Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Long Yunxin coughed and put on a weird expression.

Deep in thought, she thought exactly the same.

“Do you think that Li Yao made the authorities free me early and hire me as the dean of the Sociology Department of the Grand Desolate War Institution with his influence so that I can propagate the Immortal Cultivators’ theories because he is merciful and idiotic?” Su Changfa sneered. “How is it possible!

“Leniency is the power of the strong. The stronger you are, the more lenient you will be. Li Yao was doing that merely because he wanted to accentuate the pettiness and ridiculousness of the ‘truth path of immortality’ with the magnificence and confidence of the Cultivators!

“Once the unjustified opinion enters everyone’s head, it is only natural that the true path of immortality will be despised.

“The Immortal Cultivators do not mind being loathed or feared because fear is itself a power that will make other people bend and believe! However, fear is one thing—disdain is another! If everyone’s attitude toward the true path of immortality is contempt, it will be very difficult to shake your belief!

“This is exactly what Li Yao has been concocting.

“In the ancient battles, if a general of a hostile country was captured, it was often the case that he would not be directly executed but kept alive while being paraded through the streets, showing his most ragged and hilarious appearance to the public. The enemy’s image would be sullied, and their morale would be reduced.

“Beheading him would only make the general a hero. Such living punishment harsher than death was the real way to dissolve the enemy’s source of power!

“At this moment, I am like a general who has been captured alive and is being paraded in shame. You think that this is a privilege? No. This is the cruelest suffering that the scumbag Li Yao has come up with!”

Long Yunxin was quite shocked at Su Changfa’s suddenly profanity. She asked subconsciously, “Are—are you not friends?”

“Friends?” Su Changfa widened his eyes, as if he had heard the greatest joke in the world. “Why would you say that, Miss Long? How can Li Yao and I be friends? In my eyes, this shameless, ruthless fellow who knows no bounds may be the most terrible enemy for the Imperium one day. I only wish I could mince him into pieces and burn him into ash right now!”

“Huh?” Long Yunxin found the behavior of the Nascent Soul Stage experts weirder and weirder. “But—but you were having a nice talk just now, weren’t you?”

“Senior Su wants to kill me, but he is not able to do so,” Li Yao said with a smile. “Although we are both in the Nascent Soul Stage, Senior Su is focused on liberal arts and mental control. Unless he has thousands of spiritual puppets under his control, he will be absolutely no match for me. If I’m determined to kill him, I can finish him with one hand!

“But, as you have heard just now, he is still of much value. What reason do I have to eliminate him?

“He wants to kill me, but he can’t. I can kill him, but I don’t want to. So, now that the two of us are in the same room, what can we do except have a nice talk? Are we going to curse each other like vixens on the street?”

“Do you see how wicked the Ultra-Level Federal Hero is right now?” Su Changfa smiled. “He is not satisfied that I called him a ‘scumbag’ just now and is hinting that I am a ‘vixen’!”

Sweat popping out of her head, Long Yunxin was lost for words, but she was mumbling to herself in her heart. The guys in the Nascent Soul Stage truly think differently from others. You can never guess what’s on their mind!

No wonder they are also called ‘old monsters’ by other people and even accepted such an inelegant nickname willingly.

They are truly a bunch of weirdos whose actions cannot be anticipated through common sense!

Long Yunxin pondered for a moment. Although she had not figured out everything yet, she was no longer as intolerant of or frightened by Su Changfa as before.

“Senior Su, so to speak, you are very clear that Master Li Yao is taking advantage of you and parading you to ruin the image of the ‘true path of immortality’ and the Imperium of True Human Beings, right?” She asked respectfully. “If so, why were you willing to be taken advantage of?

“Although you are an Immortal Cultivator, your spirit and resolution do not give me the feeling that you are someone scared of death. Few of the Immortal Cultivators such as ‘Xiao Xuance’ who raised disasters in the Flying Star Sector were soft. Now that you had seen through Master Li Yao’s ‘viciousness’, why didn’t you kill yourself when you realized that you wouldn’t be rescued?

“At the very least, if you were unwilling to accept the ‘pretentious job’ and develop the game ‘Civilization’, there is absolutely nobody who could force you to.”

“Why would I be unwilling to?” His eyes glittering in the scorching brilliance of a vigorous teenager, he suddenly raised his voice and declared with unwavering confidence, “What I said just now is only the plan that Li Yao concocted, but was it really so simple?

“Most importantly of all, I firmly believe in the correctness of the ‘true path of immortality’. However you vilify, twist, and lambaste it, you will eventually kneel down before the only truth!

“Li Yao wants to turn me into a ‘vaccine’. He wants to establish a department that focuses on the study of the true path of immortality so that you can know your enemy better. He wants to create a game to solve all the problems that can possibly occur when a civilization of Cultivators is functioning. Then, so be it!

“Because I believe that I am not a ‘vaccine’ but a life-saving drug and that whatever the students had in mind before they come to my class, they will eventually realize the correctness, the advanced nature, and the absoluteness of the true path of immortality. There’s no need to mention the game ‘Civilization’. The more you play, the clearer it will be to you that regular methods can only solve the petty, superficial errors but can never cure the natural-born diseases of human beings. If you want to save our civilization from the bottom of it and make it continue burning for ten thousand years, a hundred thousand years, or even longer, the true path of immortality is the only path that you can follow!

“Li Yao thinks that he is taking advantage of me, but who can tell whether or not he is a victim of his own scheme and is actually being taken advantage of?

“In short, this is a competition of beliefs. Detour or retreat is not an option. You can only draw your sword and see who the winner is on the narrow road!

“Now that Li Yao dared to challenge the true path of immortality in such a way, I will gladly answer the challenge even if the cost may be my life! Let the next hundred years be the judge to determine which of us is right and credible!”

Su Changfa’s determination deeply touched Long Yunxin.

Her hatred and contempt for the Immortal Cultivator that she had just grown in the game ‘Civilization’ was suddenly slightly shaken.

Those experts in the Nascent Soul Stage were too dreadful. One would be unavoidably affected by their belief when they were too close to them!

Right then, somebody knocked on the door softly. A young man in the school uniform of the Grand Desolate War Institution walked in with a tray of tea cups. He greeted Su Changfa as ‘master’ respectfully first before he changed the tea for the three of them.

Long Yunxin was greatly surprised.

The terms of address among Cultivators could be quite sophisticated.

Su Changfa, as an Immortal Cultivator who was permitted to open a lecture in the Grand Desolate War Institution, could be called teacher, professor, or dean by the students who went to his class. All those titles were perfectly normal.

However, the students should be well aware of Su Changfa’s background and identity. They should also know that they were studying the true path of immortality just to better deal with the enemy.

Their bond with Su Changfa was the thinnest teacher-student relationship. It was more like a dealer-customer relationship where knowledge was the merchandise.

But addressing someone as ‘master’ was different from addressing him as ‘teacher’.

One day a teacher, forever a master. It was a very solemn title that entailed tremendous obligations and rights!

For example, Li Yao had once been a visiting scholar in Flying Star University. So, it would be appropriate for the students of Flying Star University to call him ‘teacher’. The title did not imply that Li Yao had any duty or responsibility about the students.

In all three Sectors, Wu Mayan, Xie Anan, and Jin Xinyue were the only three who were entitled to address Li Yao as ‘master’. As Li Yao’s true disciples, they were going to inherit Li Yao’s knowledge one day.

On many occasions, a Cultivator’s true disciples were more intimate to them than their family. The bond between them could be very deep. Every Cultivator, especially those in the Nascent Soul Stage, could not be more cautious when they recruited a true disciple.

But the student of the Grand Desolate War Institution was a ‘true disciple’ to Su Changfa, an Immortal Cultivator?

Long Yunxin observed the young man with great curiosity.

Her first impression was that he was outrageously young. Had there not been the school uniform, he might have been mistaken for a senior high school student, if not one from a junior high school!

His skin was rather yellow, and his arms and legs were as thin as a skeleton. Somehow, his neck was supporting an extraordinarily huge head. The two big, round eyes took up almost half of his face.

He gave Long Yunxin the feeling that he was a malnourished bean sprout!

Sensing that Long Yunxin was observing him, the young man glanced at him casually.

Despite his slimness and his young face, the young man’s big eyes seemed to belong to an adult who had experienced too many vicissitudes of life. They seemed to boast soul-stirring charm, allowing him to see through someone else’s deepest secrets with a glimpse.

Long Yunxin shuddered coldly.

She felt that the young man’s eyes did not stop on her at all. After piercing through her heart, they darted toward the clouds in the sky.

In the meantime, she sensed two opposing auras from the young man.

One of them was the demeanor of a patient noble. His every action suggested that the young man had received the education of the upper society.

However, hidden beneath the vague aura of a noble were toughness and indifference, which seemed to suggest that he was an orphan born and raised in the wilderness.

The mysterious young man successfully attracted Long Yunxin’s full attention. She was more curious about him than Li Yao and Su Changfa combined.

Narrowing her eyes, Long Yunxin discovered two badges on the lapel of the young man’s school uniform.

The first badge was, naturally, the ‘Fist of Fury’ badge, which was the famous emblem of the Grand Desolate War Institution.

The second badge was a pattern of a fist, too, but it was one that was holding a double-edged sharp sword tightly.

On the bleeding back of the hand, a shining eye was carved.

The badge was not rare in the Flying Star Sector recently, either. Even some of the societies in Flying Star University were associated with the organization behind the badge.

It was the symbol of the Patriots Front, an organization that had been rising quickly in the past few years!