Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

The black hair that spread out of the back of Wuying Qi’s head—or rather, the nerve clusters that had directly grown out of the depths of his soul—expanded abruptly by several times.

A dark force was injected into Li Yao’s soul incessantly, covering his whole body with black stripes and spots.

The dark area proliferated nonstop, enshrouding Li Yao completely like some sort of glittering gelatin and dragging him into a bottomless abyss.

Li Yao struggled and resisted hard. The fire of his soul jumped out of the dark gap and burnt up the black nerves that connected him to Wuying Qi.

“Your speech is convincing and your slogan is motivating, and the dilemma you proposed is too hard for me to answer immediately.”

Gritting his teeth, Li Yao said, one word after another, “But no matter how fancily you talk about it, you cannot change the fact that the Pangu civilization, which was able to enlighten another civilization instantly with your so-called ‘most advanced information interaction technologies’, perished in the end!

“Hehe, I don’t believe that the Pangu Clan was as ‘peace-loving and kind-hearted’ as you described or that it was willing to help other civilizations to survive for no reason. Perhaps it was by way of brainwashing that the Pangu Clan imprinted the idea that the ‘Pangu Clan is our supreme leader’ into the heads of other carbon-based lives. That’s how they established a ‘Pangu civilizations’ alliance’ with themselves as the center. A country that was built through half coercion and half deception, however, had hidden problems. As time went by, the hidden problems grew larger and larger. Both the Nuwa Clan and the Houyi Clan realized part of the truth later. Perhaps that was the reason for the eventual division of the Pangu civilizations’ alliance and the trigger of the primeval war!

“Since the Pangu civilizations’ alliance failed to walk out by way of brainwashing, why do you think we can? Why wouldn’t we repeat the same mistake that they made?”

“You are very smart, but too paranoid. Even though the Pangu Clan had other motives, it had nothing to do with the enlightenment technology itself. Technologies are neither good nor bad by themselves. It’s like how a knife cannot kill anybody without being wielded. Whether it is good or bad depends on how people use it.”

Wuying Qi seemed to have considered the problem a long time ago. Not shaken by Li Yao at all, he said casually, “When a new technology is just born, they will inevitably head toward the wrong direction more or less. How can you deny the value of a new technology just because of certain immature parts?

“As for the destruction of the Pangu civilizations’ alliance, we should view the incident critically. We need to absorb the experience of the Pangu Clan, carrying on their shining parts and dropping their flaws, in order to achieve greater success on their shoulders.

“As we look to the future, we can learn from our past. Although the civilization of mankind today is far weaker than the Pangu civilization in the past, we have the greatest advantage, which is that we are on the shoulder of giants, and we do not need to walk on the paths that have been proved to be dead ends by them.

“What are ‘dead ends’? The simplest example is the enlightenment technology that the Pangu Clan invented. However, they probably had a lot of stubborn people who were terrified by the power of the new technology just like you. They did not develop the technology to the highest level and merely used it for the simple communication among the different carbon-based lives at the beginning. Later, they used it to wash away the feelings, emotions, and will of the people, turning the people into a blank paper without injecting anything in.

“They did that only because they were horrified by the universe beyond the universe. They lost the ruthlessness for evolution. They had no idea what to inject into the head.

“A person without bones will be a pile of mud, and a civilization without spirits is destined to die! If the Pangu Clan did not occupy the head, the extraterrestrial devils certainly would. How could it be kept blank all the time?

“Do you understand it now? The enlightenment technology was not wrong by itself. The mistake was that the Pangu Clan only carried out half of it. They merely ‘cleaned’ the wrong, complicated, messy thoughts and desires of the people, but they did not inject the new, healthy, positive thoughts and desires. The glorious and brilliant carbon-based lives in the past had all been transformed into zombies. How could they survive?

“The Covenant Alliance is the same. They found the most valuable treasure in the entire universe, and they had the technology that could change the world, but they are completely bound by the Path of Ultimate Benevolence. They merely injected the admiration for the Pangu Clan into their heads and the fear for the beyond of the boundless cosmos. They are just a duplicate Pangu Clan of a smaller size, and they are destined to perish!

“However, my enlightenment will not stop halfway like them. Not only will I wash off the selfishness, greediness, shortsightedness, cowardness, and all the other unhealthy thoughts in the traitors, but more importantly, I will also inject bright, glittering pure ideas and help them forge the real beliefs so that they can be real men, great warriors, and pure Immortal Cultivators!”

Li Yao’s voice shivered. “Do you expect me to believe that?”

“Why not? Imagine such a beautiful future—”

Wuying Qi narrowed his eyes and waved his hands. Vivid holograms surfaced from all directions again. Inside every picture, countless Immortal Cultivators who seemed warm, enthusiastic, tall, and handsome were either dedicated to their studies or work wholeheartedly or fighting in the space battlefields fearlessly, except that their enemies were not human beings but some hideous alien species that Li Yao had never met before. The pictures seemed to be suggesting that they had already left the tiny swamp that was the Pangu universe and was fighting for a vaster space of survival in the grand universe.

“I will not, nor is it necessary for me to, deprive everybody of their thinking ability and your so-called ‘free will’. Really, 95% of the parts inside your brain will not be changed by me. I will only perform a minor, non-invasive ‘mind surgery’ on the 5% of evilness, removing the dark and selfish parts and replacing them with the noble, selfless, and righteous ideas. They will be deeply carved on the brains and the souls and will never be forgotten.”

Wuying Qi elaborated, “After such a minor mind surgery, the Immortal Cultivators will retain their previous memories and self-awareness, but they won’t be as selfish, shortsighted, cowardly, and dark as before. Instead, they will be able to summon all their courage and loyalty and devote themselves to the entire civilization. They will forever abide by the rules that I have established for the Imperium. Any dark thought that occurs to them will be destroyed by themselves. Even when they are faced with the indescribable fear beyond the universe, they will still be able to summon their courage and fight till the end!

“How much can be changed depends on how corrupted they are. The more corrupted they are, the more they will be changed. For the people who have firm beliefs and great ambitions like you and General Lei Chenghu, you won’t even feel the slightest change!

“You don’t believe me? That’s alright. I am not a monarch of the old days who decides everything by myself. In the future, we may even establish an ‘Enlightenment Committee’. We will gather the knowledgeable people in all industries to discuss the main ideas that are to be inculcated into the heads of the citizens this year. It will be like the Education Committee and the teams of editors for textbooks today. When that day comes, you can be one of the supervisors of this committee and monitor the thoughts that are to be poured into the heads of the citizens in person.

“Of course, we’re in the middle of an emergency right now. Unusual circumstances call for unusual methods. There is no time for any democracy or supervision right now. I believe you can certainly understand that, right, Cultivator Li Yao?”

“The Enlightenment Committee?”

Li Yao almost bit his own tongue off. “Are you kidding me?”

“An emperor does not joke. Do you think that I have the time to joke with you? You are underestimating my vision, Li Yao. After learning the vastness of the grand universe and the dangers in it, the competition between the Cultivators and the Immortal Cultivators is already meaningless in my eyes. It is just a minor conflict among a bunch of kids.”

Wuying Qi sighed. “Villains are everywhere, but frank advisors are hard to come by. A thousand years ago, I was surrounded by villains. In my carelessness, I felt too good about myself under their adulation and did not carry on the reform to the end, which turned out to be a huge mistake. Those villains also grew into the behemoths like the four Kurfürst families. A thousand years later, now that I’ve come back again, I’ve decided that I will not make the same mistake. I will not keep any of those villains. What I want is honest advisors like you. Li Yao, you can totally keep your beliefs as a Cultivator. You can stay by my side as a mirror so that I can know myself better.

“Furthermore, do I really have any reason to destroy your country of Cultivators? The deepest contradiction between the Immortal Cultivators and the Cultivators, regarding the treatment for the ordinary people, is resulted from the shortage of resources and the population boom, isn’t it?

“As long as the shortage of resources and the increase of population are not resolved, the conflict will always exist, and there will always be Cultivators and Immortal Cultivators. Neither of us can change that.

“However, if my plan works out and we do jump out, we may find ten times and even a hundred times more resources than we have right now in the grand universe. By then, we will have copious materials and mental satisfaction that the contradictions between the Immortal Cultivators and the ordinary people will be gone. The ordinary people that you can never forget will all live a life of the deities. All of them can be given a planet each where they can be kings and queens. Then, is there any need for the Immortal Cultivators to exploit the ordinary people? Do we still have any contradictions? No, none whatsoever!

“So, if you are a real Cultivator and you are considering the happiness and future of humanity, you will have fewer reasons to add to my trouble at such a critical moment, in which case we will both suffer heavy losses, and the villains and brainless puppets will take the advantage! You should stand on my side unwaveringly! When we join our hands, we will be able to rage in the entire universe!”