Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“Aren’t there any stabler arts?” Li Yao asked.

“Of course,” Han Te replied, “there are stabler arts, but stable means conservative, and conservative means weak. You can’t have all the best in the world. If we practice the stabler arts while other people practice the radical ones, naturally, the odds of other people injuring themselves will be higher, but they will be stronger than us before that, and they will rob us of our food, water, and all the other resources. They will even dismantle our bones and feed on our flesh and blood!

“We do not have any choice except to practice the arts that are more radical. Even if they do have fatal shortcomings, that is the least of our concerns.”

Liu Li sighed, too and said, “In fact, my dad and the other ‘old grandpas’ in my village thought about perfecting our arts and fixing the fatal shortcomings. At the very least, they can combine and make some arts that are both stable and powerful. To that end, even all the experts and old grandpas in the villages nearby were summoned once. But it was useless.

“It was partly because of the lack of resources and the sense of competition. But more importantly, as new-generation old grandpas arrive from the sky, they often bring arts that are more powerful, and naturally, more unstable.

“Yes. The dangers of the new-generation arts are higher, and the training will cause great harm to oneself. Normal people are not willing to practice them.

“However, there are always people who are determined to take the risk. Even if nine out of ten trainers are killed, the successful one may have an abrupt rise in capability and be able to monopolize all the resources in the hundreds of square kilometers around or even butcher all the other villages.

“To resist the bullying of such lunatics, we have no choice except to turn ourselves into lunatics and train ourselves following their example. Such a vicious cycle is perhaps the fate of the Land of Sins.”

After saying that, both of the two little fellows bit their lips and fell silent.

All that could be heard was the smoke and dust spraying from the two sides of the shuttle.

“What a perfect laboratory for new magical equipment and techniques!” the mental devil remarked in great amazement next to Li Yao’s soul. “By tossing ‘aid’ to the ground irregularly and controlling the quantity of the assets precisely, it’s more than simple to manipulate all the sinners in the Land of Sins, forcing them to struggle on the verge of death. They will not be entirely starved, but they have to fight each other brutally for the slightest resources!

“Through the generations of old grandpas that fall from the sky, all the techniques and magical equipment to be tested, which are highly dangerous and unstable, are given to the sinners as ‘gifts’. No coercion is needed at all to make the sinners volunteer to become lab rats for the Immortal Cultivators.

“After the test for a technique is done, and all the hidden problems and shortcomings in real combat are revealed or even perfected by the sinners, more radical, powerful, and unstable techniques are projected to begin a new round of tests.

“In the death contest where you kill or get killed, somebody will definitely take the risk. As long as one person chooses the new techniques, the other people can only grit their teeth and follow. This is an arms race!

“The Desolate Worlds; the Bloody Worlds; the Elysian Worlds; and Manjusaka, the City in the Sky. The four seemingly progressive worlds give the sinners a slim chance of hope. Like the carrot hanging in front of a donkey’s head, they lure the sinners to train themselves crazily without bothering about anything, even if they clearly know that the arts that they are practicing are full of fatal shortcomings.

“It is needless to say that the various quests released by the City in the Sky are partly meant to maintain the Immortal Cultivators’ reign on the Land of Sins and partly to collect data. It’s killing two birds with one stone!

“What a marvelous design. It is much more efficient than forcing the slaves to train themselves under blades and chains in a simple and straightforward laboratory!”

Li Yao’s soul was a bit cold. He was about to talk when the two little fellows both exclaimed at the same time, “Look, Grandpa Yao, look. That is Manjusaka, the City in the Sky!”

Li Yao increased the perception of his soul to the highest as he looked at the zenith of the sky.

At this moment, the dark night had fallen, but the sky was still gleaming in various colors while the dust of radiation was surging nonstop, as if groups of fireflies were dancing crazily.

Right above, at the edge of the high sky, it could be seen that a red star was glowing and blossoming like a chrysanthemum.

The flowing brilliance cascaded down like a waterfall, flying in the night wind both like upside-down flames and like the long hair of a siren.

“Manjusaka, the City in the Sky…” The young man stared at the night sky in a daze, his both eyes occupied by the brilliance as demonic as fire. He could not help but open his arms at the red star and declare, “I will certainly go to Manjusaka. I will!”

“It is said that seeing Manjusaka when the night just falls will bring good fortune for an entire year. I pray that dad and Han Te can get well soon. I pray that the village can survive the Bliss Ceremony this time. I pray that everyone is safe and sound,” the girl prayed in a low voice, her hands clasped together. “Please watch over the poor sinners, Manjusaka!”

“I just remembered that I’ve seen the name of ‘Manjusaka’ in a notebook of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures in the Heavenly Refining Tower,” Li Yao said to the mental devil coldly. “Manjusaka seems to be an extraordinary flower grown in the early years of the ancient Cultivators. It was also known by the locals as ‘Flower of the Other Shore’.

“It is a flower that is as beautiful as it is poisonous. It has the glamor of the setting sun and the pureness of the white snow.

“According to the legends of the locals, the flower grows on the shores of the river in hell. It emits a sweet smell that gives the deceased a moment of ecstasy so that they will cross the river in ignorance, step into hell, and fall into eternal reincarnation.

“The notebook of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures of the Hundred Smelting Clan gives no comments about such a legend, but it does agree that Manjusaka boasts a very powerful hypotonization and hallucinogenic effect. The flower can paralyze one’s nerves and even soul, making them die with a smile on their faces in bizarre dreams. All in all, it is a very dangerous material.”

“Isn’t it perfect?” The mental devil chuckled. “Wasn’t the outcome of the sinners predestined when the Immortal Cultivators named their laboratory ‘Manjusaka’? Think about it, if a sinner is able to practice dozens of different arts that have serious shortcomings without getting killed, and their strength even grows exponentially—allowing them to pass multiple tests, accomplish the most arduous quests, and accumulate tremendous contribution points—they are finally qualified to enter ‘Manjusaka’. Think about it. What awaits them in the crimson City in the Sky? Will they become ‘angels’, or will they be sliced up for study to analyze the mysteries of their bodies and figure out why they could have overcome so many shortcomings?”

“…Just like Han Te’s sister?”

The mental devil grimaced. “Maybe.”

After a long silence, Li Yao declared, one word after another, “We have to go to Manjusaka, the City in the Sky!”

“Exactly,” the mental devil said. “If Manjusaka is indeed the control center of the ‘planetary experiment base for magical equipment’, it must have ‘high-molecular layer-by-layer scanning magical equipment’. Chances are that there will be a lot of resources that can help us make significant progress. Of course we are going to Manjusaka!”

“There’s also ‘Starry Light’, the mysterious resistance organization of Cultivators, and the legendary ‘Lost Cultivator’,” Li Yao said. “If the Land of Sins is truly an overwhelming laboratory that nobody can escape from, it is not strange at all that the people here will turn into real Cultivators after they learn the truth!”

“But we must tread lightly and not expose ourselves in any case,” the mental devil said. “Since this place has been confirmed to be a laboratory of magical equipment and techniques for the Immortal Cultivators, there must be a lot of surveillance systems here. Chances are that high-resolution crystal cameras that can monitor every corner on the ground clearly have been installed all over the Heavenly Rails that surround the entire planet.

“The ‘Desolate Worlds’ we are in are the bottom level of the Land of Sins. The surveillance here won’t be too strict. This is a place where people are encouraged to attack each other so that ‘elite experiment subjects’ can be screened out.

“After we reach the Bloody Worlds, the Elysian Worlds, and even Manjusaka, we will certainly be faced with the surveillance of a dragnet and ubiquitous prying.”

“Therefore, we might as well take the two little fellows with us.” Li Yao smiled. “The techniques that the Immortal Cultivators released for testing, despite the fatal shortcomings and problems, are indeed powerful enough. The two teenagers are experts above average even by the standard of the federation!”

Illuminated by the crimson light of Manjusaka, the three of them drove out of the city ruins, each thinking of their own business. Moving in the wilderness in silence for more than an hour, they returned to the Village of Peace.

“Grandpa, we are about to enter the territory of our village!”

Robbing and killing the travelers in the wilderness for their treasures was a daily routine in the Land of Sins. The two little fellows had been staying on the highest alert all their way here.

It was not until they saw a metal board standing on the ruins, which had the word ‘PEACE’ painted in enormous letters, that they finally took a breath in relief.

In front of them was a boundless lake. The sound of surging tides could be vaguely heard, as if they had come to an ocean.

Li Yao had observed the environment from the sky earlier and therefore knew that this place was still far away from the ocean. The lake that was hundreds of kilometers in diameter must have been formed by a few overlapping craters that were filled with rainwater. It was possible that they were melted with the canals of the past, too, allowing the fresh water to flow in incessantly, which kept the vitality of the lake.

Looking into the distance, Li Yao could vaguely see that dozens of rusted, iron-shelled boats had been connected, constituting a tall, tight-knit village on the water.

The place was ablaze with light although it was late at night. Countless people were busily working on the deck. Many smaller catamarans were rowing near the village, sending out ripples nonstop. This was the Village of Peace, which had a population of several thousand and could be counted as a ‘big’ village in the hundreds of square kilometers around.