Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Li Yao’s killing intent was soaring. He glared at Han Yuantai coldly as if his eyes were steel sabers.

Han Yuantai gritted his teeth so hard that they were cracking. He craned his neck and stared back at Li Yao. He was overwhelmed by the brilliance in Li Yao’s eyes many times and almost turned away his head to dodge it, but he persisted to the end with the fire in his chest!

Around them, the lotus flowers in the pond were shivering and withering rapidly.

The fish and the shrimps were jumping on the surface of the pond, only to be floating on the surface dead soon, as if it were not a pond but a pot that they were staying in.

Right when Han Yuantai was about to collapse, the intimidating killing intent around Li Yao was suddenly gone, as if it had never appeared.

He smiled casually, “Very brave!”

Han Yuantai took a long breath in relief. The tough man from the north and the well-respected Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator in the Dark Cloud Prairies almost burst into tears in front of the unpredictable old monster!

At this moment, his legs were finally shaking beyond his control. Not even having the time to wipe off the sweat on his forehead, he breathed heavily, before he managed a smile, “You are flattering me, Master. I have noticed just now that I underestimated Master’s level after all. With Master’s Cultivation today, it is possible that you are one of the top ten experts, and you are capable of fighting a nation and a people with yourself and your sword!”

“Forget it. We are all smart guys here. Let’s put it more straightforwardly.”

Li Yao waved his hands and said, “For a Cultivator, especially those in the Nascent Soul Stage such as us, to make progress, wealth, residence, arts and partners are indispensable factors. We will consume astronomical resources on a daily basis, which can only be covered by a fixed base and a huge population!

“Fighting a nation on one’s own might be possible if the purpose is short-time sabotage. But it is absolutely impossible to compete with the nation for long!

“Hehe. I don’t need you to point out that the Southland of Sorcerers is too remote and ragged. Although the despicable pests are everywhere, Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures are extremely rare here!

“Also, this place has been quite desolate since ancient times. No powerful sects had ever been headquartered here. Therefore, it is very difficult to find a residence or a relic below the ground!

“In such a rough environment, it is already the limit for the Cultivators in the Southland of Sorcerers to advance into the beginning level of the Nascent Soul Stage with the peculiar arts. Although I have reached the level I’m in right now because of other fortuitous incidents, it will be the wildest dream if I want to pursue further and touch the mysterious Divinity Transformation Stage!

“If we get to the bottom of it, the Southland of Sorcerers is too small a pond even for a tortoise. How can a high-level Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator be distinguished in such a place?

“To break into higher levels, I must have a higher population, more prosperous land, more residences and relics. How can I not understand such a simple logic?

“However…”

Li Yao suddenly sneered, before he said unhurriedly, “You can give me such things, but the Great Qian Dynasty can, too! With my level, techniques and magical equipment today after sixty years of hard training, I will be a well-respected guest and elder wherever I go, won’t I?

“I don’t know, nor am I interest in, what Master Black Moon was thinking of. But why do I have to abandon the prosperous Great Qian Dynasty for your Cloud Qin?

“It’s true that the Dark Cloud Prairies are boundless, and that quite a few powerful dynasties have emerged in the past ten of thousands of years. There must be quite a few relics and secret treasures below the ground.

“However, your population is too small. As a result, there are few Cultivators and famous sects.

“I’m told that your regent Ha Baling is now carrying out his reform, annihilating all the sects!

“Haha, in the entire Dark Cloud Prairies, there is not a single sect. Isn’t it a joke?

“In comparison, the Great Qian Dynasty is prosperous and has a long history. The hundred or so noble sects can be traced back to a thousand years ago or even longer before to the previous dynasties. There are as many experts as raindrops in the sky. The Cultivation arts and classics are too many to be counted!

“Of the three hundred Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators in the world, the Great Qian Dynasty boasts more than two hundred!

“I’m told that you had a minor victory against the Great Qian Dynasty last year, and your vanguard almost reached the capital? What was the result? Did you not hurry to run away after plundering the resources? Were you bold enough to stay and fight against the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators of the Great Qian Dynasty the hard way?

“Hehe. Master Black Moon may have been bewildered by your fancy talks. But your bulls*it is not going to persuade me to run errands for you so easily!

“Han Yuantai, do not think that I dare not kill you. You are merely in the middle level of the Nascent Soul Stage, nothing more than a bug in my eyes. If I want to crush you, I will crush you. Does it really matter?

“I kept you alive because I want to see what you can say to encourage me to get on your boat!

“Come on. I’ve been training in seclusion for sixty years. Now that I’m out again, it’s true that I’m not familiar with the situation of the world. Just try your best to enchant me. Tell me why Ghost Qin of the Dark Cloud Prairies is qualified to challenge the Great Qian Dynasty! “Hehe. You are free to brag about Ghost Qin however you want, because I will not be able tell whether it is true or false at all. But in case you forget, I have two Core Formation Stage Cultivators of the Great Qian Dynasty in my hands, too. Later, after I cross-check what you say, I will know exactly who is speaking the truth!

“If I find that you lied to me…”

Li Yao chuckled creepily again.

Han Yuantai shuddered deeply, feeling that the coldest wind was blowing at his bones. His every joint seemed to have been stabbed with dozens of rusted nails, which made him feel sour and unable to move at all.

“Master, your eyes are too keen. I do not dare to say anything false!”

Taking a long breath, Han Yuantai was about to give a long speech, when Li Yao waved his hands and declared gravely, “Just abandon your rhetoric. Isn’t it exhausting to talk in such a way all day long? I’m a barbarian from the wilderness, and I don’t understand your empty words. So, just tell me in the most candid way what is strong about Ghost Qin, what is weak about the Great Qian Dynasty, and why the Cultivators of the Dark Cloud Prairies are confident to compete with the Great Qian Dynasty which boasts a thousand sects large and small and countless Cultivators when you do not have a single sect!”

Han Yuantai took a long breath. He suddenly raised his neck and burst into a laughter. He didn’t stop after a long time.

Unsatisfied, Li Yao said gloomily, “Speak now. If you continue being pretentious, I’ll pluck all your teeth from your wretched mouth!”

Han Yuantai know that the man was brutal enough to fulfil what he had promised. He immediately stopped laughing and said solemnly, “You’ve mentioned many times that the Great Qian Dynasty boasts a lot of sects and Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, Master. Do you believe that the more sects and Cultivators, the stronger a nation will be?”

Li Yao rolled his eyes, amused. “You are stating the obvious. Is it not the case?”

“Of course not!”

Han Yuantai replied resolutely, “Although it is what the hundred dynasties in the Ancient Sages Sector have believed, people of Cloud Qin are going exactly the opposite way. We believe that sects are the cancer of a nation. The more sects and Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, the weaker a nation will be!

“Right now, the Great Qian Dynasty has 3,725 sects large and small and 221 experts in the Nascent Soul Stage. But they are the sign of the Great Qian Dynasty’s doom instead of the foundation of its prosperity!”

“The more sects there are, the weaker a nation will be. That’s a fresh idea!”

Li Yao laughed and said lazily, “Do you care to explain it?”

Han Yuantai struggled to his feet. But clattering noises were echoing from his body, because his excitement triggered the barrier.

Han Yuantai finally grunted in pain.

Li Yao curled his right little finger and snapped it. Then, the shackle suddenly took off from Han Yuantai’s body and condensed into a skeleton vulture again, before it hovered above Han Yuantai’s head and flew back to Li Yao.

Li Yao extended his arm, allowing the skeleton vulture to land on his arm. Then after a shake, he stored the shackle into his Cosmos Ring.

Disbelief beamed out of Han Yuantai’s face. He mumbled, “I’m told that there’s an amazing artifact in the ancient times named ‘Deity Tying Rope’. The barrier of yours must be similar to the Deity Tying Rope, Master!”

Li Yao said coldly, “I didn’t relieve the shackle to hear your crap.”

Calming himself down, Han Yuantai immediately focused his attention on the topic. “The idea that the more sects there are, the weaker a nation will be seems absurd. But it will make sense when you give it enough thought!

“A powerful and unified court is mandatory for any nation to grow strong. As the saying goes, there can never be two suns in the sky, and there can never be two monarchs on the earth. When the decrees from the emperor are carried out inviolably, the local prefectures will be stable, and the folks will live in peace. It is the everlasting law of history!

“But the Cultivation sects, especially the ‘noble sects’ which have been passed on for thousands of years and which boast unparalleled influence in the local area with their Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, seriously undermine the authority of the court and the emperor!

“When decrees are issued from different leaders, and when internal strife never ends, to the extent that the local people of an area only know a certain sect, a certain noble family and a certain Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, but not the court and the emperor, how will such a nation not decline and perish?

“For the hundreds of dynasties in the Ancient Sages Sector in the past tens of thousands of years, no matter how peaceful, prosperous and unstoppable they were in their heyday, they would be corrupted by the ‘cancer’ eventually and came to their doom!

“The cancer of the dynasties is untreatable. How can the Great Qian Dynasty survive it today?

“Master Spiritual Vulture, you asked me just now on what basis Cloud Qin is fighting the entire Great Qian Dynasty.

“Hehe. If the Great Qian Dynasty is truly a solidary, gapless nation, we will stand absolutely no chance!

“But in fact, the so-called ‘Great Qian Dynasty’ is not a real nation at all. It is just a puppet, and an empty shell, enshrined by the Cultivation sects which each have their own intentions for their own interests!

“There is not such a nation as ‘Great Qian’ at all. There are only the countless sects that are essentially loose sand below the fake title!

“The Great Qian Dynasty is a seemingly ferocious beast whose internal organs have in fact been emptied by the maggots and rats. What is left is but the skin on the surface now. After a tiny blow of air, it will fall apart and collapse!

“When the giant beast collapses, the maggots and rats hiding inside its body will only flee in panic in search for the next host. They will never live and die together with the beast!”