Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Ripples were still spreading out on the surface of the hundreds of liquid metal puppets, as if they were living people who were breathing.

On their oval ‘skulls’, the ripples crowded into the same place, forming what appeared to be facial organs. They seemed to have become scholars who were brooding.

The members of the daring team were all shocked by the weird scene. For a moment, they were at a loss about how to deal with the liquid metal puppets.

Li Yao, on the other hand, was even more greatly stunned.

The appearance of the liquid metal puppets was almost exactly like Professor Mo Xuan’s current life form.

He knew that Professor Mo Xuan had tried to build ‘artificial bodies’ with liquid metal more than a hundred years ago, but he did not know that the professor had indeed succeeded, at least partly.

He was wondering what was residing inside the liquid metal puppets. Was it living souls, pure artificial intelligence, or merely parts of Professor Mo Xuan?

“Lay down your weapons and stop fighting.” Holes appeared on the big faces of the hundreds of liquid metals simultaneously, from which the same voice was broadcast, Professor Mo Xuan’s voice that was filled with pain, desperation, and excitement. “Enough blood has been shed in the cold space. Everybody is fighting for the Star Glory Federation and the civilization of mankind. I don’t want to hurt anyone. So, drop your weapons!”

The hundreds of liquid metal puppets were uttering the same voice. The entire silver world was humming under the shock.

It was obviously Professor Mo Xuan’s voice, but when hundreds of his voices overlapped with each other, it sounded twisted, deep, and weird, giving everybody the feeling that he was some sort of… fiend!

Looking at Long Yangjun, Li Yao bellowed, “Who are you exactly, Professor Mo Xuan or the extraterrestrial devils?”

“What’s the difference?” Self-mocking chuckles echoed from the holes on the heads of the hundreds of liquid metal puppets at the same time. “Besides, even if I claim that I am ‘just’ Professor Mo Xuan, will you believe it? Is there any way that I can prove myself?

“So, it doesn’t matter now.

“On the other hand, you, the experts from… the Ancient Sages Sector, are rather interesting. How can you sense the existence of the extraterrestrial devils, huh?”

He was almost admitting that he was an ‘extraterrestrial devil’ by responding in such a way. Whispers were immediately triggered among the members of the daring team.

At this moment, they finally confirmed that their actions of defiance and insubordination previously were justified.

However, it also suggested that the extraterrestrial devils did exist, and they had corrupted the most critical hub of the Spiritual Nexus to such an extent. The future of the federation was still uncertain!

Li Yao was slightly dazed. Then, he realized that ‘the first real identity’ that he and Long Yangjun had prepared was not really a secret because they publicly announced it a moment ago. Even if Professor Mo Xuan did not have spies in the crowd, with his identity as one of the best refiners of the federation, it certainly would not have been difficult for him to implant certain detectaphones in the crystal suits of some of the soldiers.

Besides, Yan Liren, Master Bitter Cicada, and the rest of the experts were misled by Professor Mo Xuan and teleported to somewhere unknown. They were likely to have been ambushed by Professor Mo Xuan. It was not unusual that Professor Mo Xuan had learned of their ‘real’ identity.

Right then, Luo Qisheng furiously roared, “Professor Mo Xuan, is it really you? How is it possible? The Professor Mo Xuan I knew was a great hero of the federation who saved the federation multiple times and made great contributions for the federation to grow into what it has become today! But right now, you are conspiring with the Black Wind Fleet, controlling all the leadership of Hundred Flowers City, and compromising the hub of the Spiritual Nexus. What do you want exactly?”

“Conspiring with the Black Wind Fleet?” The holes on the faces of the hundreds of liquid metal puppets were shivering at the same time, as if they were all amused. With their piton-like limbs shaking softly, they replied, “No, you’re mistaken. From beginning to end, I have always been a proud Cultivator of the Star Glory Federation. I never conspired with the Immortal Cultivators of the Imperium of True Human Beings; I merely invited them to my trap.

“You must’ve heard a thing or two about the scandal that took place in the capital, but everything you know is fake. It is a plan directed by and starring Jin Xinyue, who intends to die together with the enemy.

“However, the commander of the expedition army of the Imperium is definitely the opposite of reckless. Besides, the information under his control is a hundred times more than what you are aware of. Jin Xinyue’s delicate but fragile scheme is not enough to deceive him at all. However fat and succulent the ‘bait’ appears to be, the Black Wind Fleet will not bite it.

“The federation cannot afford waiting. We cannot bear the consequences of a war that can possibly last decades. Therefore, everything I have done is just a minor ‘fix’ for Jin Xinyue’s plan.

“I detest wars. But no matter what, I must help the federation win this war first. Also, I will turn it into the last war of the Star Glory Federation, or at least, the last traditional war!

“From that day on, absolute peace will embrace everybody in the federation. Even if we may still declare war on the Imperium of True Human Beings and the Alliance of the Holy Covenant in the future in order to disseminate the ideology of ‘absolute peace’ to them, the wars will be completely different from what we have today. They will be easy, clean, painless, and like games!”

The voices echoing from the holes of the liquid metal puppets suddenly turned loud and high pitched, as if a metal hurricane was sweeping across the park!

“You—” Luo Qisheng lost his cool. “Is what they said true? You have been really working on certain surreptitious research in Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital. You—you are trying to lock everybody in the virtual world. You want to transform all human beings into Spiriters!”

“A real Cultivator is never scared to express his ideas,” Professor Mo Xuan said casually. “I have repeated my ideas for decades. I have published more than a hundred papers and books and held countless seminars. Is that really a ‘shocking secret’?”

“But—but we all thought that you were describing a distant future millions of years away!” Luo Qisheng roared. “We did not know that you were as insane as this. We did not expect that the honorable Professor Mo Xuan was actually doing so many clandestine things in secret!”

“There’s no need for a Cultivator to hide his ideas. However, there are too many ways to carry out the ideas. Deception is certainly one of them,” Professor Mo Xuan unhurriedly said. “Because I strode too fast and I was way ahead of my era, I was bound to be counterattacked by the era.

“In the hundred thousand years of history of development of mankind, how many people have been minced into pieces or burned at the stake because they were well ahead of their eras? Those who are one step ahead of their era are heroes. Two steps, geniuses. Three steps, lunatics. What about those who are a hundred steps ahead of their eras? Out-and-out fiends!

“I am a man who was given another life in the first place. What’s terrible about death? I do not fear being mince apart or burned at the stake, much less being derided as lunatics and fiends.

“However, if I know my ideas are right, until I am destroyed at a guillotine or in the middle of fire as a ‘lunatic’ and a ‘fiend’, I will certainly carry on my ideas of ‘absolute peace’ to the end. Nobody can stop me!”

Silver ripples were spreading out on the hundreds of liquid metal puppets, like Professor Mo Xuan’s belief that was burning furiously.

“Professor Mo Xuan!” Li Yao could not help speaking up. “When you showed me the Spiriters’ Realm, didn’t you mention yourself that evolution could not be accomplished overnight but would have to take millions of years to slowly develop? You said that, no matter how wonderful the highly-developed future appeared, it would still be a disaster to make a civilization cover the journey of evolution that should’ve taken millions of years in the blink of an eye, and therefore, we should never do such things, right?”

“Yes. That is exactly what I said.” Professor Mo Xuan sighed softly. The holes on every liquid metal puppet’s face was twisted, as if they were in agony. “After decades of research and exploration, I know all the logic. I know it much better than you do. So, there is no need for you to remind me of that.

“But… but… but…

“I am a human being after all, not a cold crystal processor. My compatriots are still living in pain because of the plague of wars. Their blood will be shed for nothing for millions of years. Countless people will be enslaved, oppressed, tortured, and slaughtered. Countless brilliant civilizations will end up as cosmic dust in the bleak universe. How can I just hide in my library and do my theoretical studies calmly and rationally while waiting for the arrival of the bright future in millions of years’ time?

“Even if the odds of success are just one percent, I would like to give it a shot to make the bright future arrive right now. Even if I have to pay everything, even if I am denigrated and obliterated, I will still have fulfilled my responsibility as a Cultivator and a human being for our own civilization, won’t I?”

Li Yao cursed loudly in his heart, not knowing what he should say.

“Enough of the cr*p. He must be buying himself more time!” Luo Qisheng roared. “Lock onto the enemy and prepare to shoot!”

Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!

All the crystal cannons and storm bolters were switched to the mode of maximal damage. Colorful, fatal light balls were expanding out of the barrels.

Professor Mo Xuan’s hundreds of liquid metal clones stared at the crystal cannons and storm bolters that were aimed at them and said, “There’s no need for me to buy myself more time because… the time has already come.

“Also, if you insist on shooting, you’d better make sure that you aim well. This place is the Grand-Unified Spiritual Nexus Information Interaction and Processing Center. I have already hacked all the super crystal processors in this place. They are all extremely precise and vulnerable devices.

“If you free fire in this place, and if the two Colossi go on a rampage sweeping aside everything in their way like they did outside, it will be quite easy for you to destroy the hub of the Spiritual Nexus.

“Once the Spiritual Nexus processing center of Hundred Flowers City at the center of the seven Sectors is seriously damaged, although the Grand-Unified Spiritual Nexus wouldn’t be entirely paralyzed, the net speed on the Spiritual Nexus will be lowered by at least thirty percent. It will be much easier for the Spiritual Nexus to be affected and infiltrated, too, which may lead to dire consequences for information transmission and space jumps.

“You wouldn’t wish to see that when the Black Wind Fleet is stabbing at the heart of the federation and the Heaven’s Origin Sector is in great need of the reinforcement from the other six Sectors, or in particular, the Burning Prairie Fleet, would you?”