Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

There was mockery in Li Yao’s eyes as he scoffed, “Are you selling the bullsh*t of the Pantheon of Demons again? How come I never learned of anything named the Pantheon of Demons forty thousand years ago?”

His words cast Jin Xinyue into a daze, too. She secretly stuck her tongue out in her heart and said even more humbly, “Your eyes are keen, and you are indeed insightful, senior. In fact, I don’t believe in the ‘glorious Pantheon of Demons’, either. It is just a form of propaganda.

Li Yao was startled. He did not expect that Jin Xinyue’s head was clear enough to call a spade a spade.

Jin Xinyue opened her hands and said, “I’ve read a lot of history books of the Demon Beast Empire in the royal library of the Gold Crow Kingdom and the collections of the Pantheon of Demons. I also browsed through the human beings’ records of the events of the past. After I compared them, I discovered that, although many narrations were contradictory, the classifications of four levels and theories of the Pantheon of Demons including ‘obliteration, rebirth, and immortality’ were all gradually formulated over the past forty thousand years and not entirely settled until approximately ten thousand years ago. There’s no doubt about that. It’s perfectly normal that you haven’t heard about it before.”

Li Yao could not help but chuckle drily. He then demanded in a high-pitched voice, “So, you are aware that you’ve been lying?”

“It is a white lie,” Jin Xinyue replied calmly. “Demons are different from human beings. The vastest difference for human beings is their skin color or hair color. Strong or weak, they all have one head that is on the top of two shoulders. Their appearance and habits are very similar. Therefore, it is natural for human beings to be united, and ideologies such as equality and democracy work better for them.

“But the difference among the individual demons is too huge. We are scattered throughout the entire world from the high sky to the deep ocean. The high-level demons are even smarter than human beings, but low-level demons possess wisdom equal to that of a child, not to mention that the latter are also driven by their instincts of slaughtering and know nothing but destruction.

“If I may ask, how can the thousands of species of demons, who vary greatly, be united and develop our world stably without a powerful system?

“At the early stage of the Demon Beast Empire, the system of the four classes and theories of the Pantheon of Demons were not perfected yet. At that time, the demons attacked each other all the time, and there was no peace.

“If I may be so bold to ask, you witnessed such a chaotic era in person, didn’t you, senior?”

Li Yao lowered his head and sniffed, but he did not respond.

Jin Xinyue smiled. “Therefore, after the atrocities during the dynasty-changing wars of the Demon Beast Empire, the sages established the system of the four classes creatively, which was also known as ‘Four Pillars’. They gradually perfected the legends of the Pantheon of Demons and enlighten the unwise, low-level demons with the tales to ensure the stability of our civilization.

“Otherwise, the internal strife between the different species of demons would already have been enough to cause the doom of our civilization. How can we expect to fight human beings?

“Let’s be honest here. Of course, the legends that the Pantheon of Demons made up are exaggerated, but the clans such as Zhurong, Kuafu, Gonggong, and Nuwa are real things.

“You may understand them as the super experts, or the powerful sects, in the primeval era. They could also have been glorious species or civilizations. For example, the Zhurong civilization, the Kuafu civilization, and the Gonggong civilization, and so on.

“When the civilizations of the primeval era mixed together, countless brand-new lives flourished. They were our ancestors.

“Demons and human beings are the different branches of the primeval civilizations. However, when it comes to the utilization of spiritual energy, human beings choose to walk down the wrong path.”

“The wrong path?”

Li Yao raised his eyebrow. He was rather curious about how the demons viewed the humans’ methodology of training.

“Yes.”

Jin Xinyue nodded and said, “The training of human beings is entirely focused on energy. They prefer energy to material. To quote their ancient classics, the bodies of human beings are just boats to pass through the sea of suffering. It is just a container that is not worth mentioning at all. Although they can build up their body by inhaling and exhaling the spiritual energy of the universe, the main purpose of such a practice is to absorb and utilize more spiritual energy.

“The bottom line is, human beings consider their bodies as a containers and energy as the ultimate goal. For the experts of human beings, the higher their Cultivation is, the more importance they attach to energy. When they advance into the Core Formation Stage and the Nascent Soul Stage, they even reconstruct some of their body parts, namely the cores and the ‘Nascent Soul’.

“After the ‘Nascent Soul’ is born, the experts of human beings will walk further down the path of pure energy. The Divinity Transformation Stage, the Divinity Branching Stage, and the Void Refining Stage are all for the ultimate purpose of energization. In the end, they will ‘ascend to the heavens’. It means that they will completely get rid of their body and blood and become creatures of pure energy.”

Li Yao nodded, deep in thought. “This is quite a refreshing theory.”

“Thanks for you compliment,” Jin Xinyue said in a hurry. “Over the past forty thousand years, the training theories of both demons and mankind have developed quite fast. The wisdom of countless sages and geniuses during the period is not to be underestimated. I’m just copying the predecessors’ theories and introducing them to you. I believe that your expertise will certainly be much higher than right now after you learn more about the new theories.”

Li Yao laughed. “What’s wrong about the path of pure energy? I’ve met a few Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators before. They were quite strong, and it was a headache to kill them.”

Jin Xinyue shuddered and could not help but observe Li Yao’s face in secret.

As a saintess of the Pantheon of Demons, she had her own secret arts of observation. She could easily tell that the stranger was not lying. It seemed that he had slain more than one Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator!

Jin Xinyue swallowed hard. Her heart, which had just calmed down, was racing again.

She knew for a fact that, after such a long war between the Blood Demon Sector and the Heaven’s Origin Sector, few demon emperors of the Pantheon of Demons had slain experts in the Nascent Soul Stage before.

But the old monster here talked about killing Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators so casually as if they were nothing but harmless hens. What a ferocious demon!

Jin Xinyue calmed herself down and said, “For starters, creatures of pure energy are very unsteady and prone to interference.

“More importantly, a body of flesh and blood is the ultimate essence of the materials in the universe. Life is the greatest mystery in the universe and a boundless treasury!

“Every cell is like a tiny universe and boasts infinite potential. Isn’t it catching at the shadow and losing the substance when you explore the great universe in a hurry but you haven’t figured out the small universe yet?

“Therefore, the demons regard our bodies as the source of our strength. We are more focused on developing the potential of our cells by attacking them with energy. All our techniques are based on that, too!

“With your expertise, you must know a lot of secret training arts. However, if I may be so bold to ask, have you ever thought of the mechanisms of the secret arts, senior?”

Li Yao pondered for a moment and glanced at Jin Xinyue coldly.

Jin Xinyue shivered, but she bit her lips hard and widened her eyes, staring back at Li Yao.

She was very clear that she could not keep retreating and submitting herself during the competition with such an old monster. She had to take the initiative at the crucial moment even though it might be risky.

As she expected, Li Yao lowered his head after a moment and said frankly, “It’s true that I don’t know how many secret arts work even though I can use them adeptly. I only know that training through those methods will make me stronger, but training is always followed by endless combat. Is there any time for me to consider the mechanism of training at all?”

Ecstasy beamed out of Jin Xinyue’s eyes. She knew that she had hooked the old monster.

Now that she had achieved her purpose, she did not dare test him any longer. She said in a hurry, “According to the modern theories of training, the secrets of demons lie in the genes.

“You may find it hard to believe, senior, but if you magnify a cell billions of times, you will be able to clearly see the gene strands deep inside the cells, which are in pairs and in helical forms.

“On those gene strands, the greatest experts and sages, such as Zhurong, Gonggong and Kuafu, left astronomical hereditary information billions of years ago.

“If you think that such an explanation is too obscure, you may consider that the greatest experts in the primeval era wrote all the training methods possible on jade chips named ‘gene strands’. Then they connected all the jade chips and hid them deep inside every cell.

“However, under normal circumstances, all the ‘unparalleled techniques’ are in the state of being sealed and locked. They are known as ‘dormant genes’ and ‘recessive genes’.

“The training mechanism of demons is in fact importing spiritual energy into the body and piercing it deep into the nucleus to trigger the dormant genes, forcing them to shift from recessive to dominant. As a result, they will be able to perceive the unparalleled techniques that the ancient experts bestowed upon us instantly and demonstrate the demeanor of the primeval warriors again!

“Therefore, the entire training system of the modern demons is based on cells and genes.

“For the demon soldiers at the bottom level, they can guide the spiritual energy to blow their membranes consciously and stimulate the activity of the membrane by the vibration of spiritual energy of a certain frequency, facilitating the exchange of materials in and out of the cells and making their bodies stronger.

“For the demon generals, they can train with their cell nucleuses directly and bombard the gene strands with their spiritual energy so that the dormant genes are awakened.

“For the demon emperors, they can even directly analyze parts of their genes and grasp the legacy that the prehistoric experts passed on to us in our genes. Then, they regain that unimaginable primeval power again!

“All theories, studies, and secret arts regarding the cells and genes are known collectively as ‘biochemistry’. Biology is the study of life, and chemistry is the study of changes. All the changes and mysteries of life in the entire universe are explored in biochemistry!”