Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Although they were in the sunless underground world, Zuo Jingyun was still emitting vague glimmers, as if she was made of the minerals that had been condensed and compressed below the ground for billions of years.

The two little fellows considered her words in silence. Moved by the radiance from her body, they felt as if an unknown strength was growing inside their own bodies, too.

“The meat is ready. Eat it now.”

The Fist King brought over three plates and three forks. He gave a piece of meat to Zuo Jingyun, too, besides the two little fellows.

Zuo Jingyun tilted her head and watched the Fist King and the broiled meat in his hands for a long time before she finally remarked, “I didn’t know that you were such a Fist King.”

“Although I do not need to refill fat and protein personally, regular human beings have to take food every day,” the Fist King said casually. “Only when someone is fed will they have the strength to train and fight. The deliciousness of the food will certainly influence their combat ability. In order to set their battle state to the optimal, I must take every detail into consideration. Is it really a surprise that I am a cooking master?”

Zuo Jingyun laughed and thanked the Fist King. Then she extended her hand to the Fist King sincerely and said, “Fist King, I think you are very different from the common bandits in the Land of Sins. How about it? Are you interested in joining our organization and destroying this damn world as a Cultivator?”

“I have no interest in becoming a Cultivator.” The Fist King rejected the offer without any hesitation. Pausing a moment, he said, “But I am very interested in destroying this damn world.”

After a brief daze, Zuo Jingyun laughed in amusement. “It makes sense. In fact, I think I am exactly the same. I don’t care what real Cultivators should look like, and my sole interest is destroying this damn world.

“Or rather, every generation of people has their generation’s destiny. For our generation, it will be good enough if we can blow the Land of Sins to smithereens. As for the mission to build a new world from the ruins, that will be the concern of Han Te, Liu Li, and their generation because we will certainly have died on the battlefield to destroy the old world!”

Han Te and Liu Li were chewing the delicious meat when they heard Zuo Jingyun mention them. They both raised their heads and looked at the bald female warrior.

“No, you won’t!” Waving her fork, Liu Li said in a hurry, “Sister Yun will certainly live and see a beautiful new world. Your dream will come true. You will establish your own small but beautiful house in a field where the sky is clear and the clouds are low. Then, you will do nothing but watch the sky and the earth from the threshold or the room every day, living a free and enjoyable life!”

Zuo Jingyun smiled. Azure and white colors truly flashed in her eyes that were almost transparent, as if the entire sky had floated to the bottom of her eyes.

She was almost moved to tears by the image, but the azure and white colors disappeared as quickly as they appeared. She soon regained her previous calmness and toughness.

“Judging from the elements of rocks and the forsaken tunnels we excavated today, we are getting closer and closer to the legendary temple. We are in contact with a few other earthly dragons that dispersed to escape earlier, too. At least a thousand warriors have survived. Everybody is marching toward the temple from various directions. By our estimation, we will locate the temple tomorrow and activate the global sword network.”

With the underground glimmers dancing inside her eyes, Zuo Jingyun chewed the meat on her fork and said in a low voice, “However, the Immortal Cultivators are following us closely. It is very possible that they will reach the temple immediately after we do. There is bound to be a fierce battle.

“It doesn’t matter whether or not I will survive the battle or ever build my own house in the future. But even if I must die, I will definitely activate the global sword network and shoot Manjusaka down!

“I really don’t know what it will be like tomorrow. Tomorrow…”

Han Te and Liu Li grabbed Zuo Jingyun’s warm right hand and cold left hand, declaring solemnly and piously, “Tomorrow will be better!”

The Fist King observed them in silence as his crystal processor squeaked and gathered everything he saw and heard into his database and his logic circuits.

Inside his logic circuits, a certain thing similar to a virus but much more subtle was slowly growing.

…

Gao Kangda stood on the messy bridge of Great Mountain and stared at the thousands of brilliant stars in the profound universe. The stars that dazzled his eyes reminded him of the gunshots and the sword auras that had butchered his brothers twenty years ago.

Great Mountain, maneuvered by Gao Kangda, was one of the most enormous starships in the coalition attack fleet of Starlight. However, it was not a super heavy cruiser or an expedition aircraft carrier produced in the regular military dockyard of the Imperium.

Four hundred and fifty-five years ago, it had set sail from a civil dock for the purpose of prospecting, excavation, and exploration in deep space. In other words, it was a mining starship that was designed to perform excavation work on dangerous zones that were frequented by radiation and cosmic storms and on asteroids and stone belts where fixed mines could not be established.

Gao Kangda became the deputy manager of the mining room of ‘Great Mountain’ thirty years ago, which was the highest post that a hominoid could have possibly reached. From that day on, he learned every screw of Great Mountain as clearly as he knew his own fingers.

Ever since they seized Great Mountain twenty years ago in an uprising, getting out of the control of the Immortal Cultivators and joining Starlight after a long journey, he had regarded Great Mountain as his wife or even his child. Every cabin, every piece of plate armor, and every additional turret that was attached to Great Mountain had been planned in the most meticulous way after days of restless consideration.

To outsiders, Great Mountain was practically an amalgamation of garbage and an iron beast with all kinds of abnormal tumors. Cooling pads, heat-proof plates, and metal components of unknown purposes were everywhere on the surface of the starship, leaving the impression that the starship would fall apart on its own while sailing in the sea of stars before the cannons of the Imperium shot it down. It was even questionable whether or not the starship could perform a space jump.

However, Gao Kangda and his brothers whom he had fought side by side with for decades were the only ones who understood the sturdiness and reliability of the giant garbage starship. They knew how it helped them resist the most violent cosmic storms, the fiercest stone belts, and the most dangerous space ripples. They understood how it ripped the enemy’s defense line against the bombardment of the army of the Imperium, shattering those high and mighty b*stards into smithereens as if they were raw minerals!

“Other than giving birth to a child, Great Mountain can do anything. Except for the capital of the Imperium, Great Mountain has the courage to barge into any place!”

It was the firmest belief of all the crew of Great Mountain, including Captain Gao Kangda.

But when he thought of the attack they were about to launch tomorrow, Gao Kangda, who had survived countless sieges, could not help but secretly gulp in fear.

After the battle, the big starship that had acted as a ‘home’ for him and countless other people for decades would very likely fall apart and become a piece of enormous garbage floating in the sea of stars.

But did they have any other choice?

If they had a choice, they would not have launched a great uprising twenty years ago but kept working as dutiful miners and making a living with their handicraft!

God knew that Gao Kangda and his brothers were the most diligent and trustworthy workers. None of them were sly, lazy slackers.

It was already dangerous to mine in the deep parts of the planets, and it was a hundred times more perilous to travel among the highly unstable stone belts due to the radiation, shooting stars, and cosmic storms!

For hundreds of years, their forefathers and them had gritted their teeth through everything. There was no telling how many precious minerals they had collected for their company and the Imperium with their hands and their bones. They had practiced highly painful techniques in order to increase their physical strength, their sturdiness, and their anti-radiation abilities. They had performed modifications on their organs with special gene medicines and strengthening drugs, even taking energy pills for a long time until they collapsed at their post after days and nights of work… Such things were anything but unusual for them. Nobody ever had any complaints. It was all for the country and for the civilization of mankind!

But why was the country and the civilization of mankind so difficult to satisfy? The annual ration of mining for everyone was higher and higher, but because all the places that were slightly steady and favorable for mining had been emptied, they had to step into the dangerous zones that were full of radiation, high-energy particles and extremely unstable stone belts, which naturally led to a drop in the mining efficiency and a drastic increase in the casualty rate. Could the low morale and the unsteadiness of productivity be attributed to their laziness?

Gao Kangda had explained the logic to the management of the Immortal Cultivators countless times before. His brothers had truly tried their best and were even too tired to vomit any blood. But the management did not care in the slightest. The electromagnetic whips with thorns in the hands of the foremen were brutal and excruciating. One whip was enough to blow a piece of flesh off, two whips could break a couple of bones, and three whips would blow the soul out of a miner’s body.

In the end, seeing that it was impossible to exploit any more value from the miners, the company was even considering introducing a few fully-automatic mining and purification assembly lines with spiritual puppets, replacing all the human miners with the mining machines.

The workers had been engaged in the mining work for generations. Other than detecting the minerals, digging the minerals, and refining the minerals, they were incapable of anything else. Besides, in the stone belts that had a terribly harsh environment, there was nowhere else for them to live. If the mining puppets replaced all of them, how would they survive?