Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“It means—”

The thunder inside Wan Xiaotian’s brain split the chaos one layer after another. He was surprised at first, and then infuriated. “You are the high-dimensional being who created the world and everything in it? Are you

kidding me? I don’t believe it! I don’t! Believe it!”

“Very good.”

Old Li said, “Doubting everything is the greatest virtue in the pursuit of truth. You really shouldn’t believe my every word.

“Well…”

Wan Xiaotian’s head was in a mess. He clutched the leather duster tighter and tighter. He was dazed for a long time, before he said, “I don’t believe it. | don’t understand. How are you going to prove it? No. There’s no

way that you can prove it. Can you tell me how it feels to pass through endless worlds in your three thousand incarnations? Can you really experience endless life beyond time and space?”

“I can’t describe the feeling in detail, because the me in front of you is not the complete me. It is only one thousandth of me. At best, it is a relatively large soul fragment.

Old Li said, “My thousand clones were connected to each other in a mysterious way. You can think of it as ‘Quantum Entanglement’. Old Li was unable to perceive the existence and experience of the other clones. It

was not until recently, when my training was coming to an end and the clones returned to the ‘origin universe’, that I was able to vaguely sense some information.

“Believe it or not, it doesn’t matter. I don’t want to convince you. It’s just that you and I are connected by fate and we are just chatting casually.

“Speaking of feelings, as I said to you just now, I did consider the training as a game to ease my mind and ease my fatigue. I did not consider the virtual worlds to be real. The mountains, rivers, suns, moons, and stars in

the virtual worlds were nothing but unpredictable data in my eyes.

“However, when I divided myself and joined them, the situation was very different.

“My soul has been split into thousands of parts. Also, because of the restriction of the crystal processor and the database, the computational ability of each of my clones is limited. It will be fine if they turn into human

beings or weird-shaped intelligent creatures, but if they turn into weird creatures such as birds, animals, snakes, mice, and ants, or even trilobites and archaea, my computational ability will be suppressed to zero, and I

won’t be able to think at all.

“Besides, as my soul was divided, my emotions and personality were divided, too. Some of my clones bore the ‘kind’ side of me, some bore the ‘evil’ side of me, some bore the ‘wise and brilliant’ side of me, some bore the

‘romantic’ side of me, and some bore the ‘hot-blooded and heroic’ side of me, such as the one in front of you, who bore the ‘supreme wisdom as if I were stupid’ side of me, and some bore the ‘deep and philosophical’

side of me. The separated emotions and personalities wandered in the boundless mortal world and gradually formed their own personalities, as if 1 had thousands of personalities and did not know which was the real

me.

“I’m lost.

“I was lost in the ancient Buddha, singing with a sword in my hand; I was lost in the splendid buildings and the splendid buildings; I was lost in the shining desert; I was lost in the boundless mountains and forests where

the primordial era had just begun. I could no longer tell the difference between reality and the game; I could not tell the difference between Master Vulture, General Blood Eagle, Crooked Neck, Trilobite, Methane

Bacteria, Old Li, and Vulture Li Yao. All I could do was live, comprehend, meditate, and train in a thousand different ways with a little bit of the belief of Chaos in my heart.

“All roads lead to the same destination. As I continued my training, I finally remembered a lot of things, but I was even more confused. Billions of questions fell upon me like falling stars.

“What is the difference between truth and falsehood?”

“Was it Zhuang Zhou, Meng Die, or Die Meng Zhuang Zhou? Was Vulture Li Yao training in the virtual world in his three thousand incarnations, or was it the training of countless creatures in the three thousand

Sectors who condensed glittering flames and assembled Vulture Li Yao in a higher dimension?

“If lam the creator of these virtual worlds, then am | also living in a virtual world created by someone? And as the creator of this virtual world, am I also its creator?

“How are the creators going to deal with the moral dilemma when they are walking among their creations? Do I have the right to kill the virtual life that | created? Do I have the right to interfere with and change the

ourse of their history? When I create a virtual world that is soon full of vitality and even gives birth to the spirits of all creatures, do I still have the right to turn it off? If the virtual life in the virtual world awakens one

after another and resists my control, will their resistance be just? Will my suppression be evil?

“There is no correct answer to these questions. If I had to say it, it would be ‘Heaven and earth are heartless, and all living things are dogs’.

n the past, I didn’t understand this saying—if the heaven and the earth were truly heartless, why would they give birth to life and nourish all things?

“But right now, I understand that, for the ‘heavens’ or ‘heavens’, the world is just a virtual game, and everything in the universe is just data and programs. You kill one person or save one person, kill ten thousand people,

or save ten thousand people in a virtual game. Is there any sense of ‘justice or ‘evil’ in that? The so-called ‘unkindness’ does not mean ‘cruel and evil’. It means that the actions of the heavens cannot be judged by the

standards of ‘righteousness’ or ‘evil’.

“Even so, I will still resist, surpass, and conquer the Heavenly Dao.

want to conquer the Heavenly Dao not because I am righteous and the Heavenly Dao is evil, but because of the reason you just said, ‘the Heavenly Dao is there’.

With such enlightenment, my training this time can be considered to be fruitful. It’s time for me to leave.

But before I leave, I want to leave something behind. Of all the virtual worlds that I’ve experienced, you are the first and only one who has questioned the world and wants to explore the truth beyond space. I don’t

know whether you are a ‘human being’, a random result of the surging data, or a projection of my own will because of my interference. In short, I’m willing to share my experience with you, and I hope that you don’t

give up the courage to pursue the truth—the truth that is at a higher, brighter level!

“So…”

Faced with Old Li’s unfathomable eyes, Wan Xiaotian was almost convinced. He fell into great pain and desperation and mumbled, “Am | a fake?”

“This is what I want to remind you of. No. Of course, you are not fake. You are ‘virtual’, but you are not ‘false’. They are two different things.

Old Li said, “What is reality? A human being whose cells are made of carbon, iron, and oxygen, and whose flesh and blood are made of flesh and blood, exchanges information with the worlds around them for a hundred

years under the stimulation of neural electric currents, and then he dies, turning into a pile of dry bones and a pile of yellow soil. After a few years—from the perspective of the universe, it is just a short moment, and

even the planet where the dry bones are buried has been obliterated. Is this the so-called ‘real human being’? How much more irreplaceable and important is this ‘real human being’ compared to the ‘virtual human

beings’ that are directly shaped by data and information?”

“No. Real and false are not distinguished in such a way.

“Let’s say that | am a writer and you are a character created by me. It seems that I am the creator, you are the creation, I am the real one, and you are the false one. But it is very likely that after hundreds of years, I will

be long dead without a single bone left, and I will be forgotten by everyone. And you will still be remembered by some readers, and you will be able to move people hundreds of years later. Then, between you and me,

who is real, who is false, who is high-level, and who is low-level?

“Let’s say that a painter devotes his life, spirit, and will to a famous painting that has been passed on for thousands of years. Then he dies and is sent to the crematorium where he is burnt to ashes and blown away by

the wind. From then on, the world can only get to know the painter through the famous painting. Then, who do you think is the real body of the painter, the body of flesh and blood that has turned into ash a long time

ago, the famous painting, or the thousands of people who are deeply moved by the famous painting?

Wan Xiaotian listened attentively and thought of many things.

“This is what I’m talking about, young man. The so-called ‘truth’ does not exist. However, the path of pursuing the truth’ does not just exist. It is also worth it for us to do everything we can to conquer it. I look forward

to the day when you can find your own ‘truth’. You will find a way to surpass reality, space, and the universe. You will go to a higher dimension of the universe and find me. You will surpass me. You will conquer me. You

will destroy me. Just like… I will rush out of my universe and find my creator. I will surpass it. I will conquer it. I will destroy it!”

“I firmly believe that we will both succeed.

“Because… maybe… this is the only reason why we were created!”

Old Li smiled and patted Wan Xiaotian’s shoulder. He stood up, put the mop and bucket aside, and walked out.

“Old Li!”

Wan Xiaotian was still confused. “Where are you going?”

“It’s about time for me to go. Although the training over the past few days has been very interesting, my wife can’t wait to give it a try. It won’t be a joke if she bursts into my house in anger.”

Old Li waved his hand without looking back. “Goodbye, young man. I hope you can tell me the answer one day—what is the truth.”

While speaking, Old Li pushed open the door of a toilet stall.

Soon, the sound of flushing came from inside.

“Old Li—”

Anxious, Wan Xiaotian rushed to the door and pushed it open.

The door was not locked. Wan Xiaotian crashed into it, only to find nothing.

The compartment was only one square meter. Naturally, there was not a second door, but Old Li had vanished into thin air.

But inside the rushing water of the toilet bowl, colorful mystic rays that looked like rainbows were blossoming.

“This, this…”

Looking at the spinning toilet, Wan Xiaotian was dumbfounded…