Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“If that’s the case, Long Yangjun’s background is easy to explain,” Li Yao said to the mental devil in his head. “During the time of the God-Sealing War, Long Yangjun’s previous life was an important person on this Nuwa warship or even the entire fleet. For example, she could’ve been the captain of the assault team.

“The fleet of the Nuwa Clan discovered the Ancient Sages Sector that was hiding deep inside the dark nebula by accident during a patrol. It might’ve even figured out the secrets about the Pangu Clan’s plan of succession by luck!

“However, for various reasons, they were deeply mired in the swamp. They were not able to jump out of the dark nebula nor send a message back to their base.

“Well. The dark nebula at that time was probably still very thick, enough to completely block this place from the rest of the universe.”

In his one-hundred-year hibernation, Li Yao had observed that, as time went by, the density of the dark nebula was actually slowly dropping. In another ten thousand years, the dark nebula that was covering the Ancient Sages Sector would probably have entirely disappeared.

On the other hand, hundreds of thousands of years ago, the density of the dark nebula must have been unbelievably high, and there would have been the most powerful interference. If a warship accidentally jumped in, it would have been practically impossible for the warship to jump out.

Li Yao had once discovered a star map of the primeval era on Kunlun. On that particular star map, there was not a dark nebula around the Ancient Sages Sector.

Therefore, the ‘dark nebula’ was probably an ‘artificial blackout’ that the Pangu civilization had constructed by taking advantage of the magnificent power of the celestial bodies in the universe. It was a military defense array designed to protect that top secret plan of succession!

When the ‘array of darkness’ was first activated, its intensity must have been at the highest point. It was perfectly normal that the messages could not be delivered!

All in all, whether because the messages could not be delivered or because the army of the Pangu Clan stationed on the planet had discovered them and might move the laboratory while they were waiting for reinforcements, the Nuwa fleet that Long Yangjun had been in made the decision—they would launch an assault on the Ancient Sages Sector alone!

“The attacks of the Nuwa fleet almost annihilated all the soldiers of the Pangu Clan in the Ancient Sages Sector and destroyed the majority of the Pangu Clan’s laboratory. The breeding base at the bottom level was the only thing left behind.

“This Nuwa warship has been suppressing the breeding base ever since. Long Yangjun’s previous life left a seed when she was dying, hoping to continue fulfilling her responsibility in distant future!

“On the one hand, she sent messages to the mother port persistently and reported the situation here, hoping that the messages could be delivered after the dark nebula outside grew thinner.

“On the other hand, perhaps she was also playing the role of ‘guardian’ and ‘sentinel’. She needed to remind the latecomers who arrived here of what happened in the past and what kind of horrifying existences were hidden in the underground laboratory!”

Li Yao thought quickly and reflected on his speculation.

There were certainly many errors in the details, and he would have overlooked a lot of things, but that should be the gist of what had happened in the beginning.

In such a case, there would be a perfect explanation as to why ‘the second generation of Long Yangjun’ was launched out of the Nuwa warship in an escape capsule.

Wu Suiyun and Meng Chixin, two Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators, were probably not enough to wake up the captain of an assault team of the Nuwa civilization.

However, they had broken the barriers, barged into the Pangu Clan’s laboratory, and even released the most terrible ‘activation beasts’, turning themselves into living individuals of the Pangu Clan!

There must have been certain rune arrays and magical equipment to detect the individuals of the Pangu Clan inside the Nuwa warship. After the warship discovered the invasion of the Pangu Clan, it urgently woke up Long Yangjun, who was in the fetus state, and launched her out of the warship after pouring some random, obscure information into her head.

Then, it charged the communication magical equipment with all the spiritual energy that it had accumulated for probably hundreds of years and sent out another warning to the mother port billions of lightyears away for the last time!

Perhaps, in the hundreds of thousands of years in the past, the Nuwa warship had sent out warnings to the outside world countless times, but because of the interference of the dark nebula, all the warnings had vanished on the long journey in between.

But this time, the dark nebula was finally thin enough to allow the warnings to pass through.

The warnings were immediately perceived by the Nuwa fleet’s past mother port, which was the Heaven’s Origin Sector and the Flying Star Sector today!

Then, the many stories including the Star Glory Federation’s shock and Li Yao’s voyage in the dark nebula began!

“Hu…”

After figuring out all the critical parts of the whole event, Li Yao took a deep breath in relief. He was sweating hard but felt extremely comfortable!

“Help me examine it. Are there any major flaws in my deduction?” Li Yao spoke to the mental devil. Before it replied, Li Yao frowned. “No. There’s another question that hasn’t been answered yet.

“In the past tens of thousands of years, it’s obvious that some other Cultivators once entered certain cabins on the Nuwa warship. Otherwise, the rumors about the Divine Palace wouldn’t have spread in the outside world, and it would’ve been impossible for the locals of the Ancient Sages Sector to create the Thousand Stars Tray, which can parse the map core of the Divine Palace!

“Then, it is quite odd. Why did the Cultivators in the past hundred thousand years not open the seals or get injected by the ‘activation beasts’ with the drugs?”

Li Yao felt that his heart was very uncomfortable, like a cat was scratching it even if there was only a tiny loophole in his theory.

“It is not a very important flaw,” the mental devil replied. “There are two possibilities.

“Firstly, the Pangu civilization could’ve set a time limit when they devised the ‘plan of succession’. For example, the plan would not be activated until fifty thousand years or a hundred thousand years later. They did not want to wake up too early, in case they exposed themselves when the universe was still under the absolute control of the Nuwa civilization.

“Therefore, before the designated time, all the ‘activation beasts’ would be kept in the hibernation or spore state. They would not come out and cause any trouble.

“However, this isn’t a very plausible possibility, and I’m more in favor of the second one. The activation beasts wouldn’t bite just anybody. They would only the targets that were strong enough to be transformed into beings of the Pangu Clan!”

Li Yao was dazed for a moment, “Strong enough to be transformed into the individuals of the Pangu Clan? What do you mean?”

“Literally what I said,” the mental devil replied matter-of-factly. “Normal human beings are only slightly above two meters tall at most, while the members of the Pangu Clan can be more than ten meters tall or even larger. Do you think that growing from a human being into a member of the Pangu Clan won’t consume spiritual energy?

“As powerful as the Pangu Clan might’ve been, it would have been impossible for them to make things out of nothing. They would have had to abide by the conservation of energy. So, during the process where human beings are transformed into members of the Pangu Clan, astronomical spiritual energy must be consumed!

“If such spiritual energy cannot be absorbed from the outside world, they would have to count on the reserve within their body!

“To put it simply, it is impossible for ordinary people and low-level Cultivators to bear the crazy consumption when their gene strands are activated for them to be transformed. Chances are that their body and soul will be drained, and they will end up being a mummy halfway through the transformation!

“Only the individuals who are above a certain level—say, the top experts in the Nascent Soul Stage and the Divinity Transformation Stage, who have sufficient spiritual energy stored inside their body—can expect to survive the transformation. They are the primary hunting targets of the ‘activation beasts’!”

“Fair enough!” Li Yao snapped his fingers in his heart. “Only the Cultivators who are strong enough are qualified to be transformed into members of the Pangu Clan. If that’s the case, everything is explainable. Do you agree with my speculation?”

“Yes, of course,” the mental devil said with a smile. “The succession and possession of civilizations are the most common things in the universe in the first place. Just like the Blood Stripe Virus tried to possess a different civilization, it’s only natural that the Pangu civilization would try everything that they could to continue their civilization when they were dying.

“The life and death of individuals are meaningless. What the Pangu civilization pursued was not the reincarnation of a certain individual of the Pangu Clan but the rebirth of a whole civilization!

“If the transformation was completed, Wu Suiyun would still have been Wu Suiyun, and Meng Chixin would still have been Meng Chixin. However, they no longer belonged to human beings but the Pangu Clan. Naturally, they would shoulder the destiny to revive the Pangu civilization!

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. What a remarkable plan. It is much simpler, more efficient, and more delicate than the Blood Stripe Virus, which lurked on meteoroids like idiots and aimlessly drifted in the universe!”

The mental devil chuckled, as if it had found amusement in other people’s misfortune. “If your speculation is true, the civilization of mankind is in an awkward situation right now!

“Let me tell you a story…

“Once upon a time, there was an invincible, wealthy general who lived in a splendid castle with his beautiful wife and concubines.

“Inside the castle were mountains of gold, pools of wine, the sharpest weapons, and the solidest armor!

“In a corner of the castle, there was a slave who did the most filthy, exhausting, and menial work in the castle. He was no better than the cows and horses raised in the castle.

“One day, the general was wanted for a certain mission, and he temporarily promoted the slave to be a ‘doorkeeper’, entrusting the whole castle to the slave. Then, he threw all his belongings and women into the castle and left, never to be seen again.

“Just like that, hundreds and thousands of years passed, but the real master of the castle never returned.

“Perhaps, the first generation after the slave remembered their identity as a ‘doorkeeper’. They fulfilled their responsibility dutifully and did not dare do anything that was unexpected of them.

“However, the offspring of the slave gradually forgot that they were the ‘doorkeeper’. They enjoyed the gold, the wine, the weapons, and the women in the castle at ease and considered themselves to be the master of the castle!

“Hehe. If the master of the castle never returns, this might be a happy ending for everybody.

“But what if the master comes back?

“Human beings have considered themselves the strongest fighting species in the universe and the only dominator in the three thousand Sectors since they raised their heads and found their ambition in the sea of stars for the first time.

“But are we the masters of the universe or just humble doorkeepers?

“Right now, the familiar footsteps of the master in the past are echoing outside of the castle and drawing closer and closer. What are we going to do?”