Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

With a frozen, statue-like smile on his face, Wei Xiaotian’s eyes shuddered again and again. He said, somewhat cautiously, “Fine. Considering your years of dutiful service for the sky, whatever questions you have, you may ask them!”

Li Yao, who was hiding below, felt that the Immortal Cultivators should not be so easy to deal with. There must be a scheme behind everything.

After he sensed carefully, he felt that the spiritual ripples between Wei Xiaotian and the sky seemed to have become much more intense. The information transmission was increased more than ten times over, and data was exchanged crazily.

“Stop thinking. The guy is trying to buy himself more time.” The mental devil sent a secret message to Li Yao from Neltharion. “He wouldn’t make any deal with Xiahou Wuxin at all. He only wants to get more time to confirm what Xiahou Wuxin said just now.

“The City in the Sky must have been monitoring every action of Xiahou Wuxin, Liberty City, and even the entire Land of Sins closely. But real-time surveillance is one thing, and processing all the information that has been received is another.

“The Immortal Cultivators have an astronomical, overwhelming database. I don’t think that they have enough manpower and computational ability to analyze the data and figure out every detail.

“This Immortal Cultivator ‘Wei Xiaotian’ is not sure if Xiahou Wuxin is bluffing. If my guess is correct, the Immortal Cultivators in Manjusaka must be analyzing all the surveillance information of Xiahou Wuxin in the past with all their strength, trying to locate the most secret underground warehouse or disprove its existence.

“That is why Wei Xiaotian needs to get more time. Xiahou Wuxin’s questions are exactly what he wants right now.

“Naturally, it is a good thing for us because we will have more time to make arrangements.”

The mental devil sent the pictures shot by Neltharion to Li Yao.

All the tough bandits around Xiahou Wuxin, Wei Xiaotian, and the rest of them had been scanned by the mental devil clearly.

Han Te and Liu Li were searching for the most suitable targets.

The Fist King was also micro-adjusting his every metal joint with a multipurpose maintenance tool, making sure that the body and his combat database perfectly matched each other.

A rain of blood was coming!

On the ground, Xiahou Wuxin took a deep breath and glanced at Xin Xiaoqi, as if he were truly full of curiosity. “I know that the entire Land of Sins is your laboratory and all the sinners are but your test subjects. I also know that the assassins and mercenaries from the Valley of Thorns are here for training and screening, which is called ‘trial’ by you, right?

“Despite the cruelty in everything, it is somewhat understandable.

“However, of the angels who arrived in the Land of Sins, besides the experimenters like you and those trial-takers, there were also some crazy weirdos who were here purely for slaughter and sabotage. They also often talked and laughed to air, making all kinds of dumbfoundingly contemptible postures. In recent years, such slaughtering clowns have become larger and larger in number. What are they about? I am completely confused.

“Before my death, can you answer my question and tell me the truth of those clowns, Master Wei? Otherwise, I truly feel that I will never rest in peace!”

Li Yao focused his attention below the earth, without letting go of any quake of soundwaves from the ground. The things about the slaughtering clowns, or the live streamers, had been most incomprehensible and baffling for him.

“I thought that you were interested in bigger secrets. So, this is what you are eager to find out!” Wei Xiaotian said with a smile. “This is not a top secret. So, it doesn’t matter to tell you. I must say that you are truly insightful to ask about the key to the existence of the Land of Sins!”

“The key to the existence?” Xiahou Wuxin asked in confusion.

“Yes. In the past hundreds of years, the Land of Sins had always existed as a place to test magical equipment and techniques. But in the last hundred years, especially the recent few decades, the arrival and activity of those ‘live streamers’ are the greatest reason for the continuity and the thriving of the paradise of sins!

“Do not underestimate yourselves and think that you are just poor test subjects or ‘props’ in the trial quests. No. For the great Imperium and the civilization of mankind that is even greater, you are of much greater significance. You do not even know how great a contribution you have made to the harmony and stability of the Imperium!

“Rest assured. The Imperium will not forget you. The civilization of mankind will not forget the anonymous heroes, either. Haha. Hahaha!”

“Live streamers?” Xiahou Wuxin had finally learned the names of the slaughtering clowns. Chewing on the name for a while, he ignored the sarcastic name of ‘anonymous heroes’ and continued his questioning patiently. “What kind of contribution?”

“You know that the Imperium is made of one percent true human beings and ninety-nine percent hominoids. Unlike the true human beings who know the significance of their life clearly and are actively dedicated to the great evolution of the civilization of mankind, hominoids are an ignorant, self-demeaning, shameless, lazy, and worthless species. It is tremendously difficult to activate the potential of the inferior species and ask them to make even the slightest contributions to mankind!”

Wei Xiaotian sighed. “The thing about hominoids is that the moment you go easy on them, they will immediately have a lot of irrelevant thoughts, simmering in impatience. But if you are too harsh on them, they will be frustrated and lifeless. They will only walk half a step after taking a whip, and their efficiency is even lower than that of spiritual puppets.

“To make matters worse, instigated by a bunch of ill-intended, disobedient criminals and the foreign hostile forces, the mobs will even be united against true human beings in resistance to the government of the great Imperium!

“In the past thousand years, we have adopted a lot of ways to administer the hominoids, but tyranny, harsh suppression, or gentle policies all had their shortcomings. The methods that are too harsh result in decreased work efficiency of the hominoids, and the odds of riots and insurgencies are greatly increased. The methods that are too friendly facilitate all kinds of ideas in the hearts of the hominoids that they shouldn’t have, which also affect the hard-earned peace and prosperity in the Imperium.

“Eventually, it was the brilliant Lord Wuying Lan, the ruler of Manjusaka, the City in the Sky, who created the groundbreaking concept of ‘slaughter streaming’ that solved the problem once and for all and satisfied the needs of most of the hominoids in the Imperium, allowing the Imperium of True Human Beings to step into a new age!”

“Slaughter streaming…” Thinking quickly, Xiahou Wuxin said even more bitterly, “I understand it now. No wonder those ‘live streamers’ bring so many unnecessary crystal cameras with them. So, all their slaughters are for other people to watch. It’s like a show.”

“Indeed. All kinds of slaughter streams are the most popular entertainment shows in the Imperium. It is also the only means of entertainment for most of the hominoids,” Wei Xiaotian said casually with his hands behind his back. “Also, it is much more complicated than simple entertainment, but also a new way of edification and destressing, an educational entertainment.”

“Educational entertainment?” Xiahou Wuxin gnashed his teeth. “That is really brilliantly put!”

Wei Xiaotian suddenly raised his voice and said, “Human beings are the strongest fighting species in the sea of stars. Only the strongest are entitled to the great name of ‘human being’. Survival of the fittest is the only law in the universe!

“Every hominoid should be aware of such a supreme principle. The slaughter streams are a more direct way for them to understand the concepts of ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ and how cruel survival is. Their fighting will is raised without them knowing it, too, so that the more ambitious and determined ones among them will be able to distinguish themselves more easily!

“On the other hand, do you know that the sense of happiness always comes from comparison? The resources in the universe are too scarce to improve the environment and the material conditions on a large scale. However, it is not so difficult to improve the sense of happiness in your perception.

“However hard my work and however painful my life is, as long as I know that somebody is shouldering more agony, hardship, and inhumane torture, all the pain that I am suffering seems less difficult to deal with. Such is the weirdness of humans’ senses!

“So, for the hominoids who work in the boundless fields of the Imperium or the sunless mines, since we cannot improve their working environment and living conditions for the time being, we will show them the lives of the people who are even more miserable than them—the lives of you, the sinners in the Land of Sins.”

“I understand it now,” Xiahou Wuxin said coldly. “Hominoids are your slaves. It is needless to mention the bitterness of the torture that they suffer in farmlands and mines. But whatever torture they suffer, their life is still much better than biting each other like wild dogs in the Land of Sins or being butchered by the ‘experimenters’, ‘trial-takers’, and ‘live streamers’ blatantly!”

“That is exactly my point,” Wei Xiaotian said with a smile. “When an unlucky man meets a man ten times unluckier than him, he will be in a much better mood and even think that he is actually quite lucky. That is exactly how you get a sense of happiness!

“Those hominoids have been working deep inside the mines day and night. They are ignorant, directionless people in the first place. After a long period of work, it is inevitable that they will complain or even slack off, which will result in a decrease in productivity.

“It is useless to suppress the worthless swine who are not scared of beatings or death. But as long as the clips of ‘slaughter streams’ are shown to them during their precious breaks from work, they will somehow be elated, all their complaints gone, after they see how the sinners in the Land of Sins scream, moan, and cry.”