It’s impossible!”

A Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator who was adept at theories of spiritual energy could not hold himself any longer and rose up. “Fellow Cultivator Li, spiritual energy is the most magnificent force in the universe. What can you empower yourself with if not spiritual energy? How can ordinary people train themselves? How can they boast destructive force without training?”

“With oil, coal, gunpowder, electromagnetic energy, and nuclear energy!” Li Yao replied solemnly. “Of course, when the interference is too severe, it is hard to say whether or not electromagnetic energy and the nuclear energy are applicable, but the former three are guaranteed to be usable!”

“Oil, coal, and gunpowder?” The theorist of spiritual energy was dazed for a moment before he observed with a weird expression, “That is the most barren source of energy. The energy contained in oil is less than one hundredth of that contained in a crystal of the same volume. What can it do?”

In the world of Cultivators, a lot of planets boast tremendous reserves of oil and coal, too.

In the studies of spiritual energy, regarding the cause of spiritual energy, oil, and coal, there was a hypothesis named ‘Corpse of the Ancient Civilization’.

According to the hypothesis, before the civilization of mankind was born, in the billions of years of development of the universe, countless ancient civilizations were born. However, no matter how prosperous the civilizations once were, they could not avoid the law of nature and declined and perished without exception.

Although the civilizations were gone, the dead bodies of the ancient species would not simply vanish into thin air.

After the civilization fell and the bodies were disintegrated, the immense souls of the ancient civilization would ascend to the universe, which were transformed into spiritual energy after billions of years of cosmic storms and stellar radiation.

The dead bodies without the souls, on the other hand, were buried deep underground, where they were tempered under high temperature and pressure. The essence of the bodies was turned into the mother lodes of crystals, while the unimportant parts were turned into coal and oil.

Doubtlessly, in the world of Cultivators, the soul was much more important than the body. Therefore, spiritual energy, which was believed to be transformed from the souls of the ancient species, was much stronger than coal and oil, which were transformed from the bodies of the ancient species!

The simplest example would be Li Yao. If Li Yao, as a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, passed away and was buried to the underground, after billions of years of reactions, his brain, spine, and the expansion on his coccyx would be very likely to be condensed into mother lodes of crystals, while his hands might turn into the oil, and his hair might turn into the coal.

Naturally, the spiritual energy stored inside the brain and spine was hundreds of times more than that stored in the hands and feet!

It was exactly because the universe was brimming of spiritual energy that the civilization of mankind embarked on the path of utilizing spiritual energy since it was born. They had never considered developing oil and coal on a large scale.

Some Cultivators in the past had been curious about the black liquid and solid and intended to develop the energy stored in them.

However, after they tried, they discovered that, not only did oil and coal boast little energy, there would also be heavy pollution when such energy was developed, which would affect the balance of natural spiritual energy. More importantly, oil and coal could not be directly absorbed by the human body during training!

Such a source of energy was both wasteful and harmful. What could it do?

Therefore, in the era of ancient Cultivators forty thousand years ago, in the Star Ocean Imperium ten thousand years ago, and in the Star Glory Federation at present day, coal and oil had always been despised. Nobody conducted any significant research on them.

But Li Yao was different.

In the bizarre dreams that he had experienced since he was little, on the planet named Earth, oil and coal alone, without any drop of spiritual energy, had supported a magnificent civilization that could just about step out of the planet and explore the universe!

Therefore, Li Yao was very clear about the amazing potential that could be exploited from the seemingly barren ingredients that were oil and coal!

Whispers were echoing in the auditorium again. Most of the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, including Professor Mo Xuan, supported theorist’s opinion and doubted Li Yao’s idea.

It was not about their wisdom or computational ability but just a matter of eyesight. For a jellyfish living in the deep sea, it would not be able to fathom what a ferocious animal on the land looked like however strong and smart it was!

“I know that the new strength system is in conflict with what you believed in and will not be accepted easily,” Li Yao said confidently. “Therefore, over the past few months, I have summoned all my computational ability and deduction ability without resting, even at the cost of burning my life and soul. Finally, I have completed the inferred development of the world without spiritual energy. Please take a look, everybody!”

On the 3D light beam behind Li Yao, a blue planet surrounded by ocean appeared.

The picture zoomed in until it was shown that a bunch of primitive monkeys were approaching a burning tree that had been hit by lightning carefully at the edge of a forest on a continent.

The monkeys waved the burning branches and honed the stone axes and spears. Their hair gradually faded, and their backs straightened. Then, the bronzeware and ironware were refined. Wagons and cavalry were invented. In magnificent armor, they established tribes and countries. They explored and conquered their surroundings. They discovered the mysteries of coal and oil. They founded a smoky and yet splendid industrial system, and in the end, thousands of supersonic fighters and unparalleled fleets that dominated the ocean were produced.

The history of development of almost a hundred thousand years was displayed in front of the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators in only several minutes.

In the meantime, the data and information stream flooded into their crystal processors, too.

“Even without spiritual energy,” Li Yao said, “ordinary people can still explore the mysteries of the universe, summarize the general rules, and figure out the most fundamental laws of nature!

“I considered myself to be an ordinary person who lived thousands of years in a world without spiritual energy while I tried to explore how the world was functioning. Eventually, I founded many disciplines!

“Among them, the subject about the ultimate mechanism of all objects, including the pattern of their motion and their basic structure, is called physics!

“The subject that studies the relationship between different objects and how they can react with each other is called chemistry!

“Based with physics, chemistry, and mathematics, I was able to push forward unstoppably and pursue electrics, engineering, optics, the material science, and all the other subjects. When the essence of all the subjects is combined, the original force contained in everything will be made best use of without spiritual energy. All kinds of terrifying war machines can be created!”

Behind Li Yao, the light and shadow were changing. A heavy vehicle, made of metal and thickly armored, which looked similar to a crystal tank, appeared.

“I have named such a weapon ‘panzer’. It requires absolutely no spiritual energy, but it can still move as aggressively as fire and roar as loudly as thunder!”

The picture changed, and a second weapon that was similar to crystal cannon popped up.

“Such artillery is purely driven by gunpowder. It is much simpler than the crystal cannon in structure. Although it is not nearly as strong as a crystal cannon, once thousands of them are produced, it will still be more than enough to cover hundreds of kilometers in a bombardment. They can still smash the Immortal Cultivators into smithereens!”

The picture changed again. The third weapon turned out be an iron bird in lead gray. It was streamlined and did not have a single gap on the surface. A raging dragon was also carved on the empennage!

“Such supersonic stealth fighters can travel three times faster than the speed of sound while accommodating the pilot. They are also able to fly at the top of the atmosphere, an altitude where the temperature is low and the oxygen is little. Also, such vehicles are piloted by ordinary people! Let me repeat myself. Ordinary people without spiritual energy who have never practiced any techniques!

“I have drawn the basic structures of the three weapons. Fellow Cultivators, especially those of you who are masters of refining, please take a look at them, and see if the weapons are manufacturable theoretically.

“They are just the few relatively fundamental war machines. Other than them, there are also super weapons such as strategic missiles, nuclear submarines, nuclear supercarriers, and so on, which do not require spiritual energy at all and can be manipulated by ordinary people. Yet, such weapons boast the ability of wiping out an entire city easily! Although they were just in my imagination, I do feel that none of them are really imaginary, and all of them can be produced in a reality. Please do enlighten me with your suggestions. Do you see any issues?”

Files as vast as an ocean flooded into all the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators’ crystal processors crazily. They all felt that the world was swirling before them!

To be honest, the ‘history of develop of the world without spiritual energy’ that Li Yao presented was not complicated. Neither the physics nor the chemistry involved was more sophisticated than the high-school level on Earth. He was basically copying what was said in the textbooks.

As for the panzers, artilleries, and supersonic fighters, he was just talking about the general idea and could not touch the essence.

After all, even in the bizarre dreams, he was just an ordinary person on the Earth, not a physicist or a chemist. As for the nuclear bombs or the nuclear physics, he did not know the first thing about them!

Therefore, all he could do was try to recall more details on the Earth with his amazing memory and relay the content in the textbooks and the military magazines that he had read before.

For example, he had once seen the model of the engine of a certain supersonic fighter on a military magazine before in his dream, and he could copy the picture into his theory right now.

As for material science, kinetics, and other subjects, some of them were not his specialties. So, he could only avoid talking about them.

Even so, the whole new strength system was a devastating shock for all the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and demon emperors.

Many Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators had been suspicious, if not scornful, at the beginning. They had merely been skimming through it because they were showing respect for the Ultra-Level Federal Hero.

However, after they glanced at the files for a moment, their eyeballs seemed to be attracted by magnets and could not be moved away!

They discovered that the history of development that Li Yao inferred, despite the simplicity and even childishness in certain aspects, was natural and flawless in the description of the basic principles and the big picture!