Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

The Fist King’s voice was as cold as a machine, but the brilliance flowing out of his man-made eyes was mixed with heat similar to human beings. Warming up his fingers that were nothing more than bones, he seemed to have grabbed the entire world, no, the entire universe, in his hand.

“Master Fist King, are you really going to fight against Manjusaka?”

Although he had revealed his origins, Han Te and Liu Li could not treat him as a lifeless puppet and still felt that he was something special, just like ‘Grandpa Yao’.

“I do not want to be against anything,” the Fist King said. “But my highest instruction is to be stronger until I surpass the limits of strength. That is the significance for my existence and the reason for all my actions.

“Since I was likely created by someone in Manjusaka, and they are still controlling the entire Land of Sins tightly, it is safe to say that Manjusaka must boast techniques, technology, and magical equipment that are far more advanced that those in the Land of Sins. As long as I blow it up and absorb the techniques and technology from the debris, I will certainly become stronger!

“Therefore, it is certainly the course of my action. Is there a problem?”

“There is.” After pondering for a moment, Li Yao asked, “Assuming that you were a test subject of a certain automatic puppet project that was projected from Manjusaka, do the people in Manjusaka have no way of monitoring or controlling you?

“There were at the beginning. Although I did not know I was from Manjusaka in the beginning, I vaguely sensed that there was a special secret instruction at the center of my logical thinking circuits. It was some sort of ‘backdoor’ or ‘seal’.” The Fist King pointed at his iron skull. “However, in the fierce battle a hundred years ago, ninety-nine percent of my core crystal processor was destroyed.

“After I reached the underground sanctuary, most of the chips and components inside the crystal processor had been replaced. I also upgraded myself continuously during the hundred years. The version of the data analyzer alone was upgraded 524 times. Forty-four years, five months, and twenty-eight days ago, I erased the secret instruction. The result of my self-examination was that no external strength could control me. I am now only motivated by my highest instruction, which is to be stronger!”

“How is that possible?” Li Yao found it hard to believe. “You can erase the control instructions that your creators etched into your logical circuits?”

“Because it is in conflict with my highest instruction,” the Fist King said casually. “My highest instruction is to be the strongest, but if a certain being can control me, will I ever be the strongest?

“The strongest should at least be able to do whatever they want without being bound by any restraints, right? All the definitions that I collected say so.

“Since the highest instruction says that I do not need to care about the means or the cost, as long as I can grow stronger, not just erasing a secondary order, it is also an option to demolish Manjusaka and kill all my creators, right?”

“Well, you certainly can,” Li Yao said. “Absolutely. No argument here, brother!”

“The day the real Lei Zonglie died, ‘Fist King’ Lei Zonglie was born. I returned to the surface with his hope, his anger, his hatred, and his ambitions,” the Fist King said. “The rest is history. Under the name of ‘Fist King’ Lei Zonglie, I established my reputation in the Land of Sins. I then set up ‘Godly Fist Union’, recruiting soldiers and expanding my forces, hoping to declare war on the sky after seizing several Elysian Worlds!

“I knew that the sky would be monitoring the ground one way or another, but I could not expose my real identity and purpose. So, I simply impressed everyone as a tyrant with more brawn than brains.

“I thought that I would not be erased by the sky after taking over a few Elysian Worlds. I did not know that the sky’s control over the ground was so rigorous and flawless. It is not something that I can resist right now.

“I have failed!” the Fist King said hoarsely and stared at his vulnerable hands. “Although you have rescued my crystal processor core, allowing my main database and my logical thinking architecture to survive, I have still lost more than half of my strength and become a common spiritual puppet again.”

Liu Li could not help but pat his iron shoulder. “Don’t feel sad, Master Fist King. You are alive after all!”

Looking at the girl’s hand on his shoulder, the Fist King said solemnly, “Sadness is a feeling of human beings. While I can simulate it vividly when I am playing the role of ‘Fist King’ Lei Zonglie, I am incapable of being sad in my real logical thinking.

“The fear of death is also something I do not understand. I am not sad, frustrated, or frightened. Since I am alive, the mission must proceed. I have to figure out a way to be stronger until I am strong enough to shoot down the City in the Sky as well as the beings in the whole universe beyond the City in the Sky who are stronger than me.”

While talking, he stared at Li Yao with great interest.

Li Yao’s soul was almost sweating again. He hurried to explain, “Don’t look at me like that. I am actually very weak. However, I do know a lot of real experts. For example, a certain ‘Sword Maniac’ Mr. Yan, a certain Ms. Long who is a traveler from primeval ages, and a certain ‘Pirate Potentate’ Mr. Bai. They are all super experts who roam the sea of stars. If I have chance, I will introduce you to them. You should all bond with each other!”

“I have finished. It is your turn now. What kind of being are you exactly? Were you projected to the Land of Sins in the same experiment as mine, or are you some existence that is even weirder?” The Fist King tilted his neck and stared at Li Yao. “It’s been a long time since I ran into my own kind. If it were a hundred years ago, I would have launched the fiercest attack at you the moment I met you. However, after learning so many things in the underground sanctuary, I want to use a different method for information exchanges and upgrading. I am more interested in finding out if any of my own kind met a lot of people and came up with their own definitions on what it means ‘to be stronger’ just like me.”

The two little fellows’ eyes were focused on Li Yao again.

Li Yao scratched his iron skull with a drill. After thinking for a moment, he decided to tell the truth. “I am really not an artificial intelligence. As for my past… I cannot explain many things to you right now, but I did learn some shocking information on the battlefield yesterday. Han Te, Liu Li, you’d better be prepared and try not to be scared.”

Li Yao summarized the intelligence that he had elicited from Liao Fei, the Immortal Cultivator player.

“The paradise of sins?”

“Our entire world is just an enormous ‘trial field’, ‘playground’, and ‘laboratory’?”

“There’s still a boundless world beyond this place as well as hundreds of planets, and the home that we have been living in is nothing more than a zoo?”

The two little fellows seemed to have been hit by the torrents of lightning. They were dumbfounded at first, and then they trembled hard with gloomy faces in fury. In the end, their eyes became bloodshot, and they almost burst into tears in resentment.

“That does explain a lot of things.” The Fist King’s voice was still devoid of all feelings and as calm as a cluster of ice. “So, my war is just one of their games.”

“Cr*p!” After a long daze, Han Te suddenly jumped from the mud and bellowed as if crazy. “My sister! My sister went to Manjusaka! If-if Manjusaka is not a heaven, how is my sister now?”

He was so anxious that he was moving about and gritting his teeth hard. Smashing his fist at the metal tube heavily, he shouted, “I must save my sister. I have to rescue my sister from Manjusaka!”

“I—I’ll go with you!” Liu Li grabbed Han Te’s bleeding fist, warming her own hand with the hotness. “It’s too wicked. Those people are too wicked. Master Fist King is right. If such bad people live on, even if the entire Land of Sins is covered with Gold Barley, it will be useless. Besides, they will not allow us to pave the entire desolate land with Gold Barley without interfering!”

“What do you say, Fist King?” Li Yao looked at the Fist King. “Are you willing to come to Manjusaka with us?”

“Yes.” The Fist King calculated quickly. “The world is closely monitored by them. Besides, the resources here are inadequate, and the materials are all garbage. However I upgrade myself, it is already the limit to grow into the form of Great Iron City, which is still worthless in front of the City in the Sky.

“Perhaps, if we sneak into Manjusaka to find more advanced materials and magical equipment to build up myself and to sabotage the place from the inside, there will be a better chance to knock down the City in the Sky!

“However, since the Battle of Liberty City is a focus of the angels’ attention, they must’ve imposed a dragnet in all directions. How on earth are we going to escape Liberty City, and how should we sneak into Manjusaka?”

“About that…”

Li Yao’s soul released the ripples of a smile and shot out a bright-green, 3D light beam, which was a translucent hologram of Liberty City.

Li Yao enlarged the picture quickly. Below the skyscrapers were the dilapidated buildings, below the dilapidated buildings were inconspicuous alleys, and below the inconspicuous alleys were the interconnected tubes where they were hiding.

The indicator on the Fist King’s chest flashed quickly, expressing his appreciation for Li Yao’s shocking scanning ability.

They saw that a glittering spot was moving quickly inside a tube not far away from them like a stealthy rat.

“What is that?” Han Te asked curiously.

“It is Xin Xiaoqi,” Li Yao replied with a smile.

“Her?” Han Te and Liu Li both bulged their eyes. They did not expect Xin Xiaoqi to be so sturdy that she was not killed on the bloodstained battlefield. Nor did they expect that Grandpa Yao had long placed a gadget that was similar to a tracker on the mysterious woman!