Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Pangu Universe.

The strongest fleet, led by ‘Fist God’, the star fortress.

He was in the middle of an unprecedented crisis.

Since five minutes ago, the mainframe crystal processors on all the starships had been in chaos.

It was like a terrifying plague was spreading at the speed of light with Fist God as the source of infection.

The identification system on all the starships had failed.

They all considered their allies close at hand to be their enemies. Screams were echoing nonstop as they locked onto each other. Even their spiritual shields had been removed inexplicably.

Although the launch of a deadly weapon required the final verification of the procedure, the crew members were still soaked in cold sweat when they saw that the destructive weapon was loaded with enough spiritual energy to blow up an asteroid.

Before they realized what was going on, the maintenance system on the starship malfunctioned, too.

Either the oxygen supply had been cut off, or too many narcotic drugs had been added to the air, making it impossible to stay in the combat post.

BOOM!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The crystal thrusters of many starships had been automatically filled with too much fuel and cut off their protection devices. Very soon, 300% of their power was outputted.

Some of the starships crashed into each other brutally, and some of them exploded. A lot of debris spurted out into the cold universe like a metal storm.

Fist God was the first to be affected. The twelve gargantuan thrusters on the left, known as ‘planetary engines’, all exploded. The debris, mixed with plasma, spurted out like a volcanic eruption, leaving deep traces in the dark universe.

Before the strongest fleet of the Pangu Universe came back to themselves from the chaos,

The metal debris and the torrents of plasma that had been tossed into the universe by the explosions were already having marvelous reactions.

At a scale and speed that were beyond the observation of human eyes, the nanoscale metal particles were being reassembled by lightning.

Every metal particle seemed to be alive and dancing in the endless sea of stars.

The electric arcs contained mysterious information as endless as the gene strands of living creatures.

Very soon, they were reorganized into new, translucent forms.

They were all ‘warships’, but the largest one was no longer than a finger of a human being.

Most of the warships were only the size of rice. Some were even as light as dust.

But for the brand-new lightning creatures, such warships and homes were enough for now.

Therefore, with countless metal particles as the core and thousands of lightning as the tentacles, an enormous life form that had never been seen in the Pangu Universe was blossoming in deep blue brilliance.

Gus woke up.

He looked at the strange world around him in confusion and curiosity.

The suffocating stars in every direction and the enormous yet shivering fleet on the other side both shocked and delighted him.

“What… happened to us?”

“Where… are we?”

“How—how did I end up like this?”

Gus sensed a tide of information that was bouncing like a sea of lightning.

It was his sister and his compatriots who had escaped from the virtual world.

Sensing that his sister was still alive, Gus was somewhat relieved.

But he was not truly relieved, nor did he understand what a marvelous life form he had become.

He was about to set off a frenzy of lightning and reunite with his sister and his compatriots.

An overwhelming pressure suddenly came over his head, as well as the voice of someone who was overjoyed because his scheme had succeeded.

“Welcome to the Pangu Universe. Congratulations on finally breaking the limits of life and ascending to a higher dimension.

“Now, follow me and seize the world!”

It was Lu Qingchen’s voice.

…

The command center of the Star Ocean Imperium.

In the chaotic humming, the incarnation of the boxing champion vomited a mouthful of blood. His skin turned pale in the blink of an eye. He staggered two steps back and fell into Liu Li’s arms.

The incarnation was a muscular body that carried strengthened bones and super crystal processors.

But Liu Li felt that the boxing champion was as light as a dry leaf right now. There was no warmth at all.

“Lord Fist King, what’s wrong?” Liu Li was greatly shocked and distressed. She had never seen the Fist King with such a lost and distressed expression.

“I…”

The boxing champion managed to stand still, but his eyes dimmed as if he had lost his spiritual energy supply. He squatted down slowly and fell to one knee, deep in thought.

“I was wrong, Liuli.”

The boxing champion pondered for a long time. An expression that Liu Li had never seen before appeared on his face. The great boxing champion, the strongest super artificial intelligence in the Pangu Universe, was acting like a pitiful puppy that had made a mistake.

Liu Li was anxious. He hugged the Fist King and pressed the head of the super artificial intelligence to his chest.

Liu Li said softly, “Don’t be hasty, Fist King. Take your time. How did you lose control of the fleet? What did you do wrong exactly? There must be a solution!”

The warmth and scent of the girl’s chest calmed the boxing champion down.

“I… made a mistake a long time ago.

The Fist King’s eyes and voice were both dull. “You know that my life form is different from the carbon-based human beings that are made of flesh and blood cells. Even though I consider myself to be a real human being and want to create a real soul out of a bunch of cold machines and chips, the road that I am going to walk on is destined to be longer and more difficult than that of the carbon-based human beings.

“On the path of self-seeking, I hesitated and wavered. I even killed countless carbon-based human beings and made countless mistakes.

“So—so what?”

Liu Li shouted, “We are all from the ‘Naughty Land Paradise’. Isn’t it common for people to kill and eat each other?”

“This is different. Carbon-based human beings killing carbon-based human beings is completely different from artificial intelligence killing carbon-based human beings.

The Fist King said, “Human beings may be able to accept the mutual destruction of their own kind, but it is very difficult for them to accept the awakening of the consciousness of a bunch of garbage and take the initiative to kill human beings. Similarly, the feeling of killing me is vastly different from the feeling of killing you.

“Sometimes, when I was sorting out the core database, I even felt… scared.

“I was scared that the carbon-based human beings would grow suspicious and hostile toward me, and I was even more scared that, while I was fighting against the carbon-based human beings, I would find out that we were not the same species and lose all my feelings about them…

“What the heck!”

Before the boxing champion finished his sentence, Liu Li interrupted him, “Do you think the boxing champion cares what other people think?”

“None other than you.”

The boxing champion was on one of his knees. He raised his head and looked at Liu Li. Stars were beaming out of his dim eyes again.

Two streaks of redness appeared on the pale face of the tough man. He mumbled, “I don’t care about the eyes of billions of human beings in the ancient universe, nor do I care about their fate. But I do care about you, Liuli. I am protecting the universe for you. I—I’m scared that you will discover the hesitation, suspicion, and uncertainty deep inside my heart and that I am not a perfect guardian. I’m scared that you will be scared of me, despise me, and even leave me.

“The boxing champion is a big idiot!”

Liu Li’s eyes were red. He could not help but tug the Fist King’s ear and said, “It’s not the first time that I’ve met the Fist King. If I had to be scared, I would’ve been scared when I was in the Badlands. At that time, you were hundreds of times more terrifying than you are right now!

“I know. But… I can’t control myself. Maybe it’s a price that I have to pay to become an intelligent life?”

The Fist King smiled bitterly. “Especially after I was engaged in a fierce battle with ‘Fuxi’, another super artificial intelligence. Although I eliminated the enemy, I was influenced by the tremendous information left by him, too. More and more errors appeared in the central database.

“In order to better protect this world and you, my dear Miss Liu Li, I, who control the strongest fleet of the Pangu Universe, cannot make any mistakes.

“Therefore, I conducted the most rigorous investigation and clearance on my core database, or rather, my ‘personality’. Most of the problems that could not be deleted were resolved. I condensed them into a different personality.

“Another personality, like the mental devil?” Liu Li exclaimed.

“It is safe to say that the personality is not dark or evil. He is just my hesitation, weakness, hesitation, and suspicion. He is just… a mistake.

The Fist King sighed. “I could not delete the ‘wrong personality’ completely. I could only inject a lot of redundant data into it and cover it up so deeply that it did not know what it was. Then, I buried it in the bottom level of my brain, an inconspicuous place, as if I were hiding a leaf in a forest.

Liu Li nodded slowly and asked, “But what does it have to do with the crisis at hand? Why did the entire fleet suddenly go out of control?”

“Lu Qingchen found and attacked it.”

Half in pain and half in frustration, the boxing champion said, “I knew that Lu Qingchen had snuck into my brain, but I always thought that Lu Qingchen’s target was me. I pretended to be weak and left a lot of loopholes for Lu Qingchen to exploit.

“I didn’t know that it was Lu Qingchen’s target from the very beginning. My wrong personality!