Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Before Professor Mo Xuan opened his mouth, Si Koulie replied, “That is because of you, Li Yao. You stopped the star child from sending our coordinates to the Imperium of True Human Beings. As a result, the Imperium of True Human Beings did not receive all the parameters of our location.”

“Exactly.” Professor Mo Xuan continued the explanation. “Based on our analysis of the space gate, the Imperium of True Human Beings now only knows that a world of human beings exists in a certain direction millions of lightyears away, which is far from enough.

“The universe is too big. Distance is our greatest weapon. Millions of lightyears mean that the journey will take them millions of years even if they are moving at the speed of light.

“An error, the breadth of a single hair, can lead you a thousand miles astray. If the expedition fleet of the Imperium of True Human Beings activated a super long-distance space jump without specific coordinates, even if they had 99.9% of the precise coordinates, as long as there was the tiniest error in the 0.1% of the coordinates that they were not sure about, they would likely jump to an unknown desolate world.

“A space jump consumes an astronomical amount of spiritual energy. It is even more so for an expedition fleet that can conquer a world.

“If they arrived in desolate worlds after multiple space jumps, they might run out of spiritual energy and get trapped forever.”

Li Yao nodded. There seemed to be countless stars in the universe, but 99.9% of space was desolate. Only a tiny percentage of space was filled with spiritual energy and fit for the survival of living creatures.

Should a fleet lose its direction, it would be not unusual if it ended up stranded in a desolate world after multiple space jumps.

“Short-distance space jumps have two merits,” Professor Mo Xuan explained. “Firstly, the precision of each jump is relatively higher. There will be fewer errors, and even if there are, they can be rectified before the next jump.

“Secondly, the starships can stop and refill their spiritual energy after every jump. They will never run short of spiritual energy or be too damaged to repair.”

“Even with short-distance space jumps, the expedition can take hundreds of years,” Li Yao said. “Can the Immortal Cultivators on board live such long lives?”

“By our estimation, the fleet of the Imperium of True Human Beings must be of an enormous scale. If their starships are the size of Heavenly Saints City, they can easily establish a micro self-circulating system. The Immortal Cultivators can training themselves and live as normal people do. They can even give birth to the next generation, too. The long time matters little for them.

“That was the usual approach during the Star Ocean Imperium when human beings expanded to outside worlds.

“In fact, the ‘sect’ system of the ancient Cultivators is kept to this day because of such a pattern of war, too.

“The universe is too boundless. It usually takes hundreds of years to explore a new world. During the hundreds of years, it is often hard for the expedition fleet to be directly commanded by the mother planet.

“Therefore, the expedition fleets gradually evolved into ‘Cultivation sects’, which maintained a certain degree of independence in their small world of the expedition army.

“In other words, the Imperium of True Human Beings must’ve sent out a ‘Cultivation sect’ to deal with the Flying Star Sector. It is even possible that the Cultivation sect has been promised many benefits. For example, the Flying Star Sector might be granted to the sect after it is occupied.”

Li Yao thought for a minute and then asked, “Since we have found the territory of the Imperium of True Human Beings, can we launch a strike against the Empyrean Terminus Sector, the heart of the imperium? Or, if we don’t launch the strike, can we teleport a starship or a person over?”

Li Yao was all ready for action. Passive defense had never been his style. Attacking aggressively was always his first choice!

Professor Mo Xuan smiled bitterly and said, “Distance is a double-edged sword. Just as the Imperium of True Human Beings cannot lock onto our precise coordinates, we do not know the precise coordinates of the Empyrean Terminus Sector, either.

“If we perform a super long-distance space jump, maybe there is a 0.01% likelihood that we can teleport someone to the vicinity of the Empyrean Terminus Sector. With any luck, the guy will reach the Empyrean Terminus Sector after another five hundred or so short-distance space jumps.

“So complicated?” Li Yao secretly clicked his tongue. After pondering for a moment, he asked somewhat in confusion, “Since super long-distance space jumps are so difficult, how did different Sectors communicate with each other in the Star Ocean Imperium?”

“Before the Star Ocean Imperium, in the thirty thousand years reign of the demon race, they had established large-scale groups of star beacons in every Sector, which were essentially ‘space gates’,” Professor Mo Xuan said.

“When mankind rose again and the Supreme Emperor established his imperium, the space gates were furthered expanded. In the end, ‘cosmic lighthouses’ were constructed in every Sector to guide the starships.

“The technology to produce starships was much more advanced than right now, too.

“With the precise equipment, the guidance of the lighthouses, and the state-of-the-art starships, it was as easy as pie for people of the Star Ocean Imperium to cruise among different Sectors.

“Today, most of the space gates have been destroyed in the ten thousand years of war, and the star maps that marked the precise coordinates of all the Sectors are mostly lost, too. Our starships are not as advanced as the old days. Therefore, communication between Sectors is naturally a hundred times more difficult than in the era of the Star Ocean Imperium.”

Li Yao nodded and thought everything through.

However, he was still wondering why Professor Mo Xuan was so worried and why the ambience was so weird. “Alright. In short, an expedition fleet of the Imperium of True Human Beings is coming at us right now.

“Thankfully, we have at least a hundred years, and two to three hundred if we are lucky, to prepare.

“I think the top priority right now is to reach out to the Heaven’s Origin Sector first.

“The Heaven’s Origin Sector and the Flying Star Sector are very complementary. If a large-scale collaboration is established between the two parties, both Sectors will definitely make significant progress in the hundred years to come.

“Professor Mo Xuan, did you say just now that the precise coordinates of the Heaven’s Origin Sector have been determined?”

With a weird expression, Professor Mo Xuan replied, “You must bear one thing in mind. The primary usage of the Star Prier’s House is not to look for other Sectors but to search for, analyze, and study the apocalypses.

“By Liu the Prier’s definition, the so-called apocalypses are abnormal spiritual waves in the sea of stars that are unlikely to be generated naturally.

“Half a month ago, we observed such ‘abnormal spiritual waves in the sea of stars that are unlikely to be generated naturally’ in a location that is extremely close to the Flying Star Sector.”

“What?” Li Yao had a creepy feeling. “Are you suggesting that the Flying Star Sector is faced with another apocalypse, professor?”

Professor Mo Xuan was silent.

Si Koulie sighed. “In the beginning, we were all shocked. It never rains; it pours. If we experience an apocalypse before the expedition army of the Imperium of True Human Beings comes, the Flying Star Sector will certainly be doomed for all eternity.

“But very soon, we discovered that the intensity of the spiritual waves was much lower than the apocalypse five thousand years ago. It is likely a tactical ‘minor apocalypse’ instead of a world-blighting ‘major apocalypse’.

“Also, the target of the apocalypse is not the Flying Star Sector, either. After brushing past the Flying Star Sector, it lunged at another Sector that is not far away from the Flying Star Sector.

“No. Not one but two Sectors that were melding into each other.”

Li Yao opened his mouth but failed to come up with any comment.

The collision of two Sectors was a very rarely-seen phenomenon in the universe. The odds of such an occurrence were far lower than one billionth.

The two Sectors that were very close to the Flying Star Sector and gradually merging could only be the Heaven’s Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector!

“A minor apocalypse is coming at the Heaven’s Origin Sector?” Li Yao mumbled to himself.

Si Koulie coughed and said, “After we located the trajectory of the apocalypse, it was quite easy to trace back the origin of the apocalypse.

“After more than ten days of calculation, we inferred when and where the apocalypse first appeared preliminarily.

“It was launched from the Empyrean Terminus Sector, the heart of the Imperium of True Human Beings, almost one year ago.”

Li Yao gasped. “Are you suggesting that the Imperium of True Human Beings launched an apocalyptic strike against the Heaven’s Origin Sector?

“But why?”

Li Yao was dumbfounded, not because he was shocked that the Imperium of True Human Beings was able to launch an apocalyptic strike, but because he could not begin to understand why the Heaven’s Origin Sector, instead of the Flying Star Sector, was the target.

“Our assumption is that it was because the Heaven’s Origin Sector was too ‘bright’.”

Professor Mo Xuan finally calmed himself down and said, “Like I said just now, without precise coordinates and the navigation of star beacons, super long-distance space jumps are not feasible.

“However, the Heaven’s Origin Sector is a special case.

“The Heaven’s Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector are currently merging. You may imagine that the two Sectors are crashing right now. The collision may not affect the living creatures of the two Sectors, but it will certainly emanate tremendous invisible particles and waves, which makes the Heaven’s Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector a furiously burning ‘torch’ in the dark universe.

“If a certain ‘stargazer’ of the Imperium of True Human Beings observed our direction through the fourth dimension via a piece of special magical equipment, it is very unlikely that he will find the Flying Star Sector. However, it is likely that he will ‘see’ the Heaven’s Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector, which are crashing and releasing intense spiritual waves!”

Li Yao had an absurd feeling of ‘being beaten without a good reason’. He was dazed for a long time before he managed to ask, “What is the purpose of the Imperium of True Human Beings’ minor apocalypse?”

“If you stand in the shoes of the Imperium of True Human Beings,” Si Koulie said, “everything will be logical and make perfect sense.”