Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

When Gao Kangda, a resistance warrior of Starlight, was waiting for the moment of the valiant sacrifice, on a most advanced semi-automatic mining starship in his hometown dozens of sectors away, Gao Xiaojian, his brother, who was thought to have died in the “Unsettled Riot” twenty years ago, crawled into the “Loyalty Room” while waving eight enormous mechanical limbs like a spider.

The Unsettled Space Zone and also Gao Xiaojian himself were entirely different from twenty years ago.

The mess and destruction during the riot years back in the Unsettled Space Zone were completely gone. Instead, it had become a “model mine” that was rather famous in the few resource worlds nearby.

After the plummet of the revenues as caused by the great riot, the malfunctions of the fully-automatic spiritual puppets in the cosmic storms, and most importantly of all, the great reduction of logistical pressure due to the elimination of 95% of human miners, the “Unsettled Alliance”, the sect that governed the Unsettled Space Zone, finally admitted that it was a terrible idea to replace all humans in mining or any other work solely with spiritual puppets.

Humans were the wisest of all creatures. Even hominoids, the inferior products among them, were not to be completely replaced by the silly spiritual puppets.

Therefore, after a few fully-automatic mining fields and mining starships, which were totally unmanned and only remotely monitored, encountered serious accidents in a row, skilled miners such as Gao Xiaojian were introduced back to the mining work again.

Of course, to better improve the work efficiency and their cooperation with the spiritual puppets, great modifications had been performed on their bodies of flesh and blood, too.

Basically, other than the brains that maintained their ability of independent thinking, all the parts in their fragile and delicate bodies had been removed and replaced with iron bones and external components that could be chosen and installed freely. For example, the body similar to a mechanical spider that Gao Xiaojian was using right now was a product of the latest technologies of the Unsettled Alliance.

The few human miners, which had been highly modified, commanding abundant automatic spiritual puppets in the mining work on the spot was the most perfect work pattern for mining, which had taken both efficiency and stability into consideration.

Different from his brother Gao Kangda’s wrath that hadn’t extinguished after twenty years but only got more and more blatant, Gao Xiaojian was quite satisfied, if not deeply believed in the life he had right now.

To this day, he could not forget the moment when he was visited by the leader of the Unsettled Alliance to be a “representative of the distinguished miners”. At that time, the leader of the Unsettled Alliance even patted his iron elbow neither too lightly nor too heavily and told him in person genuinely, “We made a horrible mistake in the past. How can we overlook the important function of ‘humans’ in mining work? The experienced, excellent miners such as you will forever be the greatest treasure for the Unsettled Alliance and the Imperium of True Human Beings!”

Did he hear it wrong? The leader of the Unsettled Alliance, an almighty lord of the Immortal Cultivators, complimented them in person like that, extolling them to be a great treasure of the Imperium!

If Gao Xiaojian’s eyes hadn’t been replaced by four pairs of high-resolution crystal cameras, which boasted the functions of thermal imagery and clairvoyance, he certainly would have burst into tears feeling that all those years of hard work finally paid off. He felt that he could not repay the understanding and support of the Immortal Cultivators with what he was going to do.

Gao Xiaojian deeply loved the Imperium and believed in the true path of immortality. He believed that, even for hominoids who were born at the bottommost level with certain “stains”, as long as they work hard dutifully and obediently, they would eventually be noticed by the Immortal Cultivators for their value and earn what they deserved.

Wasn’t what had happened to him in the past dozen years a perfect example of that? Right now, he was commanding eight hundred mining puppets on his own!

Therefore, the education session in the “Loyalty Room” was never boring for Gao Xiaojian, who looked forward to it from the bottom of his heart and almost regretted that he could not receive the education of patriotism in the “Loyalty Room” every day.

Today, Gao Xiaojian came late because of some issues of several seriously damaged mining puppets. When he crawled into the Loyalty Room, the spacious cabin had already been crammed by bizarre-shaped metal monsters of various sizes. They were all human miners who had received full modifications like himself and the managers of the various work planes in the mine.

All the modified humans were too focused on the light beams, dwelling in the passionate and moving atmosphere, to notice his arrival.

“The vile and sordid people of the Covenant Alliance are now close to their doom. They are about to be completely doomed!”

As the faces and zombie-like bodies that represented the people of the Covenant Alliance popped up on the light beam, the broadcast rune arrays nearby played an earsplitting female voice that was desperate and filled with anger and hatred.

The voice was not only spread in the recycled air, but it also burst out directly inside Gao Xiaojian’s brain through his ancillary crystal processor. He was suddenly grasped by a mutual feeling of hatred again, and his anger and hostility immediately soared.

It was basically the content of the weekly loyal education. At first, the news about the significant improvement of the productions and constructions within the Imperium, the peaceful life of the people, and the friendly coexistence of the Immortal Cultivators and the hominoids would be played, followed by the terrifying pictures that illustrated the shamelessness and inhumanity of the people of the Covenant Alliance. Occasionally, there were also stories about how Blackstar the Great led the many pioneers to establish the Imperium through arduous work.

Although the moral was always the same, the content was renewed every week. Therefore, human miners always enjoyed watching the news.

However, after berating the abhorrence of the Covenant Alliance, the high-pitched female voice added something else, “However, within our great Imperium, a lot of accomplices of the Alliance of the Holy Covenant are still lurking. They are the goddamned Cultivators!”

“Cultivators?”

Gao Xiaojian was slightly dazed.

Of course, he knew what Cultivators were. But because of the heated war between the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance in the frontal battlefield, it had been a long time since he last heard of the term “Cultivator” in the loyalty education.

However, when the high-pitched female voice brought up the term “Cultivator”, a certain switch inside Gao Xiaojian’s head seemed to be touched. His anger and hatred against the Cultivators immediately burst out like a flood that had just broken a dam.

“The condescending, hypocritical Cultivators who looked like graceful gentlemen on the surface but were actually shameless scoundrels, after hiding here and there catching their last breath for a thousand years, have been completely corrupted into the lackeys and accomplices of the Covenant Alliance!”

The high-pitched female voice continued, “In order to keep their humble and worthless lives, and in their dream of making a comeback and living the sanctimonious but debauched life before, the Cultivators have abandoned their dignity and boundaries as human beings. They have bent before the puppets of the Covenant Alliance and became the puppets of the puppets!

“Now, the almighty army of the Imperium is pushing forward unstoppably in the frontline and securing the most brilliant triumphs in the past hundreds of years. The enemy has resorted to the most insane approaches but still cannot stop the thunderous strikes of our army. In their desperation, they are now forced to make use of their lackeys that have been lurking inside the Imperium!

“Right now, inside the Imperium, a tiny group of Cultivators who haven’t given up their ill intentions is now eager to jump out to cause trouble again after receiving the orders of their masters!

“It is a shame that their foul tricks have been completely seen through by the fearless Immortal Cultivators of our great Imperium!”

As the female voice grew more and more high-pitched, the expressions on the zombie-like people of the Covenant Alliance appeared on the light beam again. Together with the despicable Cultivators who were wearing sycophantic smiles, they tied some of the Imperium people to the operating tables and covered tools that looked like metal funnels on their heads.

As the magical equipment began to function, all the victims on the operating tables were writhing in pain. Their eyes were rolling, and their mouths were foaming hard. Their faces gradually turned sluggish and numb, as if their feelings and their souls had been pumped away.

“Do you want the enemy’s scheme to work out?”

The high-pitched female voice shrieked, “Do you want your family to be drained, their feelings and their soul pumped away, turning them into the walking dead?”

“No!”

Gao Xiaojian was caught in the frantic state and was the first to roar.

“No! No!”

All the modified miners whacked their metal limbs hard. Great noises were echoing inside the Loyalty Room.

“Do you want the great and glorious Imperium to be polluted by the inhumane people of the Covenant Alliance and the shameless Cultivators?” the high-pitched female voice shouted again.

“No! No!”

The miners roared zealously.

“Who is the most sordid and most dangerous enemy of the civilization of mankind?” the high-pitched voice asked.

“The Covenant Alliance! The Cultivators!”

Illuminated under the erratic, quickly-flashing light beams, the miners seemed to have been hypnotized and replied at the same time.

“Who is the great guardian of the civilization of mankind?”

The female voice continued.

“Immortal Cultivators, the great Immortal Cultivators. Imperium, the sacred Imperium of True Human Beings!” the miners roared. Some were uttering deafening shrieks, and some were crying hard.

“Long live the Imperium of True Human Beings! Long live the sacred civilization of mankind! Long live emotions and free will! Kill the Covenant Alliance! Kill the Cultivators! Kill them all! Whoever dares to go against the great Imperium and the great civilization of mankind, we will definitely fight against them until the end!”

Waving his eight mechanical limbs, Gao Xiaojian almost wanted to jump in the air and explode while he made the declaration.

“From tomorrow on, we will have a special loyalty education session that will last a week. Through a living example, we will completely dissect an underground organization of the Cultivators that is shameless and pathetic to show how they and the Covenant Alliance, their master, are approaching their inevitable doom step by step!” the high-pitched female voice shouted.

“Special loyalty education for a whole week?”

Gao Xiaojian’s crystal cameras glittered. He was so thrilled that he felt his transmission joints were melting. He vaguely felt that it would be a great eye-opener tomorrow, and he would have a chance to appreciate the hilarious performances of the dogs, lackeys, and wretches.

Tomorrow… What am I going to see tomorrow?

Gao Xiaojian lay down and thought with his physical brain that was accommodated at the pivot of the mechanical spider. How I look forward to it…