Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Li Yao had no more concerns after part of his life essence, together with Ding Lingdang’s seed, was delivered to the refrigerated warehouse of the Glorious Sunlight Group. He had made a deal with them that the frozen goods would be retrieved and mixed if anything happened to him or Ding Lingdang.

In the few days that followed, Li Yao travelled in the Heaven’s Origin Sector, the Flying Star Sector, and Blood Demon Sector and visited his friends and acquaintances.

The journey through space would be a long and dull one. Even if everything went well, it would take at least thirty to fifty years. If there were any setbacks, it would not be surprising at all if he spent seventy to eighty years. It was even possible that Li Yao would find absolutely nothing after a hundred years of searching, in which case, Li Yao would still activate the star beacon, return to the federation, and prepare to fight against the expedition fleet from the Imperium.

After all his adventures in the three Sectors, Li Yao had made a lot of friends, old and new. Many of the seniors were already old right now, and they could not enter hibernation for the next hundred years because they would have to actively participate in the great development of the New Federation. They might not be able to live another hundred years.

The farewell was probably the last reunion for them, so their feelings were understandably confused. However, the destination of all Cultivators was the sea of stars. Departures were nothing too emotional for them. Therefore, they simply discussed the future over delicious wine and bade each other farewell after they enjoyed themselves.

During the three months while Li Yao was having the special training, the testing of the Heaven’s Artillery and Spark was completed, and the magical equipment that he would be taking, such as the star beacons, was all prepared. The final launch date was set to be ten days later.

It was the moment when the only moon of the mother planet in the Heaven’s Origin Sector was closest to her and when the tidal bore was the strongest.

At that time, a great explosion would erupt deep below the Heaven’s Artillery in order to trigger a man-made earthquake. The most violent power of magma would flood upward into the Heaven’s Artillery.

By combining the methods of spiritual energy absorption of both the Eye of Blood Demon and the Heaven’s Artillery, and fully exploiting the potential of the space jump array on Spark itself, the tiny ship would be able to break the invisible, unpredictable barrier between the three-dimensional world and the four-dimensional world.

Five days before the launch, in Sunrise Village next to the magical equipment graveyard in Floating Spear City, an important town for training in the southeast of the Star Glory Federation in the Heaven’s Origin Sector…

It was Li Yao’s hometown and where his dream began.

He had spent his past five years there in the company of his childhood playmates and seniors, especially the lovely old men who had once helped him.

He had once been kicked out of the door by the Crimson Nimbus No.2 High School before the College Entrance Exam. It was the Miners’ High School which took him in later.

After he rose to fame, the Miners’ High School in Floating Spear City had become well-known, too. It had also been invested in by Li Yao’s tremendous resources and manpower and developed into one of the most reputable high schools in the federation.

The Miners’ High School today was sort of a private school co-funded by Li Yao and the Glorious Sunlight Group. It had also established a partnership with the Grand Desolate War Institution and was some sort of affiliated school to the Grand Desolate War Institution now.

According to the leadership of the school, the name of the school could have long been changed into ‘Li Yao High School’ or ‘Glorious Sunlight School’.

However, at Li Yao’s insistence, the original school name was kept, and the policy that most of the admitted students should be from the middle and bottom level of society was not changed, a gesture to show that he did not forget where he came from.

Li Yao had spent a lot of time in the Miners’ High School in the past five days, too, and taught the poor children who commuted all the way there from the magical equipment graveyard, the slums, the orphanages, and the dilapidated buildings. He saw much of himself in the hotblooded, hardworking, and persistent teenagers and felt quite emotional watching them.

Right now, the young people were still unattractive seedlings if not weeds, but would they grow into prospering trees that could support the sky on their own by the time he returned a hundred years later?

What drastic changes would the Star Glory Federation have been through by then?

Was it possible that he would be a completely outdated ‘old man’ by then?

The feeling of ‘one day for me and a thousand years for the world’, and knowing that it would happen for real, led to slight changes in Li Yao’s mindset.

He suddenly found Gui Suishou and his people’s perseverance more or less understandable.

Compared to the rise and decline of a whole civilization, an individual’s endeavors and efforts were truly nothing worth mentioning!

His new feeling was maximized when he met his three disciples.

In the past five years, Li Yao’s three disciples had distinguished themselves in their respective fields.

They were now scattered in the three Sectors and busy doing their own business. It was not easy for them to find time to meet each other.

It was their last meeting with their master for a long time. Naturally, they were all weeping, unwilling to let him go.

Just like Ding Lingdang, Wu Mayan had participated in the strengthened soldier training on Kunlun. However, he was a qi-trainer, and his path of training was different from that of the common Cultivators. After only three years of training, he felt that his progress was slower and slower. Therefore, he chose a different approach and returned to Iron Plateau, his hometown.

In the two years that followed, just like Yan Xibei, the previous best expert on Iron Plateau, he trained himself alone on the dark continent on Iron Plateau while he cooperated with Xiong Wuji and the Glorious Sunlight Group on the great development of Iron Plateau.

Today, he was still a young man in his twenties, but he had secured accomplishments that were far more shocking than the achievements of Yan Xibei and Xiong Wuji by reaching the unprecedented, unbelievable 300th level of the Refinement Stage!

Of course, by the criterion of the qi-trainers, an increase of every meter in the diameter of the range of one’s spiritual gas meant one level-up. It did not seem very convincing.

However, it was also a fact that the general Cultivators in the Core Formation Stage often could not sustain one minute under the crazy bombardment of Wu Mayan in the 300th level of the Refinement Stage.

Iron Plateau today looked like the opposite of what it had done a dozen years ago. As one of the few habitable planets in the three Sectors, it was a natural paradise that boasted even more resources and denser spiritual energy than the Heaven’s Origin Planet and the Blood Demon Planet did before the apocalypse.

But after the apocalypse, the Flying Star Sector fell apart. With the serious contradiction between the spacers and the homers, it was impossible for the planet to be developed.

Right now, after the tremendous resources of the Heaven’s Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector were invested and the tough, physically-strong demons were deployed for the development, the infinite potential of Iron Plateau was immediately activated. The exchange of techniques and the resource deals were flourishing.

Most of the business was controlled by the Glorious Sunlight Group.

The Glorious Sunlight Group had accumulated a lot of wealth through the business, which was later invested back into the development of Iron Plateau.

Iron Plateau was no longer a land of primitive barbarians like a dozen years ago. Even many of the underground shelters and cities established by the Flying Star Coalition Government before the apocalypse had been excavated. The relics and legacies inside were yet another great boost for the development of the New Federation!

Right now, the leader of the six tribes on Iron Plateau was still Xiong Wuji.

After his body was completely destroyed in the battle versus Yan Xibei, he had been able to focus his full attention on the art of the deal. Iron Plateau was ordered and flourishing under his management.

Wu Mayan was his foster son and Li Yao’s disciple. Even the Glorious Sunlight Group was in fact run by the Wu family. Naturally, he played an important role on Iron Plateau.

Iron Plateau’s potential had yet to be fully exploited. In the next hundred years, it would very likely be restored to its former glory from five thousand years ago and grow into one of the most important planets in the three Sectors.

It was within everyone’s expectation that Wu Mayan’s position would definitely soar, and he would be one of the most powerful men in the New Federation.

Jin Xinyue, on the other hand, was no less influential than Wu Mayan.

Jin Tuyi, her father and the previous dominator of the Blood Demon Sector, was already too sick to be treated. He had undergone the rapid freezing procedure and been confined in the most mysterious war prison in hibernation.

However, Jin Xinyue had inherited all of Jin Tuyi’s methods, and she was a smart person herself.

Although she was merely in the Core Formation Stage, she had a great reliance named Li Yao behind her back. With the support of Skyfire and the Fire Ant King, she had cleverly taken advantage of the original conflicts among the four main demon clans and the power vacuum after the scourge of the Demon God Virus through diplomatic tricks in the past five years. Finally, she was able to reunite the demon clan. Then, throwing out the resource planets at the edge of the Flying Star Sector and the resources on the dark continent on Iron Plateau as bait, she successfully hooked a large batch of middle- and bottom-level demons who pledged their loyalty to her.

At this point, her place as the Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens in the Pantheon of Demons was more than stable.

After absorbing the technology left by Elder Nether Spring to build the Nether World Watch and raising a batch of personal troops who were loyal to her, she was no longer scared of the betrayal of any demon emperor now.

In fact, after learning of the existence of the Alliance of the Holy Covenant, and some of the demons paid a visit to Kunlun and witnessed the Thunder Striker troop—a primeval demon force who fought side by side with human beings—the theoretical grounds for any conflict between demons and human beings barely made any sense now.

Human beings and demons were both descendants refined by the Nuwa Clan. The two parties were essentially the same and simply served as different units in the army. So, what contradiction could be absolutely irresolvable between them?

Human beings boasted independent spirits, emotions, and will, and so did demons. To embrace the Path of Ultimate Benevolence and turn into existences who had no feelings or will and knew nothing but obedience was something unthinkable for every demon emperor.

The discovery of the Covenant Alliance significantly accelerated the integration of the Heaven’s Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector.

Today, a lot of capital from the Blood Demon Sector had flowed to the Heaven’s Origin Sector and the Flying Star Sector along with the demons who went out to collect resources. Human beings and demons established a lot of joint ventures to push forward many super projects.

As a leader of the demons, Jin Xinyue would certainly play a vital role in the federation in the hundred years to come.

Also, different from Wu Mayan, she was not interested in the improvement of her personal combat ability but strode to master the entire world.

She had never hidden her goal of turning into the Speaker of the Federation one day from Li Yao.

With the support of the entire Blood Demon Sector and Li Yao’s tremendous resources, it was indeed a dream that could become reality.

Seeing Jin Xinyue, who was even more vigorous, aggressive, and like her father than five years ago, Li Yao could not help but have a lot of thoughts.

Would it be possible that a hundred years would have passed after a sleep in the hibernation cabin and that his disciple would already be commanding the heroes of the world as a Speaker of the Federation when he announced his return?