Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“From... the ‘criminals’ living on their own in the desert to the supreme leader of the civilization on Earth, the first commander-in-chief to march into the universe!

Li Yao was greatly moved. “Such an incredible life?”

His heart was filled with mixed feelings. He was deeply shocked by Wan Zanghai’s indescribable path to fame.

Naturally, it was easy to despise and criticize other people’s shamelessness. Li Yao had once righteously berated many schemers and ambitious schemers similar to those in the Myriad Hidden Sea.

But what was more important than the criticism was to come up with a solution to continue the hope of the civilization.

Li Yao had no time to consider whether or not the Myriad Treasures Sea was good or bad, nor did he have time to polish the dirt and dust that had fallen on his Dao heart.

It was because, following the demise of the rich and powerful, the newly-born fleet of immigrants had rushed out of the solar system and was sailing to an unknown place.

The civilization of Earth had ushered in a brand-new page. It had officially sublimated or ‘transformed’ into the Primeval Civilization. All the earthlings had been destroyed by the solar storm. Right now, after being corrupted by the cold vacuum and the dark universe, they had a new name—the Primeval Race!

The animation came to an end. Li Yao was faced with countless options that were falling from the sky again. They hit his soul like a waterfall.

On one hand, he had to plan the hibernation and wake-up time of the scientists and the engineers in order to ensure that all the technologies necessary for sailing in the sea of stars could be advanced in an orderly manner. On the other hand, he had to ensure that the new generation on board received the best education in order to produce a research reserve that was inspired by new knowledge. On the other hand, he had to plan and adjust the route so that he would not lose his way in the boundless sea of stars. On the other hand, he had to pay close attention to the scourge of the meteoroid showers and cosmic radiation. Even a meteoroid the size of sand or dust could cause minor damage to the shell and the power unit of a starship. After tens of thousands of years of accumulation and enhancement, the smallest damage could lead to the fission and disintegration of the entire starship, which were all life-and-death events.

Other than that, threats that were more serious and secretive than cosmic radiation and the damage of starships were the changes of human hearts.

Earthlings used to live in the blue sky, on the solid land, bathed in the warm sunlight, and were a carefree planet species.

But right now, they had completely lost their home and roots. They had to spend tens of thousands of years and thousands of generations wandering in darkness and desperation. Maybe they would become homeless children in the sea of stars forever.

The narrow space, the enclosed environment, the deep sea of stars... There was no telling where the destination was exactly, and they might be killed in the very next second... Such cruel torture was like a vat of black venom that was corroding people’s hearts and turning them into two completely different lives from the past.

Similar changes had happened in the Flying Star Sector before.

As Xiao Xuance, leader of the Immortal Cultivators and a Cultivator of the Flying Star Sector, had said, it was very easy to turn an unwavering Cultivator into an Immortal Cultivator in the black sea of stars. It usually took only... one second.

The people of the Flying Star Sector, at the very least, still had their history and remembered the glory of the Star Ocean Imperium. They also knew that there were countless Sectors and their own kind outside of their small world. Such knowledge was enough to be a comfort and hope to resist the invasion of darkness.

But those Earthlings—the Primeval Lord of Heaven—had lost everything. From then on, although the sea of stars was vast, they could not find any other compatriots or homes that they could trust anymore. How painful, how terrifying, and how desperate it was!

Such venom, after hundreds of years, thousands of years, or even tens of thousands of years of long and aimless journey, could twist the humanity into any kind of deformity or hideousness. It was not strange at all.

Faced with all kinds of challenges, Li Yao was somewhat overwhelmed.

More importantly, it was not necessary for him to make a choice that was in the best interest of the moment, but rather, he had to consider the development of the immigration fleet in tens of thousands of years and make a choice that was in the best interest of the future. In many cases, it was inevitable that he would hurt the interests of the passengers at present and even sacrifice a lot of things ruthlessly.

After such a test, Li Yao was certain that he was not qualified to be a commander-in-chief.

Maybe he was only suitable to play the role of a hot-blooded high school student, or he could play the role of a flapping flag in the wind and shout some idealized sacred slogans. But when faced with complicated, practical problems, they needed a calmer, rational, and even darker role, such as Jin Tuyi, Boss Bai, Lei Chenhu, Li Linghai, and even Long Yangjun.

Li Yao felt that he had made a lot of mistakes.

Under his command, a series of serious problems broke out inside the immigration fleet. There were even several internal conflicts.

Outside of the starship, they had passed through a belt of cosmic dust that was as thick as ink, endured a few unexpected radiation storms, and almost crashed into another meteoroid shower. They managed to cope with each crisis with great difficulty, causing a lot of damage to the starship and consuming a lot of valuable resources.

Thousands of years had passed since the test. They had only sailed for dozens of lightyears, but more than half of the immigration starships had been destroyed. More than 30% of the hibernators had been killed in their sleep because of mechanical faults, lack of resources, and internal strife. Even the ‘leader’ that Li Yao played had been killed by the insurgent who suffered from claustrophobia during the civil strife.

The people who were still alive had long lost their vigor and vitality when they rushed out of the solar system thousands of years ago. They were unshaven, their skin was loose, their eyes were sunken, and their faces were lackluster. They were like the walking dead trapped in steel coffins, only moving forward numbly driven by their last instinct for survival.

Li Yao was on tenterhooks, thinking that he had made a series of wrong choices and his performance must’ve been terrible.

However, the voice remained silent and did not comment on his performance.

When the ‘leader’ he played was killed by the crew members of the rebellion, he even comforted Li Yao that it was not a ‘mistake’ because, in the real history, Wan Zanghai, as the commander-in-chief of the immigration fleet and the first chief of the ‘Primeval Clan’, had ended up like that, too.

Naturally, Wan Zanghai’s commanding ability was a hundred times higher than Li Yao’s. However, the countless practical problems and fatal threats that he was faced with were a hundred times more complicated and difficult than the large-scale options in the test.

No matter how resolute and wise Wan Canghai was, he was just a mortal. After decades of lurking and training, he had almost reached the limit of the life span of the earthlings when he left the solar system. It was impossible for him to maintain a clear mind for a long time to command the fleet. He could only enter the hibernation state and wake up every five to ten years to deal with the problems that had happened over the past ten years.

Such a way of leadership was destined to be unable to govern the brutal, disobedient Radiators, the modified people, and the superhumans for a long time.

Time could change many things, including the prestige of a tough commander-in-chief.

The immaturity of the first-generation hibernation technology had a serious influence on the wisdom and personality of Wan Zanghai.

Gradually, he became unpredictable and temperamental. He was even suffering from claustrophobia and paranoia like many crew members.

He had once pointed at the deep pathway on the starship and said that he had seen countless ghosts from Earth wandering there.

He had ordered the fleet to accelerate without caring about the cost of fuel, too, because he had seen that the ghosts of everyone on the furiously burning Earth were not annihilated. Instead, they had been condensed into a new... ghost civilization by the solar storm and the spiritual energy magnetic field. The ghost civilization was following them quietly, planning the cruelest revenge.

He did not even dare to enter the hibernation state, because he would be drowned in the eyes of countless innocent souls and dragged to the deepest part of hell by the burnt hands of the victims.

Under such circumstances, a fierce conflict between the commander-in-chief and the crew was only a matter of time.

Wan Zanghai was dead. He had been torn apart by the crew members who had been loyal to him and thrown into the engine furnace, fulfilling his dream of being the spark that pushed the civilization forward.

The journey continued. After all, there was nothing that could stop them in the cold, dark vacuum.

In the thousands of years of testing that followed, Li Yao felt that his performance was getting worse and worse, and all the crew members were more desperate, cruel, and irritated.

They even felt that they had given up on themselves. They were determined to destroy themselves in a riot or natural disaster and end the never-ending nightmare.

This wasn’t some sort of expedition or escape; it was merely a “death sentence” that would be carried out over 10,000 years. Quite a few crew members believed this.

When Li Yao drained the last bit of his braincells, overdrafted all his computational ability, and tried his best to maintain the immigration fleet for ten thousand years, all that was left of them were forty-nine battered, miserable starships, fourteen million frustrated, angry passengers, and empty fuel and resource capsules.

Right now, they had not grasped the ability to shuttle through the four-dimensional space yet. No matter how much they improved their regular sailing speed, they had only flown five hundred lightyears away. In a galaxy hundreds of thousands of lightyears in diameter, their speed was even lower than that of a snail. It was impossible for them to find the source of the meteoroid shower.

They had run out of resources and food. This was where they would be buried.

“Did it fail?”

Li Yao was not a man who would give up easily. But now that he was running out of options, he did not know how to continue the test anymore.

Maybe he should have been crueler in the beginning?

No. It was useless. Even if the potential of the crew members was exploited, what was the difference between the exploration distance from five hundred lightyears to six hundred lightyears?

Li Yao found it odd. Didn’t the voice say that it would give him three chances? But he was already at a dead end after only one suggestion. Was the voice going to go back on its word?

While he was hesitating, an unbelievable and appalling picture suddenly appeared in Li Yao’s brain!

In the front of the refugees’ fleet, which had run out of ammunition and food, a cluster of bright purple waves suddenly rose up in the empty sea of stars. The waves surged to the two sides like tides, only to tear open a giant crevice from which a fat tentacle crawled out!