Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“So far, sixteen experts in the Nascent Soul Stage and the demon emperor stage, including Speaker Jiang Hailiu and Li Yao, have arrived at the Conference Center of the New Federation. Through the space communication array, the rest of the super experts far away in the Blood Demon Sector and the Flying Star Sector have successfully connected, too. The meeting where more than a hundred Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and demon emperors are gathered, unseen in the history in the history of either the Heaven’s Origin Sector, the Blood Demon Sector, or the Flying Star Sector, is about to commence!”

The anchor inside the light beam could not hold back his excitement. With tears of joy, his voice shivered as he said, “Stay tuned, dear audience. We will be following the prime meeting that has gathered the best wisdom, strength, courage, determination, and even imagination of the three Sectors!”

For the butterfly that was hovering in and out of the light beam, the excitement of the enormous mammal who was wearing fiber products did not mean anything. She only sensed that the temperature around her was becoming lower and lower, and that the energy inside her body was being consumed faster and faster. The cold rain hit her wings hard, throwing her off balance nonstop.

In the brilliantly-shining and yet unpredictable light beam, she found neither food nor shelter where she could stay away from the cold wind and rain.

She was about to reach the threshold of death. The remaining energy inside her body was not enough for her to find food or shelter. She was destined to fall down like a dry leaf in the chilly rain after a moment of struggle.

Even so, the butterfly was neither frightened nor disappointed. The simple nerves that she possessed were not capable of generating such advanced feelings.

Therefore, driven by the natural instincts deep inside her genes, she simply exploited the last bit of her energy, flapping her wings and flying further toward the flowers that she could never find.

Suddenly…

At the last moment of her life, the wings of the butterfly shivered as she was enveloped by a force that was as warm as spring breeze. She landed slowly and stopped on a metal finger.

Although the finger was metal, it was not cold at all. Instead, it was full of vitality like a twig in the bloom of spring.

Spiritual energy crawled into her body carefully, filling her body with hope again!

The butterfly flapped her wings in delight while she felt the new strength.

At the end of the metal finger was a metal arm. At the end of the metal arm was a splendid, artistic metal shell that was embedded with crystals and carved with spiritual stripes. On the metal skull above the shell, more than thirty-seven thousand bionic muscle fibers were twisted at the same time, giving out a vivid smile while the master of body giggled.

The metal finger snapped softly. The butterfly, revitalized, unfolded her clear wings again and flew to the sky.

Now, she was getting to know the dazzling new world.

Although she did not know where the flowers were, she believed that the flowers must be there somewhere, and she would certainly find them!

Before she flew away, the butterfly turned around and hovered around the existence who helped her, remembering the features of the particular existence.

It was an existence resembling the large mammal ‘human being’, but different from the normal human beings who were made of flesh and blood, it was made of bright blue metal. The high breasts and the slim waist suggested that it was a simulation of the females of human beings. The metal wings folded in its back, on the other hand, indicated that it had a heart that belonged to the sky.

The butterfly wrote all the features to the deepest part of her gene chains.

It was not out of gratitude but simply an experience. She knew that it was a ‘good’ existence that might sustain her life at a critical moment.

“Go now, little one.”

The butterfly sensed the patterned rhythms in the air. Although she did not understand the words, she did sense yet another warm wind.

In the warm wind, she flew higher and higher toward the depths of Grand Desolate City, looking for flowers and mates to pass on her life and everything that she had just perceived.

Looking at the butterfly dancing and flying farther and father, Wei Qingqing smiled more and more delightedly. Her man-made eyes were glittering with hope.

Li Yao, on the other hand, observed her with mixed feelings.

The rural teacher from the Sky Fantasia Academy, one of the Nine Elite Universities of the federation, who was not capable of fighting at all, had been one of the most important people in guiding Li Yao to embark on the path of Cultivation.

To some extent, she was even more important to him than his senior brother ‘Fiend Blade’ Peng Hai and the refiner Ding Yin.

Years ago, on the crystal train north to the Grand Desolate Plateau, Li Yao, who had still been an ordinary person back then, encountered a beast tide with all the passengers on board and was grasped by desperation.

Eventually, seven Cultivators had stood up, sacrificed themselves, and saved everyone. Wei Qingqing was among them.

For the rest of the Cultivators such as Ding Yin, they had some fighting experience, and their strength far exceeded that of the ordinary people.

Wei Qingqing, on the other hand, was a pure culture-type Cultivator and had only just graduated from college. She was merely in the middle level of the Refinement Stage. Faced with the overwhelming beast tide, she was no different from the ordinary people.

If she had decided to flinch, there would have been ten thousand reasons for her to. Or rather, even without her, the other six Cultivators might still have been able to delay the beast tide long enough.

However, she still stood up without any hesitation. With her shoulders that were not very strong, she resisted the blast of the beast tide the hard way, although her orchid-like life perished on the Grand Desolate Plateau too young!

The picture was etched to the deepest part of Li Yao’s soul, which had provided infinite impetus for him to awaken his spiritual root and become a Cultivator the next day.

“I am going to be a Cultivator like Ding Yin and Wei Qingqing!”

It was Li Yao’s original belief.

Once a belief originated, it would not be changed easily. Therefore, of all his family and friends in the Heaven’s Origin Sector, Wei Qingqing, the unique ‘blue bird’, had always been the one that he valued most.

To quote the ancient Cultivators, there was a very important ‘bond’ between the two of them. It was not love but a much purer emotion that transcended love.

After she turned into a spectral Cultivator, Wei Qingqing had been engaged in the education work in the Academy of Spectral Cultivators, where she taught the kids and teenagers who died too young. She was now a renowned educator in the federation. Even the most petulant young ghosts would be obedient after her lesson.

Li Yao was rather overjoyed to see her showing up with an interviewer’s badge.

“Sister Qingqing, you’ve quit your job and become a journalist?” Li Yao asked with a smile.

The methods to resist the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance would be the topic of the meeting, which would potentially decide the roadmap of the federation for the next century.

Although all the participants were there as individuals on behalf of themselves, and the decisions to be made in the meeting would carry no legal effect, everyone knew that the decisions made by more than a hundred Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and demon emperors would be highly influential for the three Sectors anyway.

Therefore, the meeting attracted even more attention than the century trials did before.

After all, the trials were merely about the past, but the Meeting of the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators would foretell the future!

It was for this reason that the vetting on the journalists was particularly strict. The organizer had released less than a hundred certificates for the interviewers. Only the most famous news workers from the most authoritative, unbiased media of the three Sectors had the chance to interview the participants in the meeting hall.

Wei Qingqing was not a professional journalist, but she had somehow gotten an interview certificate. That was quite unbelievable!

After a grimace, Wei Qingqing smiled. “Two reasons. Firstly, the Sky Fantasia Academy is the best school for culture-type Cultivators in the first place. Most of the celebrities in the news industry are my alumni. Also, you know that I am a reasonably good writer too.”

Li Yao nodded. Wei Qingqing was a fairly fascinating novelist. He had once travelled in the world of her novel himself!

Wei Qingqing continued. “I think, in the meeting that concerns the fate of the next hundred, if not thousand, years of the three Sectors, my alumni feel that the simplicity style of writing made by a non-professional from the perspective of an ordinary person will be more touching than a cold, objective article so that the public will better understand what we are going to be faced with.

While speaking, she laughed. “However, it is just an insignificant reason. You are the real reason I’m here!”

Li Yao blinked and pointed at his nose. “Me?”

“Exactly! It is because we knew each other in the past, and I had the highest odds of getting a personal interview with the Ultra-Level Federal Hero, that I was given the interview certificate! I have bragged to the journalists that I will get at least an hour-long personal interview from you. Don’t run away after the meeting ends!”

“No problem!” Li Yao replied quickly. “Now that Sister Qingqing has said that, I can do three hours. But I don’t know what I should say. You can ask questions, and I will answer them!”

Both of them laughed. Wei Qingqing’s eyes were keen enough to catch a short, red-faced old man who was walking by. Her face shone, and she hurried to bow to him before introducing him to Li Yao. “Ah Yao, have you met Professor Zhou Yifu before? He is a professor in my college and one of the most renowned historians in the federation!”

“Fellow Cultivator Zhou!”

“Fellow Cultivator Li!”

The two of them were both in the Nascent Soul Stage. However, Li Yao was too young. The newcomer should be around the same age as his great grandfather. Therefore, he hurried to greet the professor first.

Professor Zhou was courteous enough to bow back to him in return. There was indeed an unearthly aura in his manners.

The two Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators exchanged small talk for a while. It was not just hypocrisy or politeness. There were only slightly more than two hundred Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and demon emperors taking all of them in the three Sectors into account. Every Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, regardless of what job they were working on, was a well-known celebrity. They had definitely heard each other’s name before even if they had never met in person.

Li Yao knew for a fact that this Professor Zhou was a grandmaster in the field of history studies. His main focus was the period at the end of the Star Ocean Imperium where the great expedition and the Armageddon Rebellion took place. His masterpieces included ‘Destruction of the Imperium’ and ‘End of the Civilization of Mankind’.

Perhaps, the history regarding the destruction of the Star Ocean Imperium that he studied would be a valuable lesson for the three Sectors that were trying to defeat the Imperium of True Human Beings and the Alliance of the Holy Covenant.