Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Heiye Lan could not help but feel creeped out, despite everything that she had experienced in the cruel competitions since childhood to grow into an elite warrior!

It was not because she was scared but because she discovered that, along with the casual introduction of Master Spiritual Vulture, her heartbeat and breathing were truly accelerating, and ambitions were budding from the deepest parts of her bones, forming an invisible armor of sharp stings on her body and turning her into something entirely new!

Before that moment, Heiye Lan had never craved more for herself, even when she discovered the remnants of dozens of Colossi in the warehouse on the Nuwa warship in the Ancient Sages Sector.

For weak creatures, ‘know yourself’ was a must for their survival. The mercy of the Immortal Cultivators was never prepared for the losers.

During her growth, she had seen countless ambitious fellows who overestimated themselves recklessly challenge her father or the leaders of the major families and sects that made up the Black Wind Fleet, and those fellows usually did not end particularly well.

She also understood the gap between herself and her brothers, sisters, and even the uncles and cousins in her other family branch. Therefore, she had never dared ignite the ‘ambition’ deep down her heart.

But now that the sparks had been ignited, they would never be extinguished!

Heiye Lan panted heavily. She did not even have the courage to turn around and face Li Yao.

However sluggish and numb her senses were, she could clearly perceive that the ‘being’ behind her was gradually taking off the camouflage that was already hideous and terrible enough and revealing his real appearance, which was a hundred times more so.

“Are—are you—are you really Master Spiritual Vulture?” Heiye Lan asked, shivering. Her voice was so feeble that even she did not know whether or not the question was asked at all.

“It doesn’t matter who I am.” Li Yao smiled casually. “What matters is who you are and who you can be. Don’t say it’s impossible. The world is full of wonders. Even Ding Lingdang, nothing more than a pure warrior, has a chance to be elected as the Speaker of the Star Glory Federation. Why don’t you have more faith in yourself? Believe me. I have high hopes for you. That’s all you need.”

Gritting her teeth, Heiye Lan finally summoned the courage to turn around inch by inch and look at Li Yao. It finally occurred to her, as if she had just woken from a reverie, that Master Spiritual Vulture had indeed changed a lot after he arrived in the Star Glory Federation, to the point that he was almost a different person now!

Heiye Lan breathed hard. “Can—can you really help me?”

“Yes.” Li Yao stared Heiye Lan in the eye. Some invisible strength, light, and energy seemed to be flowing deep into Heiye Lan’s pupils and her brain and soul from his eyes. “Here and now, you don’t have any choice except to believe me! While the game between the Star Glory Federation and the Black Wind Fleet is key here, my say also matters a lot. Trust me. I have decided, it’s going to be you. That’s enough!”

Heiye Lan took a few steps back and fell onto Li Yao’s bed, utterly overwhelmed.

The doorbell rang.

The other experts of the Ancient Sages Sector returned one after another.

Long Yangjun was the first to return. When she walked into the room, Heiye Lan was still buried deep in Li Yao’s bed, stunned and unable to free herself from the illusions.

Looking at Li Yao; Heiye Lan, who had not come back to herself yet at the edge of Li Yao’s bed; and then Li Yao again, Long Yangjun frowned deeply.

“Is this really appropriate?” Long Yangjun asked Li Yao privately. “It is already a complicated situation with a lot of variants during our trip to infiltrate the federation, and you are still doing this? Won’t it be another unexpected factor if your wife learns about this?”

“What are you thinking about? Fellow Cultivator Heiye Lan and I were merely consolidating our beliefs with each other!”

“That’s a good excuse. Next time someone else catches you two, you should insist on that one. Now get her out of here. Everyone is coming here to discuss what we have experienced today!”

Li Yao escorted Heiye Lan back to her own room. When he returned, the twelve experts of the Ancient Sages Sector under the name of ‘Team Red Lotus’ had already gathered in the suite of the ‘captain’.

Of the twelve experts, some were excited, some were in deep thought, some were eager to apply what they had learned, and some were rather bitter. It appeared that they had all discovered a lot of new things during the visit!

Team Red Lotus was the Speaker’s secret guards. Naturally, Li Yao had pulled strings with Speaker Cui Lingfeng and gotten better privileges for them than the general members of the delegation.

In principle, they were Cui Lingfeng’s eyes and ears. If they were interested in the development of a certain field in the federation, all they needed to do was send their relevant demands to the federal government, and the federal government would satisfy them in most cases and ask the Secret Sword Bureau to take care of the details. Therefore, their trips were all quite comprehensive and informative.

“The fierce battles in the sea of stars for the modern civilizations are really far beyond our imagination!”

The first speakers were Meng Chixin, Han Baling, and Qi Changsheng, who were mostly generals and commanders before.

Those few experts were particularly interested in the military construction and fleet development of the federation. Together with the officer representatives from Firefly, they had been discussing the issues concerning the establishment of a joint headquarters with the high-level officers from the General Staff of the federal army.

The modernized battles for the space fleets, including the sophisticated data links, telepathic thought network, information warfare, great competitions that involved hundreds of main-force fleets, highly-automatic Grand Illusionary Soldiers, complicated logistical support, and unpredictable space jumps and prevention… were great eye-openers for the ‘ancient generals and commanders’ who had travelled through time, with all the new magical equipment, new units, new tactics, and new principles. All the experts were fascinated.

“I was never willing to admit from the bottom of my heart that we are forty thousand years behind the era until today! It never occurred to me that the people in the outside world have developed such brilliant, glorious, and unbelievable civilizations in the past tens of thousands of years!”

Meng Chixin, the Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivator, sighed. “We were truly frogs in a well, spending such a long time looking at the sky above our head and thinking that what we saw was the whole of it. It is truly pathetic!”

“It is never too late to make amends!” Han Baling said. “Thankfully, we made the decision to open our eyes and observe the universe. If we start catching up right now, I believe that we will soon reach them!

“Speaking of which, I believe that we should consider more on whether to join the Imperium or the federation right now.”

Qi Changsheng chuckled. The ‘Heaven Battering King’ was a leader of the rebels in the first place, and it was nothing new for him to surrender to greater powers. He did not have any burden at all, and he was best at claiming most benefits from those he surrendered to. After all, he would always surrender to whoever offered the biggest pie. “Fellow Cultivators, we have seen a lot of high-level officers from the General Staff of the federal army. It occurred to us that they are from all seven Sectors. After talking with them, we learned that the seven Sectors all have their local space fleets.

“Fellow Cultivators, I believe that we know the situation of the federation right now rather well. The three core Sectors and the Uranian Ring Sector below our feet are indeed advanced and developed. There is no way that we can catch up to them any time soon.

“However, the Forest Ocean Sector that has nothing but trees, the Water Crystal Sector that is rife with deserts, and the Nether World Sector that is scarred by wars and only habituated by ghosts, in terms of strength, are really not much better than the Ancient Sages Sector. If anything, we are even more powerful than them!

“After all, although our civilization might be slightly underdeveloped, the spiritual energy is more abundant in our world, and there is a greater population and more experts!

“From what I saw with Senior Meng and Fellow Cultivator Han today, the Star Glory Federation has greater ambitions than the gains and losses of the few small worlds at hand. Therefore, after acquiring the weak worlds such as the Forest Ocean Sector, the Nether World Sector, and the Water Crystal Sector, they did not exploit them greedily at all. Instead, they offered a lot of resources to improve and arm those worlds quickly. Even the Forest Ocean Sector, as a barbaric world, has established its own fleet. A lot of natives of the Forest Ocean Sector have joined the federal army. Some of them are even in key posts among the General Staff.

“Although Heiye Lan promised us that the Black Wind Fleet will also give us tremendous benefits if we surrender to the Imperium, it is just her word. Even though she was not lying to us, do her words really count, considering that she is not the commander of the Black Wind Fleet after all?

“The Black Wind Fleet is not necessarily going to offer us anything, but the benefits that the Star Glory Federation gives to the participant worlds are concrete and substantial!

“Right now, the Star Glory Federation is faced with a giant battle against the Black Wind Fleet, but it is not the end of the war. Rather, it is just the beginning of it! Even if the federation defeats the Black Wind Fleet, it will still be faced with the enormous military pressure of the Imperium of True Human Beings. This time, it won’t take a hundred years for the army of the Imperium to come over.

“With the sword hanging above the federation’s head, it is impossible for them to kick down the ladder under such circumstances. Therefore, if the Ancient Sages Sector joins the Star Glory Federation, there is a great chance that we will enjoy privileges equal to if not better than the treatment of the weak worlds such as the Forest Ocean Sector or the Water Crystal Sector!”

‘Heaven Battering King’ Qi Changsheng explained the advantages and disadvantages thoroughly.

The experts of the Ancient Sages Sector discussed and agreed on the conclusion.

Since the federation did not conquer the desert world ‘Water Crystal Sector’, which was right next to it, but resolved the problem through bargaining and peaceful negotiations, they did not seem to have any reason to swallow the Ancient Sages Sector, which was further away, hidden in the dark nebula with countless experts.

“But don’t forget that the Star Glory Federation did wage a war upon the Uranian Ring Sector.”

There was no telling which side Long Yangjun was taking. She casually said, “The Star Glory Federation is not a toothless tiger. In a battle, they can be more brutal than anyone else.”

“The greatest reason for the war is perhaps the different ideologies of the old rulers of the Uranian Ring Sector and the federation,” Master Bitter Cicada replied.

“Then, does the ideology of the Ancient Sages Sector befit the federation?” Long Yangjun smiled and glanced at Li Yao thoughtfully. “It’s true that the uprising and wars were caused when the Heavenly Light, the ruling class of the Uranian Ring Sector, blatantly exploited the Earthly Brute.

“But did such things not happen in the Ancient Sages Sector? Fellow Cultivator Qi Changsheng, Fellow Cultivator Wan Mingzhu, are you not the Earthly Brute of the Ancient Sages Sector and the rest of us the Heavenly Light?

“If we really consider joining the Star Glory Federation seriously, I believe that our ideas from forty thousand years must be upgraded, and the Star Glory Federation must relieve our concerns with sincerity and appropriate solutions!”