Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Watching the lightning life-form struggling silently, Li Yao felt… almost ashamed.

He used to think that the universe was so unfair to human beings that, if there was a ‘heavenly law’, human beings would only be the slaves and toys of the heavenly law. The world in which human beings lived was so cruel that the resources of the Pangu Universe were always scarce, forcing human beings to walk the path of self-destruction or suicide.

But right now, from the lightning-like life of the ancient star, he finally realized what ‘cruel’

was.

Human beings, or most carbon-based intelligent creatures, were lucky.

They lived on two stable planets. Such planets were ‘everywhere’ on the scale of the universe. The natural advantage of carbon-based life meant that every one of them had a relatively long lifespan. They were also able to resist the storms that were passing through the four-dimensional space and the pain of separation and consolidation, which made sailing in the sea of stars possible.

When the advantages were combined, the fire of life on the carbon-based intelligent creatures spread across the entire universe and started burning furiously. It was very convenient for the intelligent creatures in various space zones and even in different universes to communicate with each other. Communication, even in the cruelest ways of war, slavery, and slaughter, would promote the advancement of a civilization.

Just like the civilization of mankind today, they used to have a lot of brothers and sisters, and they had been marching forward in the internal strife with their brothers and sisters. They had also found their ‘father’, the Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan, who were also carbon-based life forms, and even the makers of the black wall. They had also begun to create the next generation of information life forms that could carefully and gradually get rid of the carbon-based shells.

How happy and fortunate a civilization with parents, brothers, and children was, and how generous and extravagant the universe was about carbon-based life!

But what about the Lightning Civilization? The planets that they were born on were the fewest among the families of planets. Besides, not every planet had an atmosphere, and not every planet’s atmosphere could produce plasma cells.

It would require two neighboring supernovas to explode at almost the same time and sweep countless kinds of matter and radiation into the atmosphere of the planet. The intensity of the radiation would not be strong enough to swallow the planet, which was the only miracle that could be achieved.

With such harsh conditions, not just the Pangu Universe, even in countless multiverse, Li Yao believed that the lightning life-forms from ancient giants were unique.

It meant that they were destined to be alone. They were natural-born orphans. It was impossible for them to receive the help and enlightenment of their predecessors. It was almost impossible for them to communicate with the outside world. They could only grope in the darkness until they fell into the abyss.

Besides, the ‘heavenly path’ left them too little time. Too little time. They were like children who had been infected with a fatal virus when they were still in their mother’s womb. They were sentenced to death the moment they were born. Two to three thousand years later, even though their development and mutation speed far exceeded the limits of the carbon-based intelligent creatures, it was still not enough for the feeble creatures to defeat a giant planet, two supernovas, and the desolate, barren universe!

Therefore, the struggle of the lightning creatures was destined to be a hundred times more difficult, a hundred times more tragic, and a hundred times more splendid than the struggle of the civilization of mankind.

It-they were still struggling.

After only a few minutes, the lightning that constituted the shape of a human became dimmer and smaller.

They were still wandering around Li Yao, trying to crack the secrets of Li Yao’s vitality magnetic field and brainwaves.

However, human beings had been studying the secret for a hundred thousand years and failed to realize it. How could the lightning life-form crack it in only several minutes?

Sensing the electric currents passing through his braincells, Li Yao was caught in a dilemma.

Now that he had recognized the magnificent civilization of the lightning creatures and their magnificent fight against destiny, Li Yao’s first reaction was naturally to help them.

But his rationality also told him that, when he was in touch with an unknown civilization, it was necessary to assume that they were hostile.

Intentionally or unintentionally, the previous two attacks had paralyzed many starships of the human exploration fleet and even killed many crew members.

Just a moment ago, the lightning life-form had been releasing undisguised hostility toward him, trying to possess him clumsily. The lightning life-form was like an innocent child who did not hide his purpose at all. It was the purest, most ultimate ‘evil thought’.

Li Yao had no doubt that, if destroying human beings could save their civilization, the warriors of the Lightning Civilization would definitely do it without any hesitation.

He should annihilate them, shouldn’t he?

However, in the depths of the Pangu Universe, in the multiverse where there were endless possibilities, how many life forms were as wonderful and magnificent as the lightning creatures? Was the civilization of mankind going to sweep across the entire universe and turn the entire universe into a barren desert with a sentence that read ‘Those who are not of the same species will be disloyal’, just like the flood?

Was it possible that the so-called ‘flood’ was a group of super civilizations that believed that ‘those who are not of the same species must have a different mind and strike first to gain the upper hand’. All the unknown civilizations were hostile civilizations, and only the civilizations of destruction were friendly civilizations’.

Was the ultimate purpose of mankind’s march into the sea of stars to become a second flood, or was it to stand on the opposite side of the flood and fight against the flood together with countless brilliant species?

To save or not to save?

How could he save them if he had to? How could he destroy them if he did not?

The ripples under Li Yao’s eyes started trembling violently.

Right then, he suddenly felt that several streaks of lightning as thin as hair had crawled into the depths of his brain and tied up his soul, merging with it.

Some of the plasma cells crawled into the fuel tanks and the crystal reactors of the arsonists and vanished, too.

Li Yao’s pupils constricted violently.

He really did not know whether it was another failed attempt of the lightning creature, or whether the creatures had grasped secrets that even he did not know during the arduous exploration of dozens of generations and turned his body, soul, and even the giant soldier into a brand-new ‘starship’.

Li Yao was dazed for a long time. Then he smiled. The muscles that were cramping because of the electric arcs all relaxed. He took a long breath in relief and mumbled to himself, “Yes. I was too arrogant to think that I could be your ‘savior’ or ‘destroyer’.

“Compared to the supernova explosions and the collapse of galaxies that are going to destroy you, my strength is nothing. After fighting against such a cruel universe and fate for such a long time, you have become the strongest warriors. You don’t need the rescue of other people at all. You can save yourselves. “Also, how can I destroy you? Even the explosion of two supernovas, the super-giant storm, the super gravity, and even the natural laws of the universe failed to destroy you. How can I destroy you? “Then, let’s do it. Let’s continue fighting with everything we’ve got. Maybe this is the most efficient way of communication and mutual salvation between two different civilizations. Or maybe, this is the greatest respect that a warrior struggling on the road of survival and resistance can offer to another warrior in the same trade!

At this moment, Li Yao closed his eyes and burnt his life, trying to drive out the lightning-like creatures that had invaded his body.

But it was also possible that he was not expelling them but releasing all the information about human beings, the Pangu Clan, the Black Wall Manufacturing, and other carbon-based intelligent creatures. He was also sending his precious energy into the body of the lightning-like creature to prolong its life. It was hard to define whether it was destruction or salvation between different life forms.

By the same logic, the lightning life was shaking violently inside Li Yao’s brain, carving and imprinting It was perhaps malicious. It was trying to erase all the memories and consciousness in Li Yao’s mind in such a way, while it ‘moved its entire civilization inside.

It was also possible that he was trying to teach Li Yao, a fellow traveler on the endless journey, the delicate secret arts of manipulating energy when he sensed that his life was about to end.

It was also possible that it still did not recognize the full picture of a carbon-based intelligent life, nor did it have the concept of good and evil. It was merely trying its best to build a tomb and a monument for its premature civilization between Li Yao’s braincells and the electric current.

Li Yao fell into a trance again, not knowing how long the process lasted. In the face of two civilizations whose time scales were so different, ‘time’ itself was meaningless. In short, when he gradually woke up from the never-before-seen, exquisite, and marvelous lightning energy model, the first picture he saw was the lightning life-form in the shape of a human gradually drifting away from the spiritual residence of the giant soldier and sinking into the depths of the sea of stars.

It seemed to have completed its mission and was ready to welcome its doom. The bouncing electric arcs were dimming, rippling, and dispersing, but the lightning that should’ve been the most furious was as tranquil and clear as a stream.

It opened its ‘arms’ and floated further and further away, becoming smaller and smaller, as if it had really let go of its long hair and sunk into the ocean quietly.

No. Not the ‘undersea’, not the depths of the sea of stars, but in the direction of the ancient giants!

Even though it was so far away from its home, even though its minimal energy was not enough to support a plasma cell to return to the ancient planet, it was still deeply attracted by the magnetic field of its home. It was not falling, drifting, or sinking, but returning to its home.