Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“Wow…”

When everybody entered the place through the wide-open gate, even the most ignorant and senseless bandits of the Land of Sins who had zero understanding about “Cultivators” were deeply awed by the magnificence, profoundness, and splendor of the “temple”, feeling the urge to melt into it completely.

The control center of the “global sword network” was truly like a certain religious building. It was constructed in a mysterious and charming style.

At the edge of the building were enormous metal pillars that rose to the sky like the ribs of an enormous beast. They spiraled and joined each other in the high sky hundreds of meters from the floor, constituting a vast and grand space.

At the center of the joint of the spiraling metal pillars, on the other hand, was a hollow, which seemed to be leading straight to the surface of the planet. Chaotic glimmers were vaguely flashing at the center, as if it were possible to see the sky beyond through the hollow.

On the bronze walls around, countless mysterious and wild rune arrays had been carved, symbolizing the Cultivators’ ineffable will of resistance.

The large, half-fixed turrets stood nearby like huge puppets that had crawled out of the ground, watching the crowd that had barged into the place without saying a word.

When Zuo Jingyun, Han Te, Liu Li, the Fist King, and other people arrived, quite a few teams of earthly dragons had been here in advance.

The resistance warriors were operating anxiously under the command of Wei Longtao and activating all the crystal processors in the control center as fast as possible, hoping to recover and control the whole might of the “global sword network”!

Hum! Hum! Hum! Hum!

As the crystal processors were activated one after another, and the keys and passwords that Wei Longtao had retrieved after decades of searching were inputted, weird shivering sounds were echoing from inside of the “temple” to the outside.

Colorful brilliance surfaced on the rune arrays, with starry spots of light flowing out like glittering dandelions, which then congregated into operation interfaces and fundamental architecture. When all the interfaces and the architecture graphs were gathered, everybody was able to see with their own eyes how the entire control system was functioning.

“This… This is unbelievable!”

Zuo Jingyun and the other members of the resistance had never seen such an amazing picture before.

The colorful spots of light flashed inside their eyes like hundreds of dancing butterflies, turning the bronze underground palace into a clear, crystal palace.

When the tantalizing dream finally became such a beautiful reality, hot tears ran out of their eyes again.

“Fist King!”

With his disciple Xin Xiaoqi, Xiahou Wuxin strode over from the center of the temple and grinned. “You’re finally here!”

“Leader Xiahou?”

The Fist King said calmly, “I didn’t expect that you would arrive earlier than we do.”

“We encountered Commander Wei on our way and were among the first to enter the temple.”

Xiahou Wuxin lowered his voice and said, “We saw with our own eyes how Commander Wei reached the place step by step and tested it one procedure after another before he finally activated the mainframe crystal processor successfully. There shouldn’t be anything wrong!”

After a brief silence, the Fist King said, “Let’s hope so!”

While they were talking, the hundreds of light beams floating in midair of the magnificent temple were all shattered into thousands of unpredictable light spots. Inside every light spot, a tiny face seemed to be hidden. No. Not one, but a couple or even a dozen faces!

In the next second, all the tiny light spots flew to the top of the mainframe crystal processor at the center of the temple, where they were condensed into an enormous light ball almost thirty meters in diameter. After a moment of dazzling changes of light and shadows, it eventually turned into a giant golden head!

“Wh-What’s this?”

All the resistance warriors were shocked. They watched the golden head, which was meditating with eyes closed and revolving slowly, and was lost for words.

“This is ‘the Cultivator that has been lost for a thousand years’!”

Wei Longtao, the general commander of the underground branch of Starlight, strode forward in footsteps that were loud enough to break the world.

He seemed to have never changed his clothing after he escaped from the hunting of the Immortal Cultivators. Intense bloodstains were still lingering on his clothes, and his ragged robe had almost been torn into shreds. But his eyes that were as big as eggs were still emanating the never-dying brilliance of passion.

Glancing around at everyone slowly and staying for the longest time on Zuo Jingyun, he finally announced determinedly, “I have finally figured out what the so-called ‘Cultivator who has been lost for a thousand years’ is. It is not a reference to any specific Cultivator or anyone alive, but the artificial intelligence that is used to control the ‘global sword network’. Or rather, it is the database of the entire operation platform and fire control of the ‘global sword network’ system!”

“Ah…”

The resistance warriors had never thought it that way. They all exclaimed in astonishment.

“However, it is no ordinary artificial intelligence or database.”

Wei Longtao said solemnly, “When the Martial Meritocrats Civilization was about to die, some of our ancestors hid in the temple. But the ‘global sword network’ at that time was still in the half paralysis state. Besides, the system alone was far from enough to compete with the overwhelming fleet of the Immortal Cultivators.

“Therefore, they chose hiding and dissemination.

“They turned their understanding about the path of the Cultivators, their memories of the Martial Meritocrats Sector, and their expectations for the successors a thousand years later into data and transmitted them into the database. Then, they completely shut down the place and dispersed to every part of the Land of Sins with part of the clues about the ‘temple’, persisting in fighting in the darkest and most desperate years after ‘Judgment Day’!

“Today, after a thousand years, the descendants of the Cultivators in the past have finally returned to the ‘temple’ of our ancestors. We have finally found the treasure of our predecessors. We can finally perceive the real path and spirit of the Cultivators, and teach a most profound lesson to the cocky, condescending Immortal Cultivators!”

The more he talked, the more excited he became. In the end, the entire temple was filled by Wei Longtao’s thunderous voices, which bashed into the deepest part of the soul of every resistance warrior like the most thrilling drumming!

“The blood of the deceased in the past hundreds of years has gathered into the most overwhelming river. Today, the river of blood is finally going to utter its own roar. The time of our counterattack has come!”

In midair and above Wei Longtao, the enormous golden head slowly opened its eyes. Two dazzling mystic rays beamed out, and hundreds of light beams were immediately unfolded around it, displaying the status of all the secret bases of the “global sword network” that were everywhere on the entire Land of Sins.

About two-thirds of the secret bases deeply buried underground had been destroyed by the penetrating bombs in “Judgment Day”.

But “Manjusaka, the City in the Sky” that they were going to deal with was not a starship moving at a high speed but an enormous target that was almost still and fixed at the orbit beyond the atmosphere of the planet.

The remaining one-third of the secret bases were still enough to accomplish the mission successfully.

Right now, the mainframe crystal processor in the “temple” was quickly connecting and awakening all the secret bases that were scattered in every part of the planet through the communication nodes that were deeply buried below the ground. On the light beams, one secret base after another turned from dark grey, which represented “hibernation”, to bright gold, which represented “activated”.

All the resistance warriors were more anxious than ever.

Han Te and Liu Li could even hear Zuo Jingyun clenched her metal fist so hard that it was squeaking.

“The Immortal Cultivators are here!”

One of the resistance warriors who was staying on alert at the periphery rushed into the room in a hurry and exclaimed while panting, “Noises of enormous drilling machines are echoing from all directions. The Immortal Cultivators have swarmed us this time. By estimation, they will drill through the rocks in ten minutes and arrive at the temple!”

All the resistance warriors jumped to their feet and grabbed their blades and guns tightly.

“Ten minutes?”

The brilliance inside Wei Longtao’s eyes was almost frozen into solid flames. Scratching his bloodstained beard, he burst into laughter. “Too slow. They are too slow! At this moment, nothing can stop us from roaring at the sky! Prepare the first wave of attack. Target: ‘Manjusaka, the City in the Sky’!”

The golden head floating in midair was revolving faster and faster. Hundreds and thousands of light beams and astronomical streams of information appeared like floods nearby. The light beams and the information streams were flashing beyond the recognition of any human eye, until they turned into a cluster of hazy mists of light in the end.

Zuo Jingyun and the other resistance warriors observed in ignorance. They had no idea what operations Wei Longtao had done, but judging from the interface of the final output, he had completely controlled more than a hundred and twenty secret firebases and activated the most powerful anti-air magical equipment in those bases!

Nobody had any doubt about what Wei Longtao was doing right now, because Wei Longtao had always been an omnipotent god who was creating miracles every second for them!

On the forehead of the golden head, an enormous number popped up—10!

Judging from the feedback of the light beams around, the anti-air magical equipment in altogether a hundred and twenty-four secret bases that had been sealed for a thousand years had finished self-examinations and preparations for activation. 70% of the magical equipment was still intact and still boasted the ability to blow up the sky!

The enormous number changed from 10 to 9!

Rumbling noises came from the rocks around the temple. The most massive warehouse of aggressive magical equipment had been established at this place. The beast that had slept for a thousand years was woken up and was uttering the final roars before the attack.

8!

All the resistance warriors were having cold sweat in their palms. Many of them couldn’t help but hold each other’s hands with such enormous strength that the cracking sounds of their finger bones could be heard.

7!

Come on. Come on! Shoot down “Manjusaka, the City in the Sky”!

All the resistance warriors prayed in silence, with all their hot blood, their souls, and even their lives.

6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1!

From the surveillance picture, it could be seen that enormous gaps split apart on the desolate and barren soil of the Land of Sins simultaneously, and colorful masses of air popped up from the gaps like mysterious springs that appeared out of nowhere.

0!

The temple of the Cultivators, and the global sword network system, launched its attack!