Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Amid the solemn roars, Di Feiwen also fell on one knee and raised a dark metal tray above his head before Li Yao.

On the tray, the ultimate tokens from the five worlds of Immortal Cultivators that he had shown to Li Yao more than a month ago were placed.

At this moment, all the tokens were radiating bloody auras. Red flames of light soared into the air and bounced up and down, condensing into different emblems and stripes that were glittering murderously.

The tokens had been baptized with the blood of the many experts from the five worlds of Immortal Cultivators. After the experts branded their unique spiritual stripes into the tokens with their blood, it was equal to their own signature and stood for the absolute submission of themselves and the forces they belonged to.

Other than that, there were two more items.

The first one was a battle emblem that had been carved into the shape of a black hurricane but also had a lot of moveable components. After Li Yao held the emblem in his hand and inputted spiritual energy into it, the emblem would automatically reshape into a portable crystal processor that covered his wrist.

It was the ‘seal’ of the Black Wind King. The confidential information about the five worlds of Immortal Cultivators and the Black Wind Fleet was all stored inside. Together with the telepathic thoughts of the user, it could also trigger a special stamp, which was the identity symbol and personal signature of the Black Wind King. At least within the territory of the Imperium, it would encounter no obstacles.

The second item was a finely made scepter that was carved with the lightning trident of the Imperium of True Human Beings. It was the commander’s scepter that the emperor had granted to the general commander of the expedition army.

After the scepter was opened from the middle, a jade chip with an astonishing storage space would be seen. It was used to record all the military accomplishments in the expedition. After the victory, the jade chip would be delivered back to the capital city for scanning and reviewing. The relevant personnel would be able to receive rewards from the emperor based on the records and redeem different benefits.

The jade chip had stored the information of all the galaxies and sailing routes that the Black Wind Fleet had passed in the hundred-year expedition. It was a map from the Imperium to the federation, or rather, from the federation to the Imperium.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

The portable crystal processor that represented the Black Wind King boasted the function of automatic adjustment and memory. It covered Li Yao’s left wrist in the most comfortable way and brought no hindrance at all as if it were a second layer of skin.

The scepter, on the other hand, was neither too light nor too heavy. There was no telling what it was made of, but it felt smooth and warm. One would inevitably feel reluctant to let go of it once they grabbed it.

Li Yao smiled. Playing with the item for a while, he simply put the commander’s scepter back on the metal tray as if it were not a big deal before waving his hands and absorbing it as well as the five tokens into his Cosmos Ring.

“Are we good?” Li Yao turned around and looked at Di Feiwen. “I have shown you enough respect by not wearing a vest, a pair of slippers, and dying my hair into multiple colors as I said I would a few days ago. Just cut off all the redundant formalities!”

“This is already all of it.” Di Feiwen lowered his head deeply. “However, aren’t you going to say anything to us? We are an army that just surrendered after all, and we are all uneasy and confused about the future.”

“Huh…” Li Yao thought for a moment. Waving his hands at the Immortal Cultivators whose nerves and muscles had been intensified to the maximal point half in reverence and half in anxiety, he said, “Sit down now. Let’s talk. What? No seats are arranged? Fine. We can sit on the ground. Let’s have a nice talk.”

While talking, he sat on the ground and crossed his legs, blinking his eyes and looking at the many Immortal Cultivators.

The Immortal Cultivators looked at each other in bewilderment, not expecting the new Black Wind King to be so casual. But now that the ‘slaughterer of deities and devils and destroyer of space gates’ had sat directly on the ground, were they bold enough not to follow him?

Amid awkward coughs, the Immortal Cultivators sat on the cold deck one after another. The more they looked at each other, the weirder they felt, especially the experts in the Core Formation Stage and the Nascent Soul Stage. They were quite ill at ease to see themselves and their companions on the ground.

“I heard your vow just now. It was very good and very impressive. ‘Supreme master’ and whatnot truly made me elated.”

Seeing that everybody had sat on the ground cross-legged like him, Li Yao nodded in great satisfaction. Then he changed the topic and said, “However, it was all bullsh*t. I did not sense your sincerity at all. I assume that you must’ve made the same vow when Heiye Ming became the ‘Black Wind King’ in the past, didn’t you? You swore to obey the leader forever and die for the leader anytime and anywhere, right? But right now, even the ashes of Heiye Ming are already gone, and I don’t see any of you killing yourselves in honor of him or coming at me to avenge him!

“I am not pointing it out to specifically humiliate you nor to ask you to kill yourselves or come to be killed by me. I’m just saying, could you just drop the condescension of the Immortal Cultivators as if you are in the highest sky? Are you not cold and tired of standing on the ‘peak of evolution’ from dawn to dusk? Let’s just put aside the meaningless exaggeration and have an honest, sincere conversation today, shall we?

“I’ll be honest with you. In fact, when General Di Feiwen asked me to take the position of ‘Black Wind King’, I was quite reluctant because it was obviously a fiery pit that is full of iron sticks at the bottom of it. You do not mean to elect a nemesis to be your leader at all; you are only hoping to fill the pit with me and step on my shoulders and head to earn greater benefits for yourselves. That’s all.

“If I’m being completely honest, not only did I have to resolve the problems on the federation’s side, which is in fact not a big deal, I will also possibly be involved in the turbulence between you and the Imperium and obliged to help you resist the ambitions of the warlords and the fury of His Majesty with the resources of the federation.

“Whether the five worlds of Immortal Cultivators including the Black Wind Sector have fallen to the hands of the Imperium or the Covenant Alliance, to take them back will be no different from plucking a tiger’s teeth from its mouth. Do I not have anything better to work on than doing such a painstaking and unrewarding thing?

“I could’ve declined it. But then General Di made more than a hundred vows, claiming that you have deeply understood your mistake and will certainly correct your mistakes. Also, your Black Wind Fleet is not a pure expedition army but a fleet of immigrants. The population of civilians who escaped from the five worlds of Immortal Cultivators is multiple times greater than the number of warriors and Immortal Cultivators.

“However unforgivable you may be, most of the civilians are innocent after all. It is for the sake of the civilians that I finally took the hot potato. You must remember that.

“That being said, no matter how hesitant I was before, now that I have already taken up the responsibility, there is no way that I will slack off or quit halfway! I will consider the post of ‘Black Wind King’ as new training and do my best!

“It is universally known that the Cultivators will liberate the three thousand Sectors and reform the entire universe. If we cannot reform a tiny Black Wind Fleet or enlighten thickheaded soldiers like you, how can we expect to march to the center of the cosmos?

“Well, General Di, give me some water.”

Di Feiwen was still dazed by what he had just heard and did not realize what Li Yao meant.

Li Yao frowned. “Water. Tea is unnecessary. Cold water will do.”

“Oh? Okay, okay.”

Li Yao poured half a bottle of water into his stomach. Wiping his lips with his sleeve, he went on. “Your identity is now very awkward. You may be called intruders, but most of you are the members of the fleet near the brown dwarf who have always been dozens of lightyears away from the federation and did not even have a chance to see the border of the federation. You may be called captives, but General Di has offered to surrender while keeping you organized. According to the policy in the ‘letters of persuasion’ that the federation presented, it can almost be counted as a ‘battlefield uprising’. More importantly, the homeland of the Imperium is still coveting the edge of the cosmos and will likely become our mutual enemy. So, the name of the Black Wind Fleet must be kept in order to deceive the enemy, and part of your independence will have to be maintained.

“Therefore, I had quite a headache for days about the relation between the federation and the newborn Black Wind Fleet. I can only say that we should begin by seeking common ground while reserving the differences. Whether we are going to cooperate, integrate, or reform, we must have a starting point, which is the common values of the two parties. Are there common values between the federation and the Black Wind Fleet? I think the answer is yes. We both have infinite loyalty and passion for the ‘civilization of mankind’.

“The Cultivators and the Immortal Cultivators, despite all the disagreements on the specific approaches, at least believe in the supremacy of mankind and will not allow any alien species to rule us. We are all willing to sacrifice ourselves for the civilization of mankind, aren’t we?

“The Black Wind Sector, the Wild Wolf Sector, the Hard Rock Sector, the Purple Fire Sector, and the Fiery Spider Sector are all at the borderland between the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance. So, a lot of you are heroes who’ve fought the inhumane puppets of the Covenant Alliance to defend the feelings and freedom of mankind. In the past months, I’ve heard the heroic deeds of a lot of people. For example, there is a General Zhou Tailong, nicknamed ‘Bloody Spear’…”

From the Immortal Cultivators who were sitting cross-legged, a muscular man who was almost three meters tell, covered in tremendous metals and crystal components all over the body, with a circle of wolf fangs embedded to the forehead and only a sole eye left, suddenly rose up and roared, blushing, “Commander, Zhou Tailong is at your service!”

Li Yao rubbed his ears and eyed Zhou Tailong for a moment. He nodded and said, “Greetings, General Zhou. I’m told that in the Battle of the Green Dragon Planet a hundred years ago, to guard the retreat of the main troops of the Wild Wolf Sector, you stalled three crystal suit legions and one orbit fleet of the Alliance of the Holy Covenant for seven days and seven nights with only one crystal legion. When you finally accomplished the mission and broke out of the siege, there were only twenty-one survivors in the legion, which had more than a thousand and nine hundred people in the beginning.”