Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Li Yao was so shocked that even his chopsticks almost fell out of his hands.

A wakeup rate of ten percent did not seem very high. But all the patients were Cultivators, who had been in coma for ten to twenty years or even longer!

As a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, Li Yao knew clearly how terrifying the mental derangement and the brain collapse were for the Cultivators.

It was a completely different concept from the loss of consciousness of the ordinary people.

For example, if the soul of the ordinary people in their brain could be compared to a shuttle that was travelling on a regular highway in the city at fifty miles per hour, then the surging soul of the Cultivators would be a super shuttle that was rushing at five times the speed of sound in a stone belt that was full of obstacles!

If both of them had an accident, which of them would be more seriously wrecked, the fifty mile an hour one or the supersonic one?

Therefore, after an ordinary person entered a vegetative state due to brain injury, there were still chances that they could be recovered and woken up. But if the Cultivators were mentally deranged and turned into vegetative persons, the odds that they would wake up were no higher than one percent in the past.

It meant that Lei Yuqin raised the likelihood of Cultivators recovering from a vegetative state and even regaining their abilities in training by more than ten times!

Li Yao could totally imagine how Lei Yuqin’s hospital was passionately sought after by the Cultivators. If he was one of the Cultivators who were about to practice a highly dangerous art that was likely to cause mental derangement, he would definitely tell his family and disciples that he must be taken to Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital for treatment should anything go wrong.

“After waking up several high-level Cultivators who had slept for decades in a row, Lei Yuqin gained unparalleled reputation,” Long Yangjun said. “Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital has also been praised as the hospital that is best at dealing with Spiritual Nexus Sudden Death.

“That is a private hospital, and Lei Yuqin’s charges are extremely expensive. Even so, Cultivators from across the federation are coming to this place or sent to this place for treatment by their family. Most of them are vegetative patients who will live in the Deep Sustenance Treatment Center for a long time. The number of patients has increased from dozens at the beginning to tens of thousands right now.”

Li Yao finished all the noodles. Then, he sipped the soup slowly and covered his thoughtful face with the noodle bowl. “Tens of thousands of vegetative patients?”

“Yes. Most of them are rich, high-level Cultivators. Before they fell into a coma, they were the elites of their respective trades, especially specialists of crystal processors and the Spiritual Nexus. Just like how those who are good at swimming are more likely to drown, because the specialists of crystal processors are most invested in the virtual world, the odds of their accidents are the highest.

“Their families and the enterprises and sects behind them pay astonishing fees for their treatment, allowing Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital to continue to expand. Right now, it occupies more than half of the space of District 109. It is said that the radiation and waves of the outside world must be absolutely blocked during the treatment. Therefore, the Deep Sustenance Treatment Center is a full-closed building that only accepts the family of the patients and visitors from the academic world. It is extremely hard for other people to get in.”

“Tens of thousands of vegetative patients, who are all high-level Cultivators, with a fairly large proportion being specialists in crystal processors and the Spiritual Nexus?” Li Yao felt that the whole thing was getting more and more weird. Also, it somehow overlapped with Professor Mo Xuan’s ‘virtual life’ plan that they had inferred. “Is it possible to enter other areas of Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital? After all, it is a hospital. If a patient is sent to the hospital, they can’t just turn them away, can they?”

“Well, they can,” Long Yangjun explained. “Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital is a research-type hospital that does not have a clinic. Most of the patients of the hospital are transferred there after being treated in other hospitals in the federation for a while but without any improvement.

“Of course, some of the wealthy Cultivators even reach out to Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital beforehand and send over the status of their brains and their brain tomography so that an intact database regarding their brains will be established. Then, after paying a certain fee, they will be registered as ‘premium members’ of the hospital. Should they really be mentally deranged and fall into a coma, they will be able to be directly sent to the hospital after any simple procedures done in local hospitals.

“The odds of Cultivators going mentally deranged because their brain overloads are still quite high. Therefore, although the annual charges on the maintenance of the ‘brain health database’ are somewhat extortionate, a lot of high-level Cultivators who are rich still make appointments in case anything goes wrong!

“For normal patients who are not premium members, do not have a medical record that suggests they have been treated for a long time in the major hospitals in the federation, and do not have the referrals of the local brain doctors, it is hardly possible for them to be transferred to Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital. The hospital does not admit patients who just knock on the door unannounced, either.

“Besides…”

Long Yangjun paused for a moment before saying, “According to the notification I saw on their website, they are running a large-scale upgrade on the medical system inside the hospital over three days. So, it is temporarily closed.

“For the safety of the patients in the hospital, even premium members, patients who are transferred to the hospital from other hospitals, and the family members of the vegetative patients in the hospital are not allowed to enter.”

Li Yao immediately widened his eyes. “Temporarily closed over three days?”

“To be more exact, it’s yesterday, today, and tomorrow,” Long Yangjun said.

Li Yao drank up the soup in his bowl. “The final battle between the Star Glory Federation and the Black Wind Fleet may break out at any moment. Professor Mo Xuan’s Tinder Plan will have the first launch tomorrow. Yet, Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital shuts its doors for three days at this exact moment for a system upgrade? There can’t be such a coincidence in the world! That place must be my professor’s nest! We must find a way to go to District 109!”

Hundred Flowers City, as a metropolis floating in space, was made of hundreds of ball-shaped space towns. Every ball-shaped space station that was dozens of kilometers in diameter was a district. The districts were connected to each other conveniently, but the transportation could be complicated, too.

They were currently in District 7, the central business area that had the densest population in Hundred Flowers City, but District 109 where Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital was located was at the periphery of the city. They could only reach the place after a shift of vacuum buses.

However, the stations of the vacuum buses had extremely strict security measures.

While the two of them were planning a route, they heard the people around them all exclaiming. Looking around, they noticed that all the customers were looking at the news light beam in the corner of the ceiling.

All the news media of Hundred Flowers City were broadcasting the same urgent news.

To cope with the large-scale invasion of the Imperium of True Human Beings, the garrison of Hundred Flowers City, together with the local police and militias, were holding a military drill of an enormous scale, including the procedure of ‘air defense’. During the drill, Hundred Flowers City would enter the level-2 alert state. All citizens were instructed not to panic and to stay indoors as much as possible instead of going out on the street. Also, they were asked to avoid the use of vehicles.

The news also stated that the authorities would temporarily close the channels between some districts. The security checks in the major transportation centers and bus stations would be increased, too, to perform more thorough examinations on every passenger. It was all part of the drill. The authorities apologized for the inconvenience caused.

The drill would end in eight hours. Then, everything would be back to normal.

Li Yao and Long Yangjun looked at each other with equally awful expressions.

Wiping their mouths, they stood up and left the restaurant one after the other. Then, they noticed that a lot of soldiers of the federal army were roaming on the street questioning the passersby that they found suspicious.

Mechanical noises were echoing somewhere on the dome, too. Part of the channel from this district to the neighboring area must have been closed.

Although not all the channels that connected the downtown area and the outside world were blocked, the routes that they were free to choose were certainly greatly reduced.

Besides, every major road had been seriously jammed. If then intended to pretend to be ordinary people and reach Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital without alarming anyone, it would take a great deal more time.

Looking at the soldiers who were setting up sentry posts on the street not far away, Long Yangjun remarked, “We’re in trouble now.”

“I don’t think so.” Li Yao’s eyes were glittering. “Although the time we spend on the road will slightly increase, it may be easier for us to find out the truth about Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital with the help of the federal soldiers!”

“Oh?” Long Yangjun raised her eyebrow. “How so?”

“It’s simple. Professor Mo Xuan has perhaps controlled the leadership of the military, the Secret Sword Bureau, and the relevant departments of Hundred Flowers City through various kinds of secret arts, but he cannot control every soldier at the bottom level, can he?

“Those bottom-level soldiers, and even the middle- and low-level officers who are commanding them, are still loyal to the federation and on our side. They are simply misled by a wrong order.”

Long Yangjun frowned. “But you can’t explain yourself to them or fight them in the downtown area.”

“I’m not saying that we are going to fight them in the downtown area, but things will be different in Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital.” Li Yao smiled. “If the hospital is really Professor Mo Xuan’s nest in which he is carrying out certain clandestine plans, such plans must not be exposed to most people.

“The official site of the hospital says that it is closed for three days. That’s the best evidence suggesting that certain ‘changes’ that must not be seen by outsiders are happening in the hospital.

“Right now, our greatest advantage is that my professor is still expecting us in the Tinder Base and does not know that we are going to Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital!

“If we navigate the fooled soldiers to Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital and check what Professor Mo Xuan is up to exactly together with them, what do you think my dear professor will feel?”

…

Three hours passed.

District 109 of Hundred Flowers City was a most medical district, where a few most famous private hospitals of the federation were established.

In the middle of the beautiful landscape constructed by the Grand Illusionary Land, several delicate towers were standing, but they were just the tip of the iceberg. Buildings of an even larger scale, including the Deep Sustenance Treatment Center that maintained the lives of the vegetative patients, were all hidden ‘below the ground’, or rather, in the depths of the ball-shaped space station.

This was Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital!