Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

As the federation increased the scale of the occupation army and imposed high-pressure tyranny, the guerilla teams were crushed one after another. The heroes of the Water Crystal Sector were sent to the gallows where both their body and their soul were obliterated.

The resistance of the locals of the Water Crystal Sector seemed to grow weaker and weaker, and the seriously wrecked mining bases were recovered one after another. The enormous machines to reap the resources were activated at the highest efficiency. Finally, the cost of mining was reduced to a bearable extent.

Everything seemed to be on the right track.

But at that time, the Forest Ocean Sector and the Nether World Sector, another two new Sectors, were discovered one after another.

In reality, because of the example of the Water Crystal Sector, which joined the federation peacefully after a successful negotiation, and since both the Forest Ocean Sector and the Nether World Sector had serious internal problems, through a series of bumpy and difficult negotiations, they had peacefully joined the New Federation, too, following the Water Crystal Sector’s example.

However, in the virtual timeline, because the Water Crystal Sector had been conquered by the federation by force, it was definitely impossible to conceal such important intelligence. The people of the Forest Ocean Sector and the Nether World Sector soon learned about the ‘new life’ of the natives of the Water Crystal Sector under the federation’s tyranny. Naturally, they were not willing to be swallowed by such a country.

Compared to the powerful, well-armed New Federation, the two new worlds were both relatively weak and primitive.

However, the New Federation, which had yet to completely recover from the last conquest, could not afford to launch two new expeditions simultaneously no matter what.

The New Federation, the Nether World Sector, and the Forest Ocean Sector kept a subtle, prudent, wary, and even hostile relationship with each other for more than ten years.

Within the federation, the benefits after the conquest of the Water Crystal Sector made the weapon industry and the magical equipment industry even more prosperous than before. The hawks completely dominated parliament and the civil media. They could not stand such an impasse, and they actively prepared for battle in secret, planning to wage war upon the Nether World Sector and the Forest Ocean Sector immediately after the resources of the Water Crystal Sector were completely digested and absorbed.

“In any case, before the expedition army of the Imperium arrives, we cannot allow two worlds that are hostile to the federation to exist right next to us!”

Such voices congregated into iron torrents and echoed in parliament.

The General Staff of the federal army deduced the possible outcomes of the war time and time again. The Nether World Sector, which only had a wasteland, and the Forest Ocean Sector, which was covered in primitive forests, could not expect to resist the scourge of the federal fleet.

The war would be a perfect duplication of the conquest of the Water Crystal Sector, and it would be an easy win. And this time, they were fairly experienced when it came to the arrangement of the occupation army and how to govern the locals through tyranny.

When the second expedition army of the New Federation finally began, the commander and captains played by the experts of the game all thought that.

Their prediction was not entirely wrong. When the expedition army arrived in the atmosphere of the mother planets of the Nether World Sector and the Forest Ocean Sector at the same time, the panicked troops of the locals were indeed crushed before they could put up much resistance.

However…

When a fleet of the Uranian Ring Sector made of a thousand main-force starships popped up behind the expedition army of the federation, it was already destined that, no matter how many tactical successes the game experts achieved, they had completely lost the game.

Yes. In this timeline, since the federation did not hide its ambitions from the Forest Ocean Sector and the Nether World Sector at all, naturally, the locals of the Forest Ocean Sector and the Nether World Sector did not wait to be killed.

The most daring and adventurous ones among them secretly flew into the depths of the universe, searching for the expedition army of the Imperium that was the bane of the ‘evil federation’, hoping to receive the Imperium’s protection.

In the end, although they did not find the Imperium, they did find… or rather, they were discovered by the people of the Uranian Ring Sector.

Unlike the Forest Ocean Sector, the Nether World Sector, and the Water Crystal Sector, the Uranian Ring Sector boasted rather advanced universal sailing abilities and an enormous space fleet.

Having learned what the federation had done, naturally, the people of the Uranian Ring Sector would not wait and watch as such an ambitious civilization grew nearby.

Therefore, the Uranian Ring Sector, the Nether World Sector, and the Forest Ocean Sector, as well as the determined resisters of the Water Crystal Sector, forged a secret alliance to resist the powerful and tyrannical New Federation together.

When the timeline reached this point, the outcome of the war itself no longer mattered.

Whether the war was won or lost in the end, supported by the fleet of the Uranian Ring Sector, the Forest Ocean Sector and the Nether World Sector would never be completely conquered and absorbed by the New Federation in mere decades, not to mention the homeland of the Uranian Ring Sector, which had started to prepare for battle decades in advance.

The timeline had hundreds of different variations when played by the experts of the game, but even in the best variation, the Star Glory Federation did not manage to conquer the four new worlds even at the cost of great casualties, economic stagnation, social ossification, and unsteadiness of countless Cultivators until year 155 of the New Federation Calendar.

According to the odds, there was a ninety-seven percent likelihood that the Black Wind Fleet would have arrived by that time.

Leaving aside the fact that the New Federation, whose resources and blood had been drained by the protracted war, did not have much strength left to resist the Black Wind Fleet at all, the people of the Uranian Ring Sector, the Nether World Sector, and the Forest Ocean Sector who had just been conquered would never sincerely support such a Star Glory Federation.

The final outcome would be the ‘failed world’. While the New Federation seemed to boast seven Sectors and an unprecedently huge army, it was destroyed by the Black Wind Fleet without much struggle.

When the last Rising Dragon of the Nine Stars flag slowly descended from the Federal Square in the capital city in the Heaven’s Origin Sector, there were even cheers in the crowd nearby.

The New Federation died in the most shameful way.

And it all began in year thirty-one of the New Federation Calendar, when the Star Glory Federation decided its attitude toward the Water Crystal Sector, the first new world to join the country.

Should they choose arduous compromises and negotiations, or should they choose a quick and clean conquest that seemed able to reap countless crystals and inject an exhilarant into the federation?

That was the end of the story of the first failed world.

The choice that the second failed world had to make was whether or not to grant the local residents of the Blood Demon Sector, namely the ‘demons’, the complete rights of residents and even citizens.

In the Old Federation a hundred years ago, after a series of internal conflicts, the Blood Demon Sector had joined the federation with a conditional surrender.

However, there had been a chasm between human beings and demons at that time. Also, most of the demons had been sent to resource planets as miners and paid ‘war compensation’ through their work. Naturally, the rights that they enjoyed were different from the general rights of humans.

But after sixty years, as the Water Crystal Sector, the Forest Ocean Sector, and the Nether World Sector joined the federation one after another, even a lot of locals of the new Sectors became citizens of the federation in many ways. Should the shackles on the demons who had been making contributions to the New Federation for sixty years be loosened, and should they be acknowledged as real citizens of the federation?

It was not a simple question of title or prejudice.

Politically speaking, it would mean that the community of demons, which had a huge population, would be given the right to vote. They would be able to influence the future of the federation’s development. The change also paved the way for the leadership in the government who were demons and even for Jin Xinyue who was running for Speaker today.

More importantly, economically speaking, once the treaties signed sixty years ago were entirely abolished, the benefits and wages for the demon miners would be drastically improved. The cost to all the resource giants would be doubled or even multiplied. It would seem that such a change could slow down the federation’s collection of resources and rapid development.

In reality, under the active work of persuasion and even coercion by Jin Xinyue, the leader of the demons, parliament finally passed the ‘Bill of Rights for General Equality’, stating that human beings of the Heaven’s Origin Sector, ghosts of the Nether World Sector, demons of the Blood Demon Sector, and all people in the federation were equal.

In the virtual timeline, however, the players who abided by ‘human supremacy’ could naturally veto Jin Xinyue’s motion quickly without any hesitation. They could even try to strike the leader of the demons who seemed too active through the legal and illegal, open and clandestine approaches.

However, at the point of year fifty-five of the New Federation Calendar, the demon miners who had been devoted dutifully and silently for sixty years had already had enough of it. Their patience and their thirst for a better future had reached the limits and could not be vetoed by any parliament in the universe.

“Even the barbarians in the Forest Ocean Sector who do not wear clothes and the wandering ghosts in the Nether World Sector who are packed into garbage can be citizens of the federation! Why can’t we? Why!”

Such angry voices echoed above the mines in the remote resource planets.

The efficiency of the demon miners plummeted. Slacking and sabotage took place on all the resource planets. The feeble sparks congregated into fires of strikes and then escalated into the magma of riots. Jin Xinyue could not do anything about it. She was soon replaced by new leaders of the demons who were even more radical and dangerous. The New Federation was showing signs of division again.

The chaotic situation lasted more than ten years, until the Uranian Ring Sector was discovered, and a war broke out.

But this time, the races within the federation were divided. Humans and demons did not trust each other. The New Federation, who were too busy dealing with their internal strife, could not organize and maintain a powerful expedition army at a super high efficiency like it did in reality.

The people of the Uranian Ring Sector keenly sensed the division within the federation, too. They sent secret envoys to get in touch with the radical new leaders of the demons.

In the end, the outcome of the timeline was the same as the first one.

No matter how many tactical successes were achieved, and no matter how many times the demons’ insurgency was suffocated when it was still in its cradle, there was no stopping the war against the Uranian Ring Sector from become protracted. When the expedition army of the Imperium finally arrived, it was still impossible to completely finish the internal reorganization. The hundred years of radiance of the Star Glory Federation was nothing more than a fleeting cloud that was gone in the blink of an eye.

Under such circumstances, the Star Glory Federation could not be saved despite the countless strategies adopted by countless players. And the beginning of everything was the moment when the ‘Bill of Rights for General Equality’ was or was not passed in year fifty-five of the New Federation Calendar.

They were what one could call life-and-death decisions!