Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“Actually, it’s nothing.”

Zhang Daniu chugged down a glass of cold beer and burped loudly. He waved a bone in his hand and said, “You know, I’ve written a few things in the past, but is completely different. I don’t know when it began, but some fragmented, mottled dreams would always appear in my mind. They were like countless shining lanterns floating, circling, and dancing in the depths of my mind. Each lantern contained a planet. Each and every one of them contained countless stories of countless people on a myriad of different types of planets.

“I didn’t have to do anything at all. As long as I put my hands on the keyboard, the wonderful stories that happened on the planets in space would flow out on their own as if they were alive and beyond my control.

“Another… dream?”

Li Yao was dazed for a moment. Pondering for a moment, he asked, “Then, did anything weird happen to Brother Niu during his creation? Or was there anything wrong with his body?”

“Strange? Weird?”

Zhang Daniu blinked his eyes. “I don’t think so. Just some tendinitis and lumbar strain. What do you mean?”

“Nothing. Nothing.”

Li Yao smiled and pretended to pour wine for Zhang Daniu, only to ‘accidentally’ knock his cup to the ground.

…If the other party really possessed superhuman reaction speed, he should have reflexively caught the wine cup, right?

But Zhang Daniu was truly slow to react. The wine glass fell to the ground, splashing beer foam all over his body.

“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry, Brother Niu.”

Li Yao hurriedly wiped the paper and asked, “Right, did someone mention to Brother Niu that the 400-500 chapters of are written in completely different styles? It simply seems as if they were written by two different authors, giving people a very intense feeling of tearing… I feel that from a business point of view, this kind of writing style is very damaging to one’s grades. Readers who like the style in the beginning will inevitably become impatient towards the end, while readers who like the style in the end often can’t even persist for 400-500 chapters. What did Brother Niu consider in the beginning to write in this way?”

“Don’t—don’t mention it!”

Updates by

Zhang Daniu did not care about the wine glass falling to the ground at all. He slapped his thigh and said, “You won’t believe it even if I tell you. I—I don’t know what’s going on, either!

“In fact, this novel has always been written in accordance with the previous 400-500 chapters. It’s written very smoothly, and it doesn’t require much effort. There are still quite a few readers who support it, isn’t it pretty good? I originally thought that I would just keep on writing like this. In any case, I’ll just kill monsters, level up, slap faces, and while I’m at it, I’ll also pick up girls. I’m planning to find a new girl for Li Yao every time I change a map. Every time I change a map, I’ll find a new girl for Li Yao, and I’ll change another map. Hey, guess what. Two girls. Alien sisters. I guarantee the readers will cheer for them!”

“Besides, think about it. How many face-slapping, revenge, and messy plots can a girl trigger? You can find three to five, ten girls, and a few million words will be written out. Isn’t that relaxing?

“Uh…”

Li Yao felt a bit uncomfortable hearing that, but he still nodded. “That’s right.”

“Yes. I had it all planned out. The Speaker of Parliament of the federation, the empress of the imperium, the leader of the Holy Alliance is a crystal processor in the shape of a human being—it can also be a metal-featured girl. There are also beauties of the demon race, the demon race, the deities, the Pangu Clan, the Nuwa Clan, and dozens of other species who are competing with Li Yao in the magnificent sea of stars for the ‘struggle over the great daos’. Just tell me if your imagination is rich or not!”

Zhang Daniu’s mouth was filled with the smell of alcohol. “In the end, when I was writing 400-500 chapters, for some reason, I caught a cold and had a high fever. It was truly the worst fever I’ve ever had in my life. It was 389 degrees for several days. No matter how I took injections or medication, it was useless. My entire body was dizzy, and I felt as if my soul had left my body. I was simply unable to tell whether I was asleep or awake, whether I was in reality or in a dream.”

“Oh?”

Li Yao’s eyes were shining so brightly that his hands were about to dig a piece of wood out of the desk. He tried to hold back his shock and said, “There’s actually such a thing? He’s actually so seriously ill! But I’ve seen Brother Niu’s updated record. It seems that he insists on updating at least two times a day. He has never stopped updating before… Do you have a draft?”

“Where did the drafts come from? They were written and sent on the spot.”

Confusion was written all over Zhang Daniu’s face, too. “To tell you the truth, I was really muddle-headed during those few days. Even I thought that I was definitely going to stop updating. I didn’t have the slightest feeling of touching the keyboard. I only felt that, indistinctly, indistinctly, it was as if a beam of light fell from the sky and shot straight into my brain. There was also a voice that sounded like a fly. “Weng weng weng weng, weng weng weng weng weng.” It rang chaotically inside my head, almost driving me crazy.

“I was in this muddle-headed state for three to five days, or maybe five to seven days, before I gradually woke up. I originally thought that I was doomed and would definitely be cursed to death by the readers. In the end, when I opened the manuscript and the website to take a look, I discovered that it was truly strange. As it turned out, I had been updating every day, and not a single day had passed!”

“So… amazing?”

Li Yao was deep in thought. “You mean to say that, even though you were unconscious, you still persisted in writing—and the things you wrote were very logical, so much so that the plot could be connected?”

“That’s right. There were even more chapters over the past few days. Three to four chapters a day. Four to five chapters a day!”

Zhang Daniu gnawed on the bones until his mouth was dripping with oil. Although he was drunk, he could not hide the triumphant look on his face. “At first, I also felt that it was a little strange. How come I didn’t know what I wrote? Later, I pondered for a few days and finally figured it out. As the saying goes, ‘what you think in the day, you dream in the night’. I guess it’s because I’m too passionate about the sci-fi industry, too passionate about literary creation, too passionate about the universe, the starry sky, and the future. Therefore, a lot of novel plots and character descriptions have been stored in my subconsciousness. Writing has become an instinct. It’s like breathing and heartbeat. I don’t need to use my brain at all. Hahahaha!”

“It’s not that I’m boasting, but there are precedents… I remember there was a scientist. I don’t know which country he was from, but he was the one who discovered the periodic table of the elements. It was said that he racked his brain during the day, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t come up with anything about the periodic table of the elements. In the end, he had a dream at night. Hey, he had a flash of inspiration, and he had a dream all of a sudden!”

“Of course, I can’t be compared to other scientists, but that’s what I’m talking about. Dreams are all human subconsciousness, aren’t they?

“Is it… right?”

Li Yao said, “Your experience is like a ‘heavenly gift’. It is too legendary. Can you tell me more about it? Where did you write when you were in a coma because of a high fever?”

“Let me see. It seems to be Huangpu Shiyi, the first appearance of the Immortal Cultivators of the Temple of Immortals.”

Zhang Daniu thought hard for a long time. “Do you still remember? In the plot, a Refiners’ Meeting of the Flying Star Sector came to an abrupt end. It ended so suddenly that I felt that I was being torn apart. It was during those few days that I started having a fever. It was not said that I would be completely cured within a week. I was tortured for two to three months on and off. My brain did not feel right. It was not until I reached Iron Plateau, Yan Xibei, the Blood Stripe Virus, and the ‘apocalyptic strike’ that my body was fully recovered.

“No wonder.”

Li Yao nodded and said, “At first, I was wondering why the Temple of Immortals and the Immortal Cultivators showed up out of nowhere and ended everything with an explosion when I could tell that you were trying to describe how the protagonist secured the championship in detail in the Refiners’ Congress of the Flying Star Sector. The whole story felt weird. As it turned out, you had such a serious fever. That explains a lot.

“Besides, starting from the Temple of Immortals, to Iron Plateau, to Yan Xibei, and to the strike of the apocalypse, it was almost the turning point of the entire novel. Since then, the pattern and the plot have changed. It seems that you have… awakened something during your fever and coma.

“Awakening? You don’t say. That’s a good word!”

Zhang Daniu slapped the table and said, “After I completely woke up, it’s not that I didn’t think of taking back the plot and continuing according to my original plan—dozens of girls. But on one hand, I’ve already gone too far in this plot line. On the other hand, how can I put it? It’s like something in my brain has awakened. My hands have been controlled. Before I could react, I’ve manipulated the characters in the novel to spurt out dozens of chapters of dialogue. I’ve created a lot of mysteries of the universe, discussions of civilizations, and so on. Many readers who don’t know the truth say that I’m writing too slowly, but they don’t know that I don’t want to. I’m also very troubled!”

Are my hands… out of control?

Li Yao felt more and more that he had made the right choice to fool the author. The clues provided by the author while he was drunk were too valuable.

However, that was not enough to answer all his questions.

“Brother Niu, if I may ask.”

Li Yao continued to bring the beer mixed with white wine to Zhang Daniu’s mouth. “Are you going to continue writing the story of 40,000 Years of Cultivation? Many readers are looking forward to it. Really!”

Although Zhang Daniu was drunk, the question still made him clearly embarrassed.

“Well, how should I put it? Everybody is talking so happily. I don’t want to lie to you.”

Zhang Daniu heaved a long sigh. He looked at the bone in his hand and said, “It’s hard to explain in a long time!”

“What?”

Li Yao’s heart was beating fast, “Don’t tell me Brother Niu is really going to give up? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean anything else. I really like this novel and want to see the rest of the story. Aren’t you writing quite well? Even if you suffered a minor injury, I can see that your hand has almost recovered. It shouldn’t affect your typing, right? If you really can’t, there’s also the voice input method. It would be a pity if you really give up!”