Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Xu Zhicheng’s words made Li Yao think of a lot of things. He said in embarrassment, “Excuse me, Grand Guardian Xu. I was indeed too… condescending just now.”

“Don’t say that. There are few good guys like you among the ‘supermen’ who sincerely regard the ordinary people as their compatriots and who fight side by side with us wholeheartedly. It’s just that you can never sense some of the pains in person.”

Looking at the spiritual puppets that were busy working not far away, he grinned. “We thank you from the bottom of our heart. Of course, we are grateful for the two lovely kids too. You are Xiaoming and Wenwen, right? Thank you very much for everything you’ve done for the workers of the Great Iron Plants and their families.

“We are all shortsighted, unrefined people who are incapable of foreseeing what will happen hundreds of years later. I only know that you’ve done us a great favor. If you hadn’t invaded the Spiritual Nexus and controlled so many spiritual puppets, it would’ve been impossible for us to occupy the Great Iron Plants and find the assets that could feed tens of thousands of people.

“Be nice to whoever is nice to us, and fight whoever regards us as ants and weeds when we can’t hold it anymore—I believe this is the simplest universal truth, right? We don’t really know what strong artificial intelligence or information life is, but we will never forget your life-saving favor.

“Favors must be returned. If you ever need help one day, as long as you do not despise our insignificant strength, please trust that the underground locals will stand by your side!”

“… Thank you, Uncle Xu.”

The two kids extended their heads from behind Li Yao’s back. Their faces were full of confusion at first, as if they were more or less shy to admit their identities before human beings. But after hearing what Xu Zhicheng said, they smiled genuinely, with four shallow dimples spreading out on their chubby, red cheeks.

“Fellow Cultivator Li, do you know how synthetic food is created?”

Not quite done, Xu Zhicheng went on, “To feed so many workers and their families, the Great Iron Plants boasts its own affiliated synthetic food factory. So, I know a thing or two about how the synthetic food is manufactured.

“It can hardly be called a healthy food from any perspective. It is often made by the most worthless fat, bones, and offal, mixed with all kinds of bizarre fibers and drugs, before they are condensed and shaped under high temperature and pressure.

“In order to save the cost, sour and rotten ingredients are sometimes adopted, and in order to kill the bacteria and viruses in the ingredients and to lengthen the duration of storage, a lot of bactericides and preservatives are also injected. Eventually, the synthetic food that is created can be preserved for years or even decades.

“It’s not hard to imagine how much preservatives are contained in the synthetic food that can be preserved for a hundred years! Such a food is certainly not beneficial for the body if taken for a long time and will significantly increase the obesity rate and the odds of chronic diseases and even malign tumors.

“From the long term, synthetic food is not anything good. It is something that even the underground hominoids know.

“However—

“Imagine you are faced with a group of disaster-stricken people, who have been hungry for five days and five nights and are about to be starved, and you have abundant synthetic food that can be distributed in relief, but you withhold it or even destroy it in front of all the people, under the excuse that ‘synthetic food isn’t healthy’. What kind of behavior would that be?

“There are a lot of ordinary people in the Imperium of True Human Beings today who live in sufferings and hopelessness just like the underground locals. Below the ground of the capital planet, on the mines of the resource planets, inside the bottom-level cabins that are filled with wasted gas and radiations… Aren’t all the tortured and exploited ordinary people the starving people waiting for relief?

“Fellow Cultivator Li, you said that the… information lives can possibly change the Imperium or even raise a world-transforming storm in the sea of stars. It is just like the synthetic food that can help all of the disaster-stricken people to live through the famine. So, just save everybody’s life first. If everybody dies, would there still be a civilization at all?”

Li Yao felt that his cheeks were burning. Five words suddenly popped up in his head—”Why don’t they eat meat?”[1]

He said in great embarrassment, “So, Grand Guardian Xu actually understood everything I said just now.”

“In many cases, it doesn’t matter if one understands something or not.”

Xu Zhicheng said, “The starving people can knead soil into balls and swallow them when they are in desperation. When the underground locals decide to rise up after having enough of everything, we can even join the Covenant Alliance or the extraterrestrial devils. Soil is not edible, and neither the Covenant Alliance nor the extraterrestrial devils are anything decent. Do we really not know that? But even if we know all the reasons, so what? Can they keep us alive?”

“I understand it now.”

Li Yao’s eyes were sharper than ever first, before they slowly deepened and darkened until they were as gloomy as an ocean. “Grand Guardian Xu, just now, you said that the civilization of mankind is not an inseparable whole but many different parts. There’s the civilization of mankind of the Immortal Cultivators and that of the ordinary people. That is very reasonable. It would certainly be great if we can destroy only the civilization of the Immortal Cultivators in an accurate strike.

“But you have to know that should the day of eventual destruction come, it may not be that accurate. What if all the civilizations of mankind have a certain… irreversible change?”

“I can’t say for other people, but I can answer you with a moral that has been passed below the ground for ten thousand years.”

Xu Zhicheng smiled and said, “Our ‘civilization’ has survived below the ground for ten thousand years, and more ancient tales have been kept here than there are on the ground and in space. One of the tales says that in the ancient times a long, long time ago, there was a tyrant who regarded himself as ‘Solar King’ and treated the people in the most violent and horrible ways. The people, having enough of it, often gnashed their teeth and cursed at the sun—’When is the wretched sun going to die out? If there is a chance, we would like to die together with you!’

“This is my answer. I’m just speaking for myself and not representing anybody, but as long as the civilization of the Immortal Cultivators can be destroyed, I can believe in and join hands with anybody. The Covenant Alliance, the extraterrestrial devils, the gods, the information lives… It doesn’t matter who they are as long as they can bring forth a tiny bit of change! Things can’t be any worse than they are right now, can they?”

Li Yao mumbled, “I didn’t know that you were even more radical and extreme than me.”

“If I hadn’t been radical and extreme, I wouldn’t have become the Grand Guardian of Nepenthe at all!”

Xu Zhicheng burst into laughter, with every wrinkle on his face shining. “In the eyes of the Immortal Cultivators, people like me who are disobedient, undevoted to the ‘glorious civilization of mankind’, and seek changes and subversions no matter what the cost is, are naturally most extreme, dangerous, and evil. We are even unpardonable traitors and fiends!

“But I don’t really care. The heroes for some people must be fiends for somebody else. All you need to figure out is whose hero and whose fiend you are.

“On many occasions, it is not a bad thing, but unparalleled glory, to be condemned by some people as fiends. The roars and curses of the Immortal Cultivators are the best compliments for our cause. Perhaps it is the same for Fellow Cultivator Li, right?”

“I totally understand it now.”

Indescribable brilliance beamed out of Li Yao’s eyes as he said delightedly, “It seems that I should’ve come and talked to Grand Guardian Xu sooner, which would’ve saved me all the time when I was bothered by the unimportant matters!”

“The ants are small, but they can see a lot of things that elephants and dinosaurs can’t.”

Xu Zhicheng said, “The Immortal Cultivators will never give up their pride and consult ‘ants’ for their opinions sincerely like Fellow Cultivator Li does. It is perhaps one of the reasons why the Cultivators will certainly defeat the Immortal Cultivators.”

“I hope so.”

Li Yao said, “No, it will be so!”

“Uncle Xu.”

The two kids who had been listening for a long time interrupted and looked at Xu Zhicheng full of expectations. Li Xiaoming was the first to ask, “Can we ask you a question too? Are information lives real human beings in your eyes?”

Looking at the two kids like a kind, amiable old man, Xu Zhicheng grinned. “I’m sorry, kids, but I’m afraid I can’t answer your question because even the ‘hominoids’ like us are not real human beings for the Immortal Cultivators.

“When my workmates and I worked for three consecutive days in the deep, dark mines, until we were melted with the black rocks and the only things visible all over our bodies were our teeth, we did not know if we were humans, ghosts, or hairless monkeys when we observed each other in a trance, either.

“But however the Immortal Cultivators demean us, deep down in our hearts… we still crave to be real human beings, and we are unwilling to be defined by anyone! Are we really not human beings but some sort of human-shaped animals just because the Immortal Cultivators claim we are ‘hominoids’? Do the high and mighty lords and emperors have the ultimate say in whether or not I am a human? What is the reason for that?

“I am unwilling to let other people decide if I am a human being, so I’m neither qualified nor willing to define whether or not you are a human being. Since the living people like us have been exploited and modified into tools by the Immortal Cultivators, why can’t tools be turned into humans? Does it violate any law?

“Kids, you are still little, and there is a long way ahead of you. Don’t care about what other people say, and don’t be defined by anybody else. Just grow, flourish, and bloom following your heart while you destroy the old world and create a brand-new one. No matter how you are viewed in the old world, you will be the well-deserved, real human beings in the new world!”

[1] Note: “Why don’t they eat meat” is an idiom from ancient China. An idiotic emperor, after hearing the report that his people were starving in a famine and did not have any wheat or grains to eat, remarked, “Why don’t they eat meat?”. It’s a sarcastic expression for the people who are too condescending to know what the people in need really think.