Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“Cough, cough. Cough, cough, cough, cough.” Li Yao coughed for a moment and interjected, “Who is this… Ding Lingdang?”

With the deepest wariness, fear, and desperation beaming out of his face, Fei Qi looked behind everyone, his eyes hollow, as if Ding Lingdang were standing right there. “She—she is the vanguard of the Star Glory Federation’s invasion, the greatest executioner of the federation, and a bloodthirsty, unpardonable she-devil!

“Wherever this she-devil goes, she brings infinite death and damage. Quite a few Sectors have been abused and savaged by her. Too many innocent victims have been butchered by her Colossus, Draconic Phoenix. The entire sea of stars shakes in fear when the she-devil chuckles…”

“Wait!” Li Yao frowned. “Cut your rhetoric exaggeration and get to the point. What did Ding Lingdang do to your ‘Uranian Ring Sector’ that made you hate her so much?”

“She destroyed our glorious and brilliance Uranian Ring civilization singlehandedly!” Fei Qi bellowed ant panted quickly. He stammered, “She—she—”

“There’s no need to rush. Take your time,” Long Yangjun said softly. A few curved silver needles appeared in her hands and pierced into the back of Fei Qi’s head without a sound.

Fei Qi shivered slightly. His breath gradually turned even, his pupils were slowly expanding, and his voice was getting clear again.

Under the manipulation of Long Yangjun’s unique techniques, he had entered a half-hypnotized state in his trance, where he would confess everything in his subconsciousness without him knowing it.

Such a method was similar to what Meng Chixin and Wu Suiyun had imposed on Heiye Lan.

However, Heiye Lan was an elite expert from the Imperium of True Human Beings at the beginning level of the Nascent Soul Stage. Fei Qi, a refugee from the Uranian Ring civilization, was not even close to Heiye Lan’s little finger. Naturally, his performance was much less remarkable than Heiye Lan’s in the beginning.

“At first,” Fei Qi mumbled, “we were not aware of the existence of the she-devil or her soaring notoriety in the sea of stars. She snuck into the Uranian Ring Sector all by herself. There’s no telling when she hid herself in the complicated mining holes on the surface of our mother planet.

“It is the typical way of the Star Glory Federation’s invasion. A squad or a single person will be sent out first to infiltrate the enemy, and they will cooperate with the main troop and take down the enemy easily!

“At that time, we didn’t know that the ruthless Ding Lingdang and Star Glory Federation had laid their eyes on our home.

“The second-phase project of the Uranian Ring was being pushed forward actively. We prepared to establish a ‘second ring’ that would be taller, larger, and even more magnificent outside of the ‘first ring’. It would be the new foundation for our civilization!

“Both the Heavenly Light and the Earthly Brute were striving for the great goal without rest!

“At the critical moment, rumors were suddenly spread out among the previously dutiful and obedient miners of the Earthly Brute deep inside the mining holes, starting from who knows when!

“Some miners began to complain that the working hours were too long and that they were essentially working day and night. They claimed that they had to work around sixteen hours every day on monthly average.”

“Sixteen hours? How long is your day?” Li Yao asked.

“According to the standard time of the Star Ocean Imperium, it takes slightly more than twenty-seven hours for our mother planet to revolve for one circle,” Fei Qi replied. “Therefore, the day length in our world is longer than the standard day. It’s just mining for sixteen hours. Is it really a heavy load? It must be noted that, on the Uranian Ring, many designers, writers, and artists can work for three days and three nights without any stop once they are dedicated to what they are doing!”

Li Yao looked back at Qi Changsheng and Wan Mingzhu.

As he expected, the two ‘leaders of rebelling peasants’ were sneering maliciously.

Oblivious to their reaction, Fei Qin went on. “Some of the miners also complained about safety issues. They said that the overwork and the crazy collection had resulted in frequent accidents. The death rate of the miners was too high. So, they were quitting the job!”

“The death rate was very high? How high exactly?” Li Yao asked again.

Fei Qi hesitated for a moment, but under the nerve stimulation from Long Yangjun, he could not help but reveal the most authentic, undisguised feelings deep inside his mind. “In fact, it is not very high. According to the precise calculation of our mining engineers, the annual average death rate is only around five percent and no higher than ten percent.

“Those people of the Earthly Brute were all quite fertile. Every household had almost ten children. For the great Uranian Ring of our civilization to be established sooner, everybody needed to devote and sacrifice themself. What’s the big deal about a death rate of ten percent? Seniors, you are all Immortal Cultivators. Does it not make perfect sense to you?

“Besides, the death rate wouldn’t always have been that high. After the second Uranian Ring was established, the Heavenly Light would have larger, more comfortable living areas as well as training rooms and research rooms that were more advanced. We would be able to be more focused on developing the civilization unhurriedly without being bothered by the population boom and the limited living space.

“By then, our civilization would thrive even more prosperously. Of course, the Earthly Brute would benefit a lot from the progress, too!”

Before Li Yao looked back, Heaven Battering King Qi Changsheng already could not help but sneer, “Is that so?”

Fei Qi was taking all of them for the Immortal Cultivators from the Imperium of True Human Beings. He did not catch the sarcasm in the words of Qi Changsheng, a leader of the rebellions, at all. He simply replied, “Of course! Besides, to make the members of the Earthly Brute work and live dutifully, we provided medication for them on a regular basis, which would pacify them, relieve their pain, and bring them joy. Such medication was known as ‘Happiness Serum’. It was all for their own good! After all, the Earthly Brute is made of the most ignorant, uneducated low-borns. They couldn’t achieve happiness of a higher level from the splendid, astounding arts such as literature, music, or painting like the people of the Heavenly Light could. Therefore, they could only be granted momentary ecstasy in such a simple, straightforward way in order to ease their fatigue and depression. What’s wrong about that?

“Such a practice had been implemented for a thousand years. Nobody had ever complained about the ‘Happiness Serum’, which was clearly a benefit that the Heavenly Light gave to the Earthly Brute! Many neurologists, doctors, and herbalists spent their entire lives developing ‘Happiness Serum’ that was more efficient, more stable, and safer for the Earthly Brute. With such compatriotism that we bore for them, what could they possibly complain about?

“But then, some miners suddenly began accusing the Happiness Serum of being… drugs and narcotics that would corrupt their nerves and mind!

“That was really the most hilarious joke in the world! Did the Earthly Brute really have a ‘mind’ to be corrupted? Besides, we didn’t offer to give the ‘Happiness Serum’ to them. On many occasions, it was them who cried and begged us for the medication!

“The rumors were not a big deal. What was most intolerable was that we found a lot of members of the Earthly Brute planting crops and herding animals in secret!”

“Wait!” ‘Mother White Lotus’ Wan Mingzhu shrieked. “What, was the Earthly Brute not even allowed to sow crops and herd animals?”

“You may not know this, seniors,” Fei Qi explained, “but the Uranian Ring Sector is different from other Sectors. The surface of our mother planet was seriously contaminated in the war. Venomous fog, poisoned water, and all kinds of other pollution is everywhere. The genetic bombs buried deep underground can be detonated anytime!

“In such a highly-polluted environment, the crops and cattle raised in secret will be highly toxic. If we feed on them for a long time, our body will degenerate, our mind will be corrupted, and we will be more and more dirty, lazy, foolish, evil, and weak. As time goes by, our civilization will be doomed!

“Therefore, for the future of the Uranian Ring civilization, and for the people of the Uranian Ring Sector to be smarter, stronger, and more determined after each generation, of course, it must be strictly forbidden to sow crops and herd animals in the polluted area.”

“Then, what do you eat?” Wan Mingzhu asked.

“There are, of course, unpolluted space plantations and ranches on the Uranian Ring that the Heavenly Light lives in. At the very least, decades ago, it was still enough to satisfy the daily needs of the Heavenly Light.

“Even on the highly-polluted ground, we also went through all the trouble of purging the land, sparing no expense in constructing unpolluted farming areas. Even the humblest members of the Earthly Brute were still privileged to enjoy the most clean and healthy food yielded from the farming areas.”

“I get it now. You controlled all the farmlands and ranches in your hands,” Wan Mingzhu observed. “If you didn’t give them any food, the Earthly Brute would starve to death.”

Blinking, Fei Qi replied in confusion, “We all belong to the Uranian Ring Sector. Why would we starve the Earthly Brute to death? However, it is only logical that those who don’t work shall have no food. We merely asked the members of the Earthly Brute to mine in exchange for food.”

“Of course,” Wan Mingzhu sneered. “I’m afraid that the exchange ratio of the minerals and the food is quite low, isn’t it? Maybe, thirty kilograms of minerals can only get them one slice of bread, right?”

Tilting his head and thinking hard for a long time, Fei Qi shook his head dutifully. “I don’t know. I have never cared about such insignificant matters before.”

“Go on,” Long Yangjun said in a gentle voice. “Discontentment and complaints increased among the miners. What then?”

“Then, strikes happened,” Fei Qi said. “Almost half of the Uranian Ring Planet, in tens of thousands of mines, the Earthly Brute went on a strike at the same time!

“At that time, we only thought that the bad nature of the Earthly Brute had gotten the better of them again.

“After all, as I told you just now, seniors, the ancestors of the Earthly Brute were the indolent, uncivilized, and insubordinate fellows. They were the dregs of the Uranian Ring civilization! The blood of laziness, corruption, excitement, and insanity naturally flowed in their veins. Despite the education of the Heavenly Light after thousands of years, it was still impossible for them to completely overcome their bad nature. Every couple of years, somebody would always go on strike. Sometimes, the strikes were huge, and sometimes they were not worth mentioning at all.

“In fact, it is only because their ignorant, uneducated head cannot control the uncanny excitement in their heart. Everything is fine once they go on a rampage for a while and run out of energy.

“At that time, we thought that it was just another typical, routine strike. It was not until the furious flames burnt fiercely everywhere on the entire planet, congregating into an ocean of angry fire, that we realized that it was nothing like what had happened in the past. This time, something terrible had indeed happened.”