Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

The mental devil dissected the weird dream into the most fundamental stream of information and swallowed it. Smacking the lips and pondering for a moment, the mental devil mumbled, “It’s indeed a bit strange but not so far as ‘self-contradictory’. Or rather, this dream filled the most critical blank of the previous weird dreams!”

Li Yao was refreshed. “How so?”

“Look. In fact, the dreams we’ve had before are divided into two vastly different, if not opposite, parts.”

Waving its arms and legs, the mental devil declared, “First of all, in our childhood and youth, before our spiritual root was awakened, the weird dreams we had were about the ‘earthling Li Yao’.

“This particular ‘earthling Li Yao’ lived in the 2010s on Earth. He was just a regular car mechanic. If there was anything special about him, it was perhaps his racing skills, but it was not any special ability.

“All in all, this ‘earthling Li Yao’ was a completely ordinary person, and the planet that he lived on was a plain, peaceful world devoid of spiritual energy. He lived a boring life until he had a car accident that got him killed!”

Li Yao nodded. “Yes, that’s right. It is why I thought that I was the reincarnation of the ‘earthling Li Yao’, except that my memories and self-awareness of the past were somehow maintained while I was reborn. Was I wrong?”

“No. Not exactly,” the mental devil said carefully. “However, after we became a Cultivator, and especially after we perceived the mysteries of the superlative height of the Core Formation Stage through the fierce battles in the Flying Star Sector, didn’t a new dream occur to us?

“In the new dream, the ‘earthling Li Yao’ was a warrior who was resisting something. But the thing was, as I quote, ‘too dark and too strong’. Eventually, all our companions were killed by the thing, and we were the only lucky survivor.

“The reason we escaped was to carry on the Vulture Plan and to destroy something. Maybe, it was the ‘too dark and too strong’ thing that we were determined to destroy!”

Li Yao was deep in thought. “Yes. Although I don’t quite remember what is it that we wanted to destroy, the feelings of desperation and depression were deep to my bones.”

“Then, something doesn’t make sense now,” the mental devil said. “The earthling Li Yao was just a regular car mechanic and an excellent racer at best. He never served in the army, nor was he a warrior adept at fighting. How was he involved in the Vulture Plan?

“Besides, in our memories, Earth at the beginning of the twenty-first century, although not entirely peaceful, certainly did not have world wars! There were two superpowers that controlled Asia and Americas. The influence of their army radiated over the entire planet. There was friction between the two superpowers, but they certainly did not wage war at each other.

“Then, even if a certain threat that was ‘too dark and too strong’, say a virus or an alien, appeared, the two superpowers would certainly be there to settle everything. What could an insignificant mechanic do?

“If even the two superpowers could not deal with the threat, it’s even less possible that such a mechanic could save the world, right?”

Li Yao nodded quickly. “I was too trapped in my own thinking. Your analysis is quite correct! It does make sense. Now that I see it, the so-called Vulture Plan is too ungrounded. The two superpowers on Earth had almost twenty aircraft carrier battle groups and millions of soldiers, not to mention their powerful nuclear bombs. Even a few Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators might not fair too well if they went to Earth.

“Even if Earth really encountered a crisis, the two superpowers would’ve been there to deal with it. What did it have to do with a civilian?

“Or rather, is one of the two inconsistent dreams false?

“Either the identity of the ‘car mechanic Li Yao’ is false, or the Vulture Plan is!”

The mental devil shook its head hard. “Not necessarily. Don’t jump to any conclusions so fast. In my opinion, the key to understand the dreams lies in the one you had today.

“Alright, let’s sort through the timeline.”

The mental devil counted its fingers and said solemnly, “Before, there was a place called ‘Earth’, where an ordinary person named ‘Li Yao’ lived.

“Earth was a world without spiritual energy, and Li Yao was nothing more than an unknown, insignificant civilian. Other than his amazing racing skills, he did not have any special ability. He was not a secret agent of the government, nor had he ever heard of the Vulture Plan!”

Li Yao nodded. “That’s right. Go on.”

“Then, one day, Li Yao had an accident during a race. Everybody thought that he was dead, but he wasn’t. Instead, he met a super ugly woman who was wearing spiritual armor and carrying a chainsword and a storm bolter in ways that we can’t understand.

“After that, the memories went blank. We directly jumped to the end, where all his companions were killed and part of his remaining soul escaped from Earth in a hurry. He swore that he would come back one day and carry on the Vulture Plan!”

Li Yao narrowed his eyes and mumbled, “Are you suggesting that, after the earthling Li Yao’s accident, he wasn’t directly teleported to the Heaven’s Origin Sector, but met the ugly woman and possibly joined a certain organization with the Vulture Plan as the core? He didn’t flee to the Heaven’s Origin Sector until the organization was crushed by the enemy, and he was forced to leave Earth?”

The mental devil nodded its head solemnly. “Yes. That must be the case.”

“It does make a lot of more sense now. Otherwise, an insignificant car mechanic certainly would not have had much to do with the mysterious Vulture Plan!” Li Yao took a deep breath, his temples bouncing. Thousands of thoughts seemed to be popping out of his head.

Rubbing his temples softly, his eyebrows furrowed again. “No. There is still something inexplicable. Even if the earthling joined a certain mysterious organization after the accident, why was he greeted with ‘Welcome to Earth’?

“Li Yao was an earthling who had lived on Earth his whole life! What did she mean by saying ‘Welcome to Earth’?

“Generally speaking, this should be the way that the locals of Earth greeted aliens, right? Or was the previous Li Yao in fact not an earthling but an alien? That’s too hilarious, definitely impossible!

“Also, why was the woman who said the greeting using magical equipment? Her leather armor, chainsword, and storm bolter were definitely magical equipment driven by crystals instead of the firearms of Earth driven by gunpowder and electricity. I’m certain about that!

“She should be a Cultivator!

“But that’s not right. There were clearly no Cultivators on Earth. Where was such a weird female Cultivator from? And why was she saying ‘Welcome to Earth’?”

Li Yao was more and more confused. He seemed to be mired in a revolving swamp and could not find a way out however hard he struggled.

Scratching his head hard, he narrowed his eyes into two spirals as he mumbled, “Did Earth really exist, or was it just part of my imagination?”

The mental devil was confused, too. “Welcome to Earth. It is indeed a weird greeting. Li Yao of the previous life was an earthling in the first place. Why would anybody welcome an earthling to Earth? It is not logical at all!”

Murmuring for a long time, Li Yao suddenly shuddered and jumped to his feet as if he suffered an electric shock. He demanded, “What did you say?”

The mental devil was shocked by him, too. “I said, why would anybody welcome an earthling to Earth?”

“Not this one. The next sentence. The next one!”

Li Yao could not help but tremble as if he had heard the most dreadful spell in the world.

The mental devil was baffled. After thinking for a moment, it replied uncertainly, “I said… it is not logical at all—what? Is there anything wrong with that?”

Li Yao narrowed his eyes, his body temperature dropping by more than ten degrees. Every muscle on his face and his body was shaking nonstop. “No. There is nothing wrong about that, but I’ve heard many people saying the word ‘logic’ before. Something is greatly wrong about that!

“Also, now that I think about it, when I proposed to Ding Lingdang, she once said that she was not a woman who pursued romance, didn’t she? You were there, too. Did she say that?”

The mental devil scratched its head and blinked. “What’s wrong with that? She has never been a romantic woman after all.”

“Don’t you understand?” Li Yao bellowed. “The critical question is not whether or not she is a romantic woman but why the word ‘romance’ was in her vocabulary and why she understood its meaning precisely! It is as baffling as why the people in the world of Cultivators know the word ‘logic’ and understand its meaning!

“Romance is not a word in our native language but from a certain western language on Earth!”

After he advanced into the Nascent Soul Stage, Li Yao’s memories had been significantly enhanced. Even the memory pieces in the deepest part of his brain could be recalled easily. Therefore, with a telepathic thought, he retrieved the etymology of the word ‘romance’ on Earth.

“The same goes for ‘logic’. It is a borrowed word, too, which can be dated back to ancient Greek.

“Here comes the question!

“You and I know the meaning and usage of the transliterations such as ‘romance’ and ‘logic’ because we share the memories of the ‘earthling Li Yao’. Both of the two words originated from the western civilizations on Earth and were passed on from Greek to English until they were loaned into the Chinese language!

“But Ding Lingdang and other people don’t know anything about Earth. They don’t know anything about ‘ancient Greek’ and ‘English’ at all. Then, why do they know the usages of the transliterations such as ‘logic’ and ‘romance’?”